As we all know, the traces of plastic bags have spread to almost all corners of the world, from noisy downtown to inaccessible places, there are white pollution figures, and the pollution caused by plastic bags is getting more and more serious. It takes hundreds of years for these plastics to degrade. The so-called degradation is just to replace the existence of a smaller microplastic. Its particle size can reach the micron or even nanometer scale, forming a mixture of heterogeneous plastic particles with various shapes. It is often difficult to tell with the naked eye.
With the further increase of people’s attention to plastic pollution, the term “microplastic” has also appeared in people’s cognition more and more, and gradually attracted the attention of all walks of life. So what are microplastics? It is generally believed that the diameter is less than 5 mm, mainly from small plastic particles directly discharged into the environment and plastic fragments generated by the degradation of large plastic wastes.
Microplastics are small in size and difficult to see with the naked eye, but their adsorption capacity is very strong. Once combined with the existing pollutants in the marine environment, it will form a pollution sphere, and will float to various places with ocean currents, further Expand the scope of pollution. Because the diameter of microplastics is smaller, it is more likely to be ingested by animals in the ocean, affecting their growth, development and reproduction, and disrupting the balance of life. Entering into the body of marine organisms, and then entering the human body through the food chain, has a great impact on human health and threatens human health.
Because microplastics are pollution carriers, they are also known as “PM2.5 in the ocean”. Therefore, it is also vividly called “PM2.5 in the plastics industry”.
As early as 2014, microplastics have been listed as one of the ten urgent environmental problems. With the improvement of people’s awareness of marine protection and marine environmental health, microplastics have become a hot issue in marine scientific research.
Microplastics are everywhere these days, and from many of the household products we use, microplastics can get into the water system. It can enter the circulatory system of the environment, enter the ocean from factories or air, or rivers, or enter the atmosphere, where microplastic particles in the atmosphere fall to the ground through weather phenomena such as rain and snow, and then enter the soil, or The river system has entered the biological cycle, and is finally brought into the human circulatory system by the biological cycle. They are everywhere in the air we breathe, in the water we drink.
Wandering microplastics are easily eaten by low-end food chain creatures. Microplastics cannot be digested and can only exist in the stomach all the time, occupying space and causing animals to get sick or even die; creatures at the bottom of the food chain will be eaten by upper-level animals. The top of the food chain is human beings. A large number of microplastics are in the body. After human consumption, these indigestible small particles will cause unpredictable harm to human beings.
Reducing plastic waste and curbing the spread of microplastics is an inescapable shared responsibility of mankind.
The solution to microplastics is to reduce or eliminate the source of pollution from the root cause, refuse to use plastic bags containing plastic, and do not litter plastic waste or incinerate; Dispose of waste in a unified and pollution-free manner, or bury it deeply; support “plastic ban” and publicize “plastic ban” education, so that people can be alert to microplastics and other behaviors that are harmful to the natural environment, and understand that people are closely related to nature.
Starting from each person, through each person’s own efforts, we can make the natural environment cleaner and give the natural circulation system a reasonable operation.
Post time: Feb-25-2022