Tim Jarvis: How microplastics harm our planet and our health, and 4 ways to avoid them

ARTICLE
1 April 2024 dot 6 mins read

Australians use millions of tonnes of plastics every year – and thousands of those tonnes end up in our waterways, ready to break down into tiny pieces. Explorer and environmentalist Tim Jarvis shares his insights on how microplastics affect our environment and our health, and why it’s crucial we take even the smallest actions to reduce them.

By 2050, it’s estimated that the amount of plastic in our world’s oceans will outweigh fish1.
 
Let’s let that sink in.
 
In my work, I’ve seen currents pulling large patches of floating plastic towards the Pacific Ocean Gyre. I’ve witnessed barges full of washed-up plastic bottles from Brunei beaches head off daily towards Singapore for recycling. But while these images of big plastic items in the ocean are easy to understand, the truth about microplastics is that they aren’t so easy to see – and neither is their harm.
 
Instead of confronting us with a seal whose stomach is so full of large pieces of plastic that it can’t eat, microplastics show up in the slow deterioration of the health and behaviour of our marine animals. And while the long-term consequences for humans aren’t yet knowable, it doesn’t take much to connect the dots.
 
The good news is that we can all take simple action to reduce our use of microplastics, live more sustainably, and protect the health of our planet and humankind.

 

From kitchen to ocean and back again

When we talk about microplastics, we’re talking about pieces of plastic under 5mm in size. They come from two basic sources: primary and secondary. Primary sources are deliberately manufactured microplastics present in a lot of household and cleaning products, such as cosmetic beads in toothpaste, exfoliants, and cleansers. Secondary sources are microplastics that occur when plastics made for other uses break down – for example, when things like single-use plastic bags get affected by ultraviolet light, or plastic takeaway containers degrade in microwaves.
 
Think about how many single-use plastic items you have in your house. How many packaged foods. How many plastic containers, bottles, or party decorations. What about plumbing – how much of our piping is plastic?
 
Plastic is essentially everywhere. And once it degrades, either through abrasion or heating or exposure to the sun, its pieces become simply so small that they can travel very easily. A plastic bottle that gets blown into a river might start to break down from ultraviolet light, and those pieces might flow into a water treatment plant to become drinking water2, or they might continue to make their way out to sea, ready to be ingested by marine animals and potentially enter our seafood supply.
 
You can see how this cycle of microplastics is pervasive, and not solvable in the way you’d expect. If we were confronted with a bunch of intact plastic bottles floating on the surface of the ocean, we could physically pull those out. Instead, what we’re talking about is filtering out tiny, almost invisible pieces of plastic – and if we did that, we could also be filtering out a whole lot of beneficial particles and marine food sources.
 

Tiny pieces, insidious problem

I recently read an arbitrary number about how many trillion pieces of microplastics are in the world’s oceans – and I say it’s arbitrary because you can break down a piece, and break it down again, and break it down again. The number itself isn’t the concern: it’s where they’ve been found (in the Antarctic snow, for example3) and how our marine animals are interacting with them.
 
If we look at baleen whales, for example, they feed by filtering small organisms like krill and plankton out of vast quantities of seawater. From studies we know these whales are consuming a lot of plastic via the organisms they eat and also in the form of microplastics as they filter-feed each day, giving rise to a whole range of potential health issues.
 
And to make things worse, studies on whales and other marine species have shown us that microplastics can make their way out of the digestive system and physically embed themselves into an animal’s tissue4. This is alarming.

 

Long-term harm to humans: a short bow to draw

At this point, we simply don’t know what long-term harm microplastics will cause humans.
 
What we do know is that plastics are not a naturally occurring product. And if these tiny plastic particles are being embedded into the physical tissue of marine animals, we’ve got every reason to be very concerned about their effects on our own health.
 
The jury is still out on the longer-term effects, but research shows that humans might already be affected. In one study, scientists found microplastics in every human placenta they tested5. Another study has discovered microplastics in the lungs of living people6, meaning that we’re breathing these particles in – not good news for a country with one of the highest rates of asthma in the world7.
 
It doesn’t feel like a stretch to suggest the long-term effects of microplastics certainly won’t be positive.

 

Avoiding microplastics at home

The best way to act is with our hip pockets and to not buy products that contain microplastics in the first place – a general rule that also applies to issues like fossil fuels. Collectively, we can make a huge difference. And we can also make sure that, if we do use plastics, we do everything we can to not let them escape into the environment.
 
To rid your home of primary sources, avoid buying cosmetic facial cleansers and exfoliators that use microplastics (sometimes called ‘microbeads’) as an abrasive agent. Replace them with plastic-free cosmetics. Websites like Beat the Microbead can help you check your brands and find plastic-free alternatives.
 
In Australia, we use around 70 billion pieces of soft plastic (such as food wrappers) each year8. Cut down these secondary sources of plastic waste by using refillable bottles of single-use plastic bottles. Don’t microwave meals in plastic containers, because microwaving will break down the plastic. Avoid tea bags, as the majority contain plastic in the fabric or seal – instead, use loose tea. Try to buy non-synthetic clothes, as these won’t shed microplastics when you wash them. If you do need to wear synthetic clothes, wash them in a laundry bag.
 
If you want to get involved beyond the home, you can chip in to the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s campaign to fight plastic pollution. OceanWatch Australia has also put together a list of inspiring plastic-tackling projects you might like to learn more about or help with. After all, caring for our planet can do wonders for your mental health.

 

No action is too small

If you were to ask me why it’s so important to learn about microplastics and strive to reduce them, I would say this: we have to act simply because we generate so much plastic.
 
As someone who has carried out expeditions to the remotest parts of the world, I know that a key aspect of successful expeditioning is to control what you can control and not worry about anything else. If you worry about what weather might come your way, you’d never embark on anything! I suggest we adopt the same philosophy for reducing microplastics in our environment.
 
Put another way, it’s down to each of us to be the change we want to see. While the long-term repercussions of microplastics remain unknown, we must get it right for our health and the health of our planet. There are no excuses – any contribution to the problem or the solution is never too small to make a difference.

 

Footnotes

Tim Jarvis
AIA Ambassador Tim Jarvis is a world-renowned polar explorer, expedition leader and environmental scientist. With a focus on sustainability, Tim has more than 25 years’ worth of experience in his respective fields, and a wealth of knowledge when it comes to helping teams and individuals perform at their highest level.

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