Blog • January 22, 2024

Microplastics: the basics

By Benjamin Scott •8 min read

Research Strategy

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Brace yourself, please—if you’ve never heard of microplastics before and you’re just learning about them for the first time here, I ask that you please resist the urge to get discouraged. We can only solve this problem with confidence, energy, and optimism, and I don’t want to leave you with the impression that there’s nothing we can do, because that is absolutely not the case. That said, the situation’s not amazing! Read on and see; at the end I’ll include a brief overview of what might be done to fix things.

What are they?

Microplastics are defined as plastic particles with a length of 5mm or less. Objects made out of plastic naturally shed these particles when exposed to sunlight; when they’re deformed, frozen, or heated; when they’re touched, or put in contact with liquids. Because they’re so small, they quickly diffuse from the object that releases them into the broader environment, even in places one wouldn’t expect, like your brain, the untouched snow on a remote mountaintop in the Canary Islands, your food, and the air in your house or office.

This would be fine if these particles were inert, but unfortunately microplastics are endocrine disruptors, which, due to chemical similarities to hormones, bind to hormone receptors in the body and cause all kinds of health effects, subtle and dramatic. It’s likely that these health effects include the rapid rise in chronic disease, the collapse in men’s fertility and testosterone levels, the rise in developmental abnormalities among children, and probably, due to the close links between mood and hormonal profile, the increase in mental health problems.

There’s a mountain more research on this topic, especially relating to marine ecosystems, which I’ll happily dive into at a later date. There’s also a good opportunity to explain a bit about the history of this problem, e.g. why it got so bad, which I’ll also leave for another time. The important issue I’d like to address now is what can be done about it.

What do we do about them?

And the answer is, many things! First, it should be helpful to define what it would look like for the microplastic problem to be satisfactorily “solved”. Consider these 3 different levels of “solution”:

Level I: an individual person’s lifestyle exposes them to a negligible amount of microplastics.¹

Level II: an individual person’s level of exposure is negligible without necessitating any great sacrifices or lifestyle changes.²

Level III: the whole planet and all its creatures enjoy a consistently negligible level of exposure, without major disruption to their norms.³

The pragmatic path for anyone attempting to seriously solve plastic pollution would be to take it in stages. Because even a level I solution is currently impossible barring pre-industrial lifestyles in fantastically remote locations (and probably even then), the first step should be achieving and then scaling level I solutions.

Thus, it’s safe to ignore some of the sweeping solutions which have been recommended on this question, like releasing bacteria into the oceans to break down polyethylene microplastics.⁴ Anything involving the ocean is automatically looking at the global scale, international collaboration, massive commitment of resources, etc. While we may wish that the world, its people, and its governments were ready to take plastic pollution seriously, the simple fact is they are not, so the appeal of large scale collaborative solutions is a siren song. Besides, in a world where 75% of the ocean’s plastic is put there by just 10 countries, short of somehow restructuring the Philippine economy to use incinerators, stop littering, or ban plastic, there isn’t really much regular people in the developed world can contribute.

So aside from dubious technological solutions, what options are there? How do we prevent the whole world’s contamination with nasty microplastics?

What approach can work?

The simplest and surest way is this: reduce plastic production and consumption, worldwide, as close to 0 as possible.

This doesn’t have to be a coercive, extreme, or sudden change. But in the long run, this problem won’t be solvable without gradually replacing the plastic with healthier and more sustainable materials, in every product where it’s currently used. In other words, anything that accomplishes the goal of reversing this trend, without causing some disastrous externality, is a good strategy.

For this reason, I believe efforts are better spent developing efficient, attractive, and scalable solutions that can be adopted by individuals or communities when they’re ready to take the problem seriously.

So, what then? Here are a few immediate, effective strategies anyone can take:

Make conscious efforts to buy plastic-free products where possible. Simple enough, no? Besides a few product categories, some of which I mentioned above, it’s actually surprisingly feasible for average consumers to eliminate plastic from their day-to-day lives. I have an in-depth guide out on eliminating plastic from your kitchen and your coffee routine, and I’m going to write more to cover other areas like home goods, cosmetics, clothing, construction materials, and anything else I can figure out. I’d estimate that just with currently-available products, a middle-class consumer can make it 70% of the way to a Level I solution, assuming they still do normal things like drive a car and work in an office somewhere. This is the best starting place for a scalable solution, too, because it doesn’t require any complex coordination, just consumer choice.

Without making them depressed, tell friends about the problem. Also simple. The more people know about this, the closer we get to market solutions, political action, and large-scale mobilization for cleanup. Plus, helping your loved ones live healthier is a blessing for both you and them! It’s important to keep the framing positive, though. It’s too easy to tell people about global-scale problems and watch them become jaded and inactive in real time. If you think I’ve struck a good balance, and your friend has some patience, feel free to send them this article.

Try to influence politicians. It doesn’t have to be a long or time-consuming thing, but e-mailing your representative or local health inspector expressing your desire for action on the microplastic problem moves the world closer to meaningful reductions in plastic consumption. Perhaps you could even share this post with them! And perhaps in the future I’ll write a boilerplate post directed more specifically at local-level politicians, to inform them on what they can do.

There are also more intensive strategies one can take, if they have an above-average amount of motivation and/or resources to contribute to the problem:

Acquire political power directly, whether as a regulator or an elected official. Obviously this requires an entire career effort, resources, charisma, and luck. But in terms of meaningfully moving the needle, you could hardly do better than, for example, using an appointment in the FDA to apply pressure on the food industry to abandon plastic packaging in favor of paper, metal, and glass. Even on a local level, investing in more trash cans, advanced incineration methods (to prevent microplastics contaminating local water table through landfill seepage), or incentives for non-plastic product manufacturers are all ways to move the needle on a Level II solution.

Start businesses that build novel products without plastic. Remember those product categories I mentioned which lack plastic free alternatives? Appliances, car interiors, most electronics… If someone has free time and talent, and is willing to take a risk to possibly help the world and make a profit, they might as well build and scale new industry to meet the demand for non-plastic items. I have a pinned article on this Substack where I go into more detail. This kind of action has the potential to do literally nothing… but also the potential, if successful, to contribute more to solving the plastic problem than 100,000 normal people voting with their wallets. Personally, I strongly urge those inclined to investigate this route.

There are more conceivable strategies, but I’m going to leave the list off here. Hopefully I’ve been successful in informing you about the magnitude of the problem, but also inspiring you with solutions that are already practical and available. If you thought this was useful, don’t hesitate to share it. And if you encounter some novel research, have a question, or think I’ve made a mistake somewhere, please comment below or email me. Thanks for reading.