Time to Take Responsibility: Ocean Microplastic Origins, Consequences, and Solutions
By Emily Vidovich. Emily has a background in environmental journalism and sustainability and is a member of the George Washington University Class of 2019.
A seal struggles to free itself after becoming entangled in abandoned fishing nets. Photo Credit: Plastic Soup Foundation
An estimated eleven million metric tons of plastic waste enters the oceans annually, adding to the estimated 200 million tons already polluting the world’s waters. The impacts of plastic pollution on ocean animals is already known—largely thanks to photojournalism documenting marine life caught in abandoned fishing nets or eating plastic trash. But we are only just beginning to understand the impact of microplastics—plastic debris the size of a pencil eraser or smaller—on both marine life and humans.
One study estimates that up to 358 trillion particles of microplastic are floating on the ocean’s surface, with countless more pieces submerged in the water below—microplastics have even been found in the ocean’s deepest trench. Microplastics come from various sources; they are shed off of tires every time cars are driven, and fall off of polyester clothes in the washing machine. However, the ubiquitous presence of microplastics worldwide is primarily a consequence of single-use culture combined with lack of appropriate waste management infrastructure.
Approximately 40 percent of plastics worldwide are disposed of after a single use, and 2 billion people globally do not have access to sufficient waste management services. This combination leads to high levels of pollution. Plastic that ends up in rivers and travels to the ocean is responsible for approximately a quarter of marine plastic pollution, and over 90 percent of the plastic waste attributed to rivers comes from ten rivers, eight of which are in Asia.
Much of the responsibility for this issue falls on Western nations that have long exported their plastic waste to Asian nations that lack the infrastructure to properly dispose of it. Exporting trash to Asia saves developed countries money on waste disposal—it is cheaper to sell trash to low-income nations than manage it domestically. The European Union is the source of 40 percent of the global plastic waste trade, and the U.S. is also a major contributor.
In effect, high-income Western nations have exported their domestic plastic consumption and pollution problems to some of the world’s most impoverished populations. This has created an unequal waste burden along economic and ethnic lines, particularly when it comes to ‘mismanaged’ plastic waste—plastic that is not recycled, incinerated, or stored in a sealed landfill. In 2019, the Philippines averaged 82 pounds of mismanaged plastic waste per person annually, whereas the United States averaged 1.7 pounds per person per year. Notably, this disparity occurred, “despite the Philippines producing only [0.02 pounds] of plastic waste per person daily, five times less than the U.S.,” Nikkei Asia reports. The incongruency of these statistics suggests that in the Philippines, as in much of Southeast Asia, plastic pollution is not the fault of the average citizen, but a result of governments choosing to accept foreign waste.
China used to be the biggest market for the import of plastic waste and recyclables. After the country banned almost all plastic imports in 2018, global recycling infrastructure stalled and plastic exports from the West to developing economies in Southeast Asia increased. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand are home to less than nine percent of the global population, but receive almost 20 percent of the world’s plastic waste imports. Between 2016 and 2018, plastic imports to these countries increased by 171 percent to 2.26 metric tons a year. Overall, Southeast Asian countries are responsible for half of ocean plastic pollution.
While Southeast Asian countries are shouldering a disproportionate burden of plastic pollution, the resulting microplastics affect people worldwide. When plastics enter the ocean, exposure to sunlight and seawater ultimately fragments them into tiny pieces that become invisible to the naked eye, but never truly disappear. Small marine species eat these microplastics, and larger fish eat these small prey species, along with the plastic they’ve consumed. The result is that species near the top of the food chain—the species that humans tend to consume—can have the highest levels of microplastic contamination.
Consequently, while humans don’t risk getting trapped in abandoned fishing nets or plastic bags the way that marine life does, we risk small pieces of plastic getting trapped in us. Studies have found microplastics in the human digestive system and the human placenta.
A girl plays on a plastic covered beach in front of her home in Indonesia. Photo Credit: Dimas Ardian, Nikkei Asia
Recent research from professors at Cornell University found that humans are eating, drinking, and inhaling plastic particles on a daily basis, at a level that has increased in recent decades. In much of the world, including the United States, people are intaking six times more plastic today than they were in 1990. The study found that Southeast Asians consumed the most microplastics, swallowing approximately three teaspoons of plastic a month. The researchers contribute this to pollution levels and seafood-heavy regional diets, finding that 57% of microplastics in food worldwide comes from aquatic sources. Microplastics are also commonly found in drinking water and table salt.
Microplastic consumption does not pose the risk of imminent death. But its persistent presence in bodily systems could harm health outcomes over the long term—both for wildlife and humans. Researchers have only recently started to analyze the health impacts of microplastics, and much remains unknown. A study published this year in the New England Journal of Medicine was among the first to find a correlation between microplastics and negative health outcomes, identifying microplastics as a potential risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
The study tracked patients who had plaque removed from the arteries that supply blood to their brains, a preventative procedure used to reduce the risk of stroke. Researchers examined the plaque removed from approximately 300 patients and found microscopic particles of polyethylene, the world’s most commonly produced plastic, in 60 percent of patients. An additional 12 percent had fragments of PVC, the type of plastic used in plastic bags, water pipes, and synthetic flooring. The patients with microplastics in their bodies were found to be four times more likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or die within three years.
The study was small in scope, but the correlation it found is still cause for concern, especially because it showcases the ability of microplastics to stay lodged in the human body for an extended period. While more evidence is needed to know if and how microplastics harm human health, an abundance of caution should be used in the meantime, because we are also lacking in evidence that microplastics aren’t harmful. Consider the approach that the European Union takes for another class of product commonly absorbed by human bodies—cosmetics. In the EU, cosmetic ingredients must be scientifically proven to be safe before they are allowed onto the market, in other words, before they are allowed to be absorbed into the body via the skin. With microplastics becoming a common artificial presence in the human body, determining whether or not they are safe should be a paramount concern.
The issue of microplastic pollution is daunting, especially because cleanup of existing pollutants is a monumental task that might be impossible at the microscopic level. But reducing microplastics is possible with a prevention-first approach. The Cornell microplastics study calculated that if industrialized nations like the United States reduced marine plastic debris by 90 percent, it could reduce the level of microplastics consumed per person by 50 percent.
Stopping plastic pollution, in order to stop microplastics, requires a combination of effective policy and infrastructure, a shifting in global norms, and industrialized nations taking responsibility for the damage they have caused. Important progress in changing global norms was recently made when European Union lawmakers and member states agreed to stop exporting plastic waste to non-OECD countries by 2026. Since OECD membership requires a country to be a high-income, developed economy, this new rule will effectively end the practice of exporting plastic waste to low-income Asian countries.
As part of taking responsibility, Western nations must support waste infrastructure implementation and pollution cleanup in developing nations, particularly in countries that are drowning in the Western world’s waste. In these regions, sufficient infrastructure could produce measurable positive change. For example, the wastewater treatment plants used in industrialized nations can remove microplastics with 90 percent efficiency, but many Asian countries are still lacking sufficient wastewater treatment infrastructure. In the Philippines, for example, only ten percent of wastewater undergoes treatment.
Industrialized nations must also shift to handling their waste domestically and increase chemical recycling instead of relying primarily on landfill and incineration. Mainstreaming the blue economy and circular fishing practices, sustainable aquaculture, and collection of fishing gear will also be critical in curbing global plastic waste from marine industries.
Additionally, nations should pursue legislation that bans single-use plastics or places a fee on their use. Many of these policies have already been successfully implemented at national and local levels. For example, since the United Kingdom instated a tax on single-use plastic bags a decade ago, the number of plastic bags found on UK beaches has decreased by 80 percent. When it comes to legislating microplastics, several nations, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Korea, have banned microbeads—a type of microplastic commonly found in cosmetic products. And starting in 2025, France will require new washing machines to contain filters to catch plastic microfibers.
On the global level, the United Nations started taking responsibility for the plastic pollution crisis in 2022 through the adoption of the Global Plastics Treaty. The legally-binding resolution, which will be finalized when the UN Environmental Assembly meets in December 2024, will address plastic production, design, and disposal, and aims to end plastic pollution. The details of the treaty are still in development, so its goals and efficacy remain unknown.
The industrialized West has only just started to take responsibility for its decades-long mismanagement of plastic. But with global cooperation, it might be possible to reclaim our air, our oceans, and our bodies from the scourge of plastic pollution.