The Microplastic Invasion: 12 Ways to Minimize Your Exposure

By Melissa Smith Alliance for Natural Health International Microplastic contamination is a monumental environmental and health issue with serious …

The Microplastic Invasion: 12 Ways to Minimize Your Exposure

I am re-blogging this as it’s something that’s close to my heart – the plastic menace is real. The article shares important tips on how to minimise our exposure to microplastics.

Quoting the last portion from the blog above for wider reach –

“…..Ultimately, we’re not likely to be able to avoid it, so there’s little point worrying about every piece of plastic that we encounter, but we can take steps to reduce our exposure.

• Think about your plastic usage and how you might be able to reduce it e.g. not using throw-away plastic items such as cutlery and straws. India has a rich tradition of using earthenware, steel, cast iron and brass utensils. Let’s stick with those.
• Substitute single-use takeaway cups and bottles for your own stainless steel, bamboo or glass reusable cups and bottles.
• Recycle plastic rubbish where possible and bin waste when you’re out.
• Buy food packaged in glass or try out your local Fill Up shop where you can use your own containers over and over again. We need to go back to our old ways of carrying the Manja Pai (cloth bag) in the south and just a bag always. We do that religiously and refuse any plastic bags at the stores.
• Buy a good water filter to remove the microplastics. Reverse osmosis systems are our preferred option as they remove most of the particles, but also the vast majority of chlorine, hormones and fluoride.
• Don’t heat food or liquid in plastic containers, particularly in microwaves, due to the number of particles released into your food. Again earthenware and glass vessels can be used instead of plastic in the microwave. Plastic containers are a clear no-no.
• When buying clothes, try to buy natural fabrics as opposed to synthetic fabrics, which shed plastic microfibres. Natural fibres can be more expensive so why not check out your local charity shop and do a bit of recycling at the same time? Once again, India has a rich handloom history of pure cotton and silk sarees, dhotis, shirts etc. Stick to natural fibre and not the polyester or nylon. Jeans may be natural fibre but their production uses enormous quantities of water. So kindly avoid buying too many of them.
• Use a washing bag to reduce microplastic pollution when washing synthetic fabrics.
• Air dry clothes rather than using a tumble dryer, which increases the production of microfibers. With ample sunlight, we don’t need a dryer at all in India. I do notice that the trend of people buying dryers in India has gone up, especially in the cities, but there’s a huge environmental cost attached to it. Ideally the Government can simply say no dryers to be sold in India.
• Dust and vacuum (use a vacuum with a HEPA filter) regularly to reduce the accumulation of microplastics found in households.
• Buy plastic-free cosmetics and personal care products. Check the labels for products containing plastic microbeads.
• Ditch teabags and use organic, fairly traded loose-leaf with an infuser or old-fashioned teapot. Yep, you heard that right. Many tea bags contain plastic, which when heated can release billions of microplastics into your tea. Even so-called biodegradable tea bags, you know, the posh silky ones, are made from a type of genetically modified organism plastic and they’re not silk at all! This one came as a surprise because I didn’t know :(. Am ditching all the tea bags and sticking to loose tea. Teabags are just easy to use during our road trips, but I do have steel infusers and can use them instead. For a long time, I never bought tea bags because an ex-colleague of mine had said that the lowest quality of tea leaves are packed into them. I only use teabags when we do road trips, but will stop that too.

I thank Melissa Smith, the author of this blog for sharing practical tips to minimize exposure to microplastics. Just hoping that the 7 billion people on Earth wake up to this plastic pandemic :(.

Do read – The Plastic Apathy, Plastic – Reduce and Reuse and A bagful of plastic 🙁.

#MakeTheEarthGreen #SayNoToPlastics