Pictures of Progress in the Age of Plastic
Plus, how many thousands of nanoplastics have you breathed in today?
Dear Human of Planet Earth,
When my daughter was seven, her Covid home schooling included learning about the Stone Age, the Iron Age and the Bronze Age. How did she think the age we live in might be referred to?
‘The Plastic Age,’ she replied confidently.
I was surprised.
Since then, I’ve found her assessment spot-on.
When folks say we need to end fossil fuel use, cynical opponents snigger, ‘But you’re such a hypocrite. The very clothes you’re wearing are made from fossil fuels.’
And it’s true. Most of our wardrobes are full of synthetic materials. Polyester, nylon, acrylic, rayon and spandex are all plastic fibres. Merely washing them adds to our collective micro- and nanoplastic problem. Incinerating them - and I know someone who believes giving her clothes away risks transferring bad energy between wearers, so she burns them instead - releases toxic compounds into the air1.
Our food is packaged in single-use plastic, even if the shopping comes home in re-usable long-life bags. Our doors, window frames and roofing are made of plastic. Most children’s toys are made of plastic. Re-usable paper cups are lined with plastic. Acrylic paint is plastic.
Within my line of vision as I type, there are plastic glue sticks, plastic parts on my laptop, phone and chargers, there’s plastic on my glasses, my dressing gown is made of polyester and the supplements on the table are in plastic bottles.
Beyond my naked spectacle-supported eyes, there are invisible nanoplastics in my tap water, in my carpets and in my food, ranging from smaller than a strand of DNA to about the size of a particle of smoke. They’re not just inhalable but respirable. That means they're tiny enough to make it into the far reaches of my lungs where gases are exchanged with my tissues.
And today’s nanoplastics are broken down from the plastic rubbish and clothes washing of decades gone by. They are global travellers, needing no passport to cross borders. They wander in the depths of our oceans and travel as high as Mount Everest.
They travel to and through our bodies.
We are literally a plastic generation. Nanoplastics are found in breastmilk, tap water, bottled water, foetuses, blood vessels, testicles and more lately, our brains.
Bottled water was once niche. Now it’s ubiquitous. We might be close to eliminating single-use straws and plastic bags in the UK, but worldwide and probably in the UK too, plastic output is increasing.
So in the decades to come, we’ll have more nanoplastic and microplastic than ever. Maybe we’ll invent some genetically modified bacteria that feed on nanoplastics but what a volume of them we’ll need to make an impact on this mess! Or maybe infertility and cancer, already linked to nanoplastics in animal studies, will become so widespread our human populations will collapse.
It’s hard to be optimistic. Still, over the last year I’ve been working on reducing my plastic consumption in these ways. Here’s my story told through photographs.
Washing-Up with Bamboo Sponges
As long as I’ve known myself, ‘J-cloths’2, plastic sponges, scrubbers and plastic-bristled washing-up brushes and bottle washers have been kitchen essentials. They work on the basis of friction - and like our synthetic clothes in the washing machine - add to microplastics down the drain and into our environment. (The J-cloth brand is not really plastic, and I’ve included further reading about their cloths in the notes).
Microplastics degrade to nanoplastics.
Sick of watching broken plastic bristles and bits of sponge end up down the drain, I looked for alternatives. I found these through my online retailer, Ocado.
These plastic-free sponges are made from bamboo. They work, though they don’t last as long. But that’s okay with me.
This might be a good moment to say: there are no affiliate links in this piece. I get two benefits from sharing helpful products and websites: I help you on your journey and I make notes for myself I can refer back to!
Feeling Better About General Cleaning
Having found the plastic-free sponge without having to work too hard, I decided to look for plastic-free gloves. To my surprise, they existed. I tried them out, was satisfied, and bought a second pair.
The square sponge cloth wasn’t as robust as its less eco-conscious competitors though. It won’t last half as long.
The gloves are bio-degradable rubber and the cloth is made from sustainable wood pulp.
The Seep Company that produces them is a B-certified corporation with cool lines on their packaging, like ‘these gloves grow on trees’ and ‘Feel Good Cleaning’. This is their website if you’re curious. www.theseepcompany.com
I’ve gathered up socks that don’t fit or have holes I won’t get around to darning. We’re using them for spills and cleaning to reduce the need for new cleaning cloths and paper towels. A listener of the Sustainable Minimalists podcast shared the ‘re-purpose your old socks idea’ and now I’m sharing it with you.
Is it Feel Good Cleaning? Well, it’s at least Feel Better Cleaning.
I’ve long been skeptical of more ‘natural’ cleaning products, purely because I’ve been socialised to believe when it comes to cleaning, harsher is better. Working against those instincts, I tried the EcoVer toilet cleaner some years ago. I didn’t care for the scents but it worked well enough for me to try EcoVer washing up liquid. I bought their washing up liquid from the healthfood store in a 5L refillable container. That worked well enough to inspire me to …
… try EcoVer dishwasher tablets. The ones pictured here I bought in error, as I needed their All-in-One. The All-in-One (including rinse-aid and salt) I’ve tried and I’m very happy with it.
Besides using natural and biodegradable ingredients, EcoVer uses much less plastic packaging than the non-eco brand I’d been using for years.
Choosing Less Plastic Packaging for the Weekly Shop
I haven’t tried this service yet, purely because so far they only have two products on offer and I didn’t need either - but I hope customers respond positively so the service can grow.
I have an operating bias in my purchasing habits. In the card shop, I don’t even look at the greeting cards in plastic packaging. Likewise, I’m biased towards plastic-free food packaging where the options are easily accessible.
Paper and card can be recycled much more reliably than plastics and where the sources are sustainable forests, companies make sure to display this on their label. But plastics are ‘forever’, degrading to become nanoplastics incorporated into our bodies through the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water the fish we cook swim in. We’re discovering what their impact will be in the long-term with studies so far indicating increased infertility, cancer and earlier death post-surgery.
As much as we’d like to externalise health care to individual responsibility, we can’t escape from the commons of the air, the sea and the soil, commons that have no regard for human enclosures. We can build walls, escape to the countryside or remote islands, install sophisticated alarm systems, and spend our utmost on expensive health insurance - but we won’t escape nanoplastics in the Age of Plastic, and if mankind survives plastic, in the Age to follow.
Take Only What You Need - Cosmetics
I discovered these products on the shelves while looking for other things. They are examples of businesses giving us plastic-free or reduced-plastic options and hurrah for that! As you can see, some of these prices are prohibitive, but it’s a start for those who can afford the switch.
Back in 2017, I met a guy called EArthan at a conference in Bath, organised by my friend Margaret. EArthan lived in a commune in Denmark. He looked like the common Western depictions of Jesus - lightly built, long-faced and earnest with long brown hair. His fellow conference attendees insisted on pointing out the resemblance. EArthan saw religion as a dangerous and outdated human invention but to his credit, exercised patience with the teasing.
EArthan was a decent speaker, delivering some simple ideological messages he passionately believed and effectively preached.
One of them remains etched on my brain seven years later: Take Only What You Need.
EArthan argued he didn’t need soap, deodorant or meat, nor to drive distances he could walk. Over the conference weekend he embodied his principles.
Since then I’ve wondered if we (me) need as much soap as we (I) habitually use. Do I need to apply deodorant at bedtime, after a shower on a winter’s night? What would happen if I explored my deodorant habits? Might I find I don’t need it at all?
Soap is a trickier one. We know soap reduces the spread of infectious disease. A few years ago, I gave up plastic bottle packaged liquid hand soap for solid hand soap sold in cardboard packaging. My daughter doesn’t like it, but perhaps she’ll understand when I explain to her about the nanoplastics.
Soft Plastic Recycling and False Assurances to Assuage our Consciences
Despite my efforts, we discard quite a lot of plastic weekly. I’d estimate half this bag of soft plastic packaging was filled in a week.
Bringing it to be recycled is an improvement over putting it in the general waste bin, after which it most likely goes to landfill.
Waitrose reliably recycles their soft plastic in the UK.
Tesco is increasing the proportion of collected soft plastic recycled in the UK. Already, some of their recycled material returns to consumers as new packaging for food products. Their aim is to keep the plastic out of landfill.
In 2020, when I first started collecting crisp wrappers for recycling, I felt relieved of some plastic guilt. It was comforting to think the crisp packets were going to be re-made into blankets to keep homeless people warmer during winter.
But this is also the trouble with recycling. It dulls our motivation to move away from careless consumption.
Recycling plastic for re-use is better than producing more new plastic and dumping used plastic. But fully bio-degradable and durable, repairable alternatives where possible are the goal.
Orcas and Us
Our cousins in the ocean are suffering the effects of our discarded plastics. Microplastics attract other chemicals which serve as both toxins and endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors are substances which have a negative impact on hormonal function.
Think about them when you shop.
As a friend told me the other day: guilt doesn’t mean you’re wrong. Guilt is your conscience checking in with you to examine whether or not you should act differently next time and whether or not you’ve got reparations to make.
The adjustments you choose in your life might be different from the ones I make. But do what you can.
Embrace the guilt and see what you can choose to do differently.
The future will be different from the past. But it’s not progress if we don’t address the problems of the present.
There are many possible futures. It doesn’t help to believe otherwise.
Further Reading and Listening
Impact on sea life
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/dead-pregnant-whale-plastic-italy
The adverse health effects of increasing microplastic pollution on aquatic mammals - ScienceDirect
Impact on human life
Microplastics in the brain: New research finds plastics in olfactory bulb (nbcnews.com)
Making better choices
With Love,
Your Friendly Neighbourhood Radical,
Croydon,
London,
That patch of earth known today as the United Kingdom
Lat +51.51 Long, -0.118
J-cloths use wood pulp as a source material but the resulting viscose is still a semi-synthetic material made from a process that uses a high concentration of polluting chemicals:
Is J cloth eco-friendly? Ethically Engineered; Fabric Guide: What Is Viscose? Understanding Viscose Fabric and How Viscose Is Made - 2024 - MasterClass
I share your opinion that it's hard to be optimistic about the ubiquity of plastic and how it has insinuated itself into every nook and cranny of the biosphere. I remember a study in 2019 that said we ingest a credit cards worth of plastic every week, but the latest revelations seem much worse.
A couple of other podcasts you might be interested in, related to this subject:
https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/89-sian-sutherland?rq=plastic
https://www.planetcritical.com/p/the-green-washing-machine-veronica
Thanks for the consumer tips. We do a couple of those, but there's always more to try out.