In this episode, I will be talking to you about microplastic. These little particles seem to be making their way into the ocean, our environment, food chain and as a recent study has found microplastic in our guts. We will be looking at what exactly they are and I will also provide you with some tips for you to look out for when buying beauty products to make sure you do not buy something containing microplastics. I also provide tips on washing your clothes to reduce microplastics from entering our water sources as well.  

Episode Highlights

What is microplastics?

They are extremely small pieces of plastic debris that we find in the environment. This debris varies in size less than 0.2 inches or 5mm in size.

Microplastics are mainly created through two sources.

Microplastics are surely making its way to our food system. Recently 1 out of 4 fish tested from a Californian fish market contained microplastics.

The first is to minimise the purchasing of new clothing or textiles that are made from new plastic fibres. Instead, invest in clothing made from natural fibres.

Make sure you recycle properly. Less than 10% of plastics are recycled.

Avoid purchasing products with plastic microbeads.

Try to wash your clothing less and in the cases that it does require a wash try to capture the microplastics.

Key Take Away

“Recently 1 out of 4 fish tested from a Californian fish market contained microplastics.”

Plastic seems to be everywhere and it is making its way into our food system as well. If we do not change our habits we will be facing more and more problems every single day.

About the author, Mariska

Hi and welcome! My name is Mariska. I am originally from South Africa, but now call the world my home. I am an artist, designer, environmentalist, podcast host and speaker.

I started the Mama Earth Talk podcast in 2018 to share some of the things that I learned about just how easy it can be to reduce your impact on the environment. This then quickly grew into a forum that showcases the amazing things that many people are doing to make the planet better, and further into a source of hope and inspiration for many. A few of the amazing guests include Zero Waste Queen, Bea Johnson, Claude Silver, Kathryn Kellogg and zero waste chef Max La Manna.

If you do not already I urge you to follow me and my journey on social media (@designbymariska), and to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot your own waste using the handy tips I post!