October 2020. My youngest daughter still occasionally drank a bottle when I read an article from a science magazine Nature Food faced. ‘Babies ingest 1.5 million plastic particles a day through plastic bottles’. Not yet completely freed from pregnancy hormones, my head was spinning. I couldn’t get the image of that innocent creature drinking tiny pieces of plastic from my retina. All the plastic my children got to eat and drink from went straight into the plastic bin.
Perhaps exaggerated and premature. The study did not mention whether that plastic is harmful to babies. But it remains troubling and this is not the only worrying study. Research from the study of the Australian University of Newcastle from 2019 it already turned out that people ingest 5 grams of plastic particles every week, comparable to the weight of a credit card. We defecate most of it, but part of this plastic penetrates into the deepest core of our body.
Microplastics in breast milk
Last month, for the first time, evidence was provided that there is microplastic in human blood. Scientists from, among others, the Free University of Amsterdam (VU) and the VUmc found small plastic particles in the blood of 17 of 22 Dutch test subjects. Previously, already microplastics found in brain, lung membrane and the placenta. And in breast milk, although this is a fraction of what is found in a heated plastic baby bottle.
Do we get sick from plastic in our bodies? Heather Leslie, ecotoxicologist and chemist, was involved in a series of investigations who should clarify this. Leslie: ‘Plastic can hypothetically make us sick in different ways. Particles can accumulate in our body. We want to find out whether these accumulations can lead to chronic inflammation, which can ultimately cause chronic diseases.’ In addition, according to Leslie, pathogenic bacteria adhere well to microplastics in the environment. Although there are suspicions that microplastics can cause autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s, ADHD and food intolerance, among other things, a direct link in humans has not yet been established.
There is hard evidence for the harmful effects of chemical additives to plastic. Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the most widely produced chemicals in the world. Excessive exposure to this is harmful to the liver, kidneys and fertility, says Majorie van Duursen, professor of toxicology at VU University Amsterdam. BPA is further associated with obesity, ADHD, diabetes, and breast and prostate cancer. It is forbidden in baby bottles and food packaging intended for toddlers up to 3 years of age, but it can still be found in countless other places, such as in plastic bottles, food packaging and toys.
Van Duursen: ‘BPA is not harmful in small amounts. But because it’s really everywhere, all those little bits add up.’ According to Van Duursen, there needs to be more awareness about the risk for small children, because hormone disruptions have a greater influence on them.
Reason enough to try to live with less plastic.
Webshops offer alternatives
I start my quest for a plastic-poor existence with the app My Little Plastic Footprint, an initiative of the Plastic Soup Foundation. This app will get you started with the most harmful and easiest to replace household plastics. Plastic containers: ‘In any case, don’t put them in the microwave, because the heat can release harmful chemicals.’ Plastic cutting boards: ‘When cutting, plastic flakes can get into your food.’ Disposable cups: ‘Even paper cups often have a plastic layer on the inside.’
In search of alternatives, I find all kinds of web shops that specifically focus on plastic-free products, such as Zo Zero, Consciously Pure, Life without Waste or Ecomondo. These sites offer alternatives to disposable plastic: reusable pharmacy bottles with corresponding cleaning agent tablets, to be diluted with water. Natural care products, such as colorful bars of soap, that take up a lot less space than such a large plastic family bottle. Washable tissues, sanitary towels and ear swabs. Reusable silicone coffee cups. Some major brands also see a gap in the market. Hema includes stainless steel drinking bottles in its range and cosmetics giant Garnier is introducing a plastic-free line.
I am lucky enough to live near a city with a ‘zerowasteshop’, a store where you can shop without packaging with your own pots and trays. For daily shopping, the market is a great place to stock up with your own bags of groceries. They already know me there as the bag lady. The local baker is fine with putting the bread in a cotton bread bag. And now that the worst corona fear is over, the barista of the coffee shop doesn’t mind filling a cup that he brought himself.
Replacing kitchen utensils with glass, stainless steel or wood is costly if you want to do everything at once. But after a while I really notice a difference: I have fewer plastic items at home and my plastic bin is a lot emptier.
I do make painful slips, because alternatives are not always better. The trendy bamboo tableware, marketed as a sustainable alternative to plastic plates and cups, appears to contain formaldehyde. Due to the looser structure of the material, more of this harmful substance is released than with ‘normal’ plastic plates. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) advises not to use such crockery anymore.
Yo-yoing with the plastic diet
As it goes with diets: sometimes it goes well, sometimes not so much. I have successfully combated some plastics: in my house no plastic spatulas are pulled through hot pans and during the picnic enamel dishes are put in the bag. But after two years of yo-yoing the plastic diet, I conclude that I can’t last.
Using less plastic takes more time and effort and in some cases considerably more money. A set of beeswax wipes to keep food fresh costs more than 20 euros, you can buy more than 1,500 meters of cling film at the Action. But the biggest problem is that there is plastic everywhere, even in places where you don’t expect it and where you have no influence on it. Plastic particulate matter is in house dust, so reports the RIVM† If I plop on the couch, the plastic particles fly through the air. There’s plastic in the paint on the walls, the keyboard I type on, and the kids’ stuffed toys. But there is also plastic in the open air and in rain, according to a study in the scientific journal Environmental Pollution in 2017† Because plastic waste pollutes nature and is used everywhere in the production chain, there is also plastic in our food. Microplastics have already been found in studies in sea salt, fish, honey, beer and fruit and vegetables, among other things.
Then it sometimes feels pointless to cycle extra for daily shopping. The app of the grocery delivery service is quickly found again. And with that delivery service, the plastic enters the kitchen in large quantities.
According to Heather Leslie, private plastic reduction, like my well-intentioned plastic diet, is ineffective and unfeasible. She does not want to use the word ‘elitist’, but 25 euros for a stainless steel drinking bottle does not fit everyone’s budget. Leslie: ‘And there is simply not enough farmland to replace all polyester clothing, bedding and household textiles with organic cotton.’
Plastic has us in a stranglehold. Austrian sustainability consultancy Denkstatt sketched a scenario of a world where all plastics were replaced and concluded that this would lead to a doubling of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. We would have to give up much of our wealth, and the energy transition would also be virtually impossible without plastic. Think of solar panels and electric cars that would otherwise be much too heavy.
Something crazy is going on with recycling
One solution that is often suggested for the plastic problem is plastic recycling. Because the raw materials are exhausted and so that plastic is not wasted. Littering plastic ends up in the water, in fish and thus in our stomachs. But with recycling is something crazy going on† Van Duursen: ‘With the current recycling method, the environmental and health aspects have been separated. Plastics and their – sometimes already banned – additives sometimes end up in applications for which they are not intended at all.’
For example, clothing made from recycled PET bottles from the Amsterdam canals is very noble, but the fibers are less sturdy. With every wash, microplastics are pumped into the sewage. Notorious is the example of contaminated granules made from car tires that were used on artificial grass for football and hockey fields. And journalist Laura Hoogenraad discovered that the shredded polyester carpets used to soften the sandpit of riding schools are full of chemical additives. With every stroke of the hoof, millions of polluted plastic fibers are blown through the air.
The research organization TNO says that a future without plastic is not possible, but a future with plastic that is less harmful to the environment and health. For this, the entire plastic ecosystem has to be overhauled, the agency writes in the Roadmap to circular plastics (November 2020). ‘Don’t use plastic anymore as a disposable material, but as a material that is suitable for reuse. A simplified standard for plastics and additives makes recycling easier and cleaner’, writes TNO. ‘And make plastic more expensive so that producers are encouraged to use it more wisely.’
New regulations offer some hope for improvement. At the beginning of March, the member states of the United Nations drew up an internationally binding treaty to combat plastic pollution. And the European Union will soon decide on a ban on adding microplastics to products. A strategy for a circular textile sector was also presented in the European Green Deal. France has banned plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables and Spain will follow shortly.
And we can do something ourselves. It doesn’t have to be as strict as I’ve tried, small adjustments that are more manageable can also reduce the risks. Majorie van Duursen: ‘Never heat plastic products, even if there is a symbol on them that they are suitable for the microwave.’ And be careful with cheap plastic, warns Van Duursen. ‘Smelling a strong plastic smell should set off an alarm bell: that chemical smell comes from somewhere.’ According to Van Duursen, it helps to ventilate your house well against plastic particulate matter in house dust. ‘And wash your hands regularly so that those substances don’t get into your mouth.’ Hey, ventilate and wash hands? Maybe the corona advice should not go in the trash for a while.