What is Microplastic Contamination?

Plastic is one of the most common and best-known types of trash, but few people understand the potential impact that it could have on our environment, and in particular on marine life. The global environmental crisis of the oceans has been attributed to the overproduction and consumption of single-use plastics. It is estimated that 8.3 billion tons of plastic will exist in the world by 2050. With little change to current trends, this could involve approximately 20 billion tons or more than 400 billion pounds of plastic packaging for goods and other materials worldwide.

Roughly two decades ago, plastic was not nearly as pervasive in our environment as it is today. We’re now spending years recognizing the consequences of our excessive plastic use for marine life, coastlines, and more. Microplastics are fragments that range in size from smaller than a millimetre to more than five centimetres. In many cases, they come from larger pieces of plastic that have been broken down by UV rays or pressure. They come from large plastic objects degrading when exposed to the sun, the plastics decompose over time. They can’t usually be seen with the naked eye and while most particles of microplastics come from bigger pieces, these small particles do cause a lot of harm. They’re accumulating in our environment and end up polluting the natural world around us.

Birds have been found with microplastic in their digestive tract, which is what makes up 20% of the weight of some seabirds’ stomachs. They originate from debris breaking up in the environment, like plastic bags and single-use drinking containers. Water can move these smaller particles into water bodies. More than 8.8 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced since the first large-scale production, and only 9% of that has been recycled. So it’s not surprising that so many animals are ingesting the tiny pieces as they go through waste disposal systems, as by products of recycling processes, or from edible food-wrapping products made from plastics.

More and more attention is being given to the environmental impact of plastic garbage, but it’s still not clear just how much of an environmental hazard plastics particles really are. EPR company is the way they have helped with plastic recycling. Only 2 out of 14 types of plastics are recyclable in this country, but with the help of EPR, 88% of all plastic could be reused. Up to 5 trillion plastic particles of debris exist in the ocean and end up on shorelines of countries throughout the world. Marine animals inadvertently eat tiny bits of plastic and they can’t digest it. It starts a domino effect that we witness when we eat fish with high concentrations of mercury or PCBs. These toxins make their way back into our bloodstream. Blood samples from around the world were analyzed by researchers and showed traces of tiny pieces of plastic, some as small as 2mm.

There is a huge and growing problem with plastic particles floating around in the environment. If we don’t take care of this problem soon, we will accumulate an unimaginable amount of plastics as time goes on.

EcoEx has come up with a solution to the hazardous issue. As an EPR compliance service provider, they can try and reduce the amount of plastic we use and produce by providing a digital trading platform for buying & selling plastic waste between producers, manufacturers, recyclers all over India. Besides, this would not be a long and arduous process. Our team works on the EPR business model to maintain the ecological balance through plastic credit certificates. We are all at the point of making the right choice. It’s time that we consciously take responsibility and create our beautiful future. Understanding the ecological implications of plastic is a necessary first step and it can’t happen without individual equal engagement. Inculcating a contamination-free lifestyle is not an easy task, but all of us have a major role to play in it. The next generation deserves no less than an uncontaminated environment for all.

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