Three easy swaps to reduce microplastics in your home—and your body
They’re everywhere—tiny particles of plastic in the air, the dust, the water. While the harms of ingesting microplastic are unknown, we don’t want to be the test case. Try these easy swaps to rid your home of some of the worst offenders.
When common plastic items break down, especially thin plastic items like produce bags, water bottles, and straws, they don’t disappear but turn into smaller and smaller molecules called microplastics. (You can read our article about microplastics in the water.)
A microplastic is any plastic molecule smaller than the eraser on the tip of a standard pencil. But they get smaller still, becoming “nanoplastics” detectable with a microscope.
The thing is, you can’t avoid every particle of plastic out in the world. But you can reduce your exposure in your own home by swapping a few common household items known to contain microplastic.
But first, are microplastics harmful?
In researching our article about microplastics in the water, we noted that for “sea turtles, fish or ocean birds, the answer is almost certainly yes. For humans, scientists have just started to research the short- and long-term effects of ingesting plastic.”
According to National Geographic, standard water treatment facilities cannot remove all traces of microplastics. Statistica tells us that “The average person eats, drinks and breathes between 74,000 and 114,000 microplastic particles every year - and that is considered an underestimate.”
Turning again to NatGeo: “In laboratory tests, microplastics have been shown to cause damage to human cells, including both allergic reactions and cell death. But so far there have been no epidemiologic studies documenting, in a large group of people, a connection between exposure to microplastics and impacts on health.”
Our conclusion? Microplastics are harming sea life and possibly harming humans. If we can avoid them, we’re doing it!
Three common household items that contain microplastics
Fabric—especially polyester and nylon
The New York Times, in an article about cutting microplastics in the laundry, states:
We now know that clothing, bedding, and other textiles shed microplastics in fiber form and (along with tire degradation and road runoff) are major contributors to global plastic pollution. These microfibers, which are stripped and carried off by friction and turbulence in the washing machine, enter our wastewater, eventually ending up in the environment.
They call out fibers from synthetic material, especially loosely woven synthetic material, as the worst offenders. And while you can buy higher quality, tightly woven synthetic materials from quality brands and you buy filters for your washing machine, an even better solution is to stick to natural fibers whenever possible.
THE SWAP: Use organic cotton, linen, wool and other natural, untreated fibers. The NYT article cites an environmental chemist who reminds us that even 100% natural cloth and fabric can be treated with chemicals to make them fire and stain resistant, so go with organic when you can and read labels carefully.
Laundry detergent and other cleaners with microbeads
Speaking of the laundry, many laundry detergents, along with other household cleaners and beauty products contain microbeads.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
Microbeads, a type of microplastic, are very tiny pieces of manufactured polyethylene plastic that are added as exfoliants to health and beauty products, such as some cleansers and toothpastes. These tiny particles easily pass through water filtration systems and end up in the ocean and Great Lakes.
In 2015, the Obama Administration passed The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, banning microplastics from personal care products. Unfortunately, the Act did not ban them in products used for “industrial purposes.” And that includes laundry detergent.
In an article by Columbia University’s Climate School, we learned just how problematic this is.
Asya Surphlis, a high school student intern examining the differences in detergents, found that all detergents she tested contained microbeads and microplastic fragments — including store-bought organic detergents, although in smaller quantities than non-organic alternatives. Of the detergents that Surphlis has tested so far, the most egregious results have been from an exceedingly popular detergent brand, which was found to contain approximately 178,000 microbeads in one milliliter of detergent. That’s equal to over 2.5 million microbeads per load of laundry
So, what can you do?
THE SWAP: If you use regular, store-bought laundry detergent (you’re in good company), don’t panic! You can switch to an organic, natural brand shown to have far smaller quantities of microplastics, then use a filter on your machine.
Even better? Wash your clothes less often, if you can, and consider natural alternatives to detergent, such as homemade baking soda solutions or Dr. Bronners.
Tea bags
In a previous article, we wrote all about the microplastics in single-use tea bags. The short version is that manufacturers often use tiny amounts of plastic to seal tea bags, or even in the mesh of the bags themselves.
When these tea bags are steeped in hot water, the plastic particles can leach into the tea and make their way into our bodies, potentially causing us harm.
Not all brands use plastic, and you can find more information in the article, but it’s really easy to avoid tea bags by using alternate methods to infuse your leaves.
THE SWAP: You’ll find fresher, higher-quality options if you switch to loose-leaf tea. And you can infuse your tea with any number of tea balls, tea strainers, and YES, tea socks.
Small changes. Big results.
The future is not yet written. We write it with all of our collective actions. It may seem like tea bags and laundry detergent choices are just too tiny to matter. But they do matter. Not only are you cleaning up your own home environment, you’re also changing your mindset and attention, and sending messages about the future you want.
It’s a message others will notice, starting with the people closest to you and rippling out into a community, an industry, a government, and a whole planet of people.