Microplastics are in your brain, the placenta, testes, breast milk, and sperm new survey suggests.
Shocked, I certainly was when I read it but are we truly listening?
I appears even when you see these articles off you go and purchase a fresh new shiny plastic bottle of water only to discard it in the bin a few short hours later and do you care where it goes? Get over yourself why don't you, the bin is the final destination isn't it?
Well in reality, sadly, no, but even if it was and the plastics we diligently put into them was fully recycled, which it is not, recycling can never hope to handle the mountain of single use plastics we go through today, still, not your problem eh?
Well a knew study suggests it is your problem now, research shows microplastics are in us all, thats right you heard me, in our brain, the placenta, testes, breast milk, and sperm! You see that water bottle you have just bought, well your getting a whole lot more for your money than you thought!
Now I realise bottled water is not the answer to all but by goodness it is low hanging fruit for us all to pick off, surely once we realise the problem we will change our habits? We can only hope.
As with most things in life we need to strike a balance, where plastic is unavoidable then so be it, where we can avoid it though we should, water bottles in todays markets are just one glaringly obvious answer to single use plastic, here are my top ten ways to avoid using single use plastic:
1 Carry a reusable water bottle - in the UK alone every day we use over 20,000,000 plastic bottles of water but we simply do not need to do it.
2 Buy a reusable coffee cup - seriously few of these coffee shop horrors are recycled. In the UK alone we use a staggering 7,000,000 every single day!
3 Carry reusable plastic bags - UK Government figures show a whopping 98% reduction in plastic bags used in the UK, it shows we can do it if we want to!
4 Use plastic free teabags - Research shows steeping a single plastic teabag at brewing temperature (95 °C) releases approximately 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastics into a single cup of the beverage.
5 Stop using clingfilm - I have found silicone covers that sit on top of my glass storage jars in the fridge a revelation, my cling film days are over!
6 Do not buy Chewing Gum - Check out your gum manufacturer, I have seen these stated in gum, resins, humectants, elastomers, emulsifiers, fillers, waxes, antioxidants, and softeners
7 Refuse disposable cutlery - there are alternatives and make a stance
8 Try and use refill shops - they are popping up all over the place and the intentions are to reduce plastic packaging.
9 - Party Balloons - Look nice for a moment or two, then your left with the debris, find another way.
10 Be Vocal - If you see people openly pushing single use plastic make a noise, if your local chippy still has plastic forks ask when they are going to change over to eco alternatives?
This is a long road ahead, I sometimes wonder if the message is getting across or falling on deaf ears, whatever you do in your life remember you leave a footprint, make it one your proud of.
For a good quality water bottle or mug you would be well advised to have a look at FOSH
