(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Plastics and microplastics pollution isn’t just a problem for fish and mammals that inhabit water.
The prevalence of plastics in food and beverage packaging puts humans potentially at risk, too. That’s because plastics, like diamonds, are forever. They never completely break down. At best (or, worst?), they spin off into smaller bits known as microplastics, which circulate through waste streams and water systems before effectively coming back to us -- maybe even through us.
“They’re being found in things like packaged food products, bottled water, beer, anything that actually relies on a water supply from the environment,” says Joel Brammeier, CEO of the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes. “People are consuming microplastics every day.”
A World Wildlife study estimated that the average person is consuming a surprising amount of plastic each week (listen to the latest edition of the Courier Pigeon podcast, posted here, to learn how much).
Research by Matthew Hoffman, a math professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, suggests 22 million pounds of plastics – enough to fill 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools -- end up in the Great Lakes annually.
The problem isn’t going away any time soon, Brammeier says in the podcast, which also examines the concept of environmental justice for marginalized communities.
“These are big, collective problems, and they are going to require the companies that manufacture plastic to make less of it,” he says. “They are going to require the government to actually regulate some forms of plastic to get that reduction. Because this is a problem we all share, and individual responsibility is important.”
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