Microplastic Pollution in Us

This is my first ever Podcast Episode and of course I'm dedicating this one to be #1, since my passion for Nature conservancy and Sustainability goes way way back stemming from my teen years...I had a deep connection to helping save the planet naturally embedded in me from my Native American roots!

I will try and cover the many aspects of plastics-microplastic shedding and how we can make positive change happen for future gens.  There are Solutions!
We just have to All do our part & Awareness is the first step...

Some Sad Facts:
~Microplastics are inside Everyone & are being discovered in Everything known
~Research is suggesting microplastic adversely effects are gut microbiota
~By 2050, the World's Oceans will contain more Plastic than Fish!

Please listen with an Open Mind, leave a Kind review & Healthy comments are welcome(:

References:

Mercola.com
"Researchers find microplastics in stool samples" July 27, 2023

https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/

Transcript

0:20

Hello everybody and welcome to my podcast on a topic that I'm sure many of you have heard about and may be knowledgeable about the detrimental effects of microplastics in our ecosystems, in our bodies. What are we going to do about this? It's something that definitely needs to be more broadly talked about and discussed and solutions to be had because it's just not going to get any better. So I want to pull in some information, put out some things that maybe are new to you, and then talk about solutions. This is a very important topic, and so let's start with that. Each one of us is living in the modern society that we live in. We can't get around that. We consume plastics all the time, even if we don't want to. It's in our clothing. If we wear polyester, which is made from petrochemicals and then furthermore contributes to environmental pollution every time it's washed. So please come and listen to what we can do and let's find solutions together for a better future. So when I stated that the problem is not getting any better, it's really not, but it can get better. We don't want it to just get worse. So there are organizations out there doing great work that are trying to clean up this problem, but it's kind of like a war going on because there's only so much you can do when the pollution is constant and it's not. Nobody's really doing much to stop the pollution, stop using plastic. And what we're going to mainly be talking about is these microfibers, which end up being tiny beads of plastic that has been decomposing for decades from our wastewater. These microfibers make up 85% of our coastal shoreline debris worldwide. Now, this is data that's actually a few years old, so it could be worse at this point. UCSB did a study directly linked to microbead plastics and manmade microfibers to pollution of our fish, which may consume 90% of over 2000 sampled marine and freshwater fish that had microfiber debris in their bodies. 90% of them that were sampled had this. I'm also very aware, I've read research and studies done on even human breast milk that also has this. So if it's in breast milk, it's in all of us, sorry to say, and it could be a cause of things like cancer that's definitely been linked to PCBs and other chemicals that come from petroleum, and that's why we all need to use less fossil fuels. However, we can use less products that are made from such. So there's not a demand of these chemicals. So this data is nearly a decade old now from the Washington Post. They had an article that discussed this matter and stated that marine biologists and field workers in researching such data have not been able to sample any seawater anywhere in the world that does not contain an alarming amount of plastic. So the plastic, it's definitely got a certain chemical bio structure to it. They know what it is, and it comes in many different forms like we were just discussing with the micro fibers from polyester, even in our, so it's basically like it's being used to make fabric as well as many, many other products, even fabric clothing that we put on our bodies. And then as we wash the clothing, it then goes into our ecosystem via wastewater from our laundry. And so it's just cycling all the way around and then back into our ecosystem and our oceans. So this has become a worldwide problem, and I think it's important for more of us to know and spread the word. These microfibers are so detrimental as they're becoming food for a marine life and a substitute for their natural diet, reducing the overall food intake. This threatens their growth, the health and causing disease and even death in all sorts of marine life. So then for us that eat fish of various forms, we're ingesting even more plastic into our bodies via the food that we're eating from the sea. You've probably heard of other various chemicals and heavy metals that are concentrated in wild seafood. There's also the chemicals from plastic that is now found in most of them, and that's one way that it's getting into our bodies. But it's not just that it's even like in the air we breathe, it's it's just everywhere. So that's why it's such a huge problem that I am discussing, and I know it's another problem, but it's real, and we have to face it. We have to be aware, and we all have to do our part because otherwise it's something that's getting worse every day. And we can't all fight these big corporations to stop making plastic or stop consuming the fossil fuels or selling the fossil fuels to make such chemicals as plastic. So what we can do is we can vote with our dollar and make change with our dollar by not buying these products that are made from plastics. And if we do have polyester fabrics, say we're somebody that goes and buys recycled clothing and we think that's a good thing, well, yes, that can be better than buying something new if we're thrifting and reusing, right? But if we end up with a piece of clothing that is made from any kind of polyester, and that's including fleece, of course, then it's important to be aware of how to take care of that piece of fabric. Basically. We'll touch on that in a little bit. So let's talk more detail on these microfibers. They are soaking up toxins like a sponge, concentrating, PCBs, pesticides, oils, all kinds of things in our oceans, which is creating a higher amount as it moves up the food chain. More concentrations. I mean, so where do they come from? We just talked a little bit about the polyester clothing. It's a huge culprit. Huge culprit organizations or companies I should say, such as Patagonia, are very aware of this. And as you all know, they are producing polyester mostly from recycled polyester. And I really do respect companies that are recycling polyester because it's kind of like recycling plastic. If you can recycle something, recycle it if you can in a sustainable way rather than just throwing it out as long as it's done in an ecological way and not polluting more. So most manufactured fiber is made from these petrochemicals making polyester, and this is because of the rise in fast fashion. Creating a high demand for manmade fibers. Polyester is a manmade fiber. It's not natural. So this has doubled in recent years. In the past decade, 15 years or so, this demand for polyester has actually doubled. And it's kind of interesting because I thought at one point polyester, oh, that's just so old school. That's so sixties and seventies. They were using polyester. And I think that's when the polyester fabric really became a thing, and it was up on the rise of making, and it seemed like everything made during a certain era way back in the day was polyester. And a lot of vintage clothing can be polyester. Well, these days it's just as bad. There's more people on the planet. There's these big industrial corporations that of course want to use the chemicals. It's big business. And so they are definitely using polyester. It's huge in the fast fashion market that's been rising. And so this manufacturing process that's used in creating these fabrics is highly toxic. It releases emissions into the environment. That's As I mentioned earlier. We're breathing it literally because it's being pumped into the air from these manufacturing facilities all over the planet, including volatile organic compounds, particulate matter water and acid gases such as hydrogen chloride, all of which contribute to respiratory diseases. Volatile monomers, solvents and other byproducts of poly production are emitted into the wastewater from these polyester manufacturing plants. The A, the Environmental Protection Agency that we have under the Resource Conservation Act considers many textile manufacturing facilities to be hazardous waste generators. Unbelievable factors that contribute furthermore to the release of the microfibers are wind. For example, we wash our fleece jacket or our fleece beanie or our fleece pants or whatever we have that's fleece. Fleece is thick polyester that sheds. So it's kind of a no brainer. It's almost like it's just a pile of microfibers on an average 1.7 to as much as 2.7 grams are released every time we wash one of these pieces of fleece garments. So in comparison, something like a lid to a jar would weigh probably about three or four grams depending on the size of the lid I guess. But that's quite a bit that's released every time in the washing machine. And then even more so in the dryer. We're just talking about washing machines though right now because I think a lot of us don't want to put our fleece in the dryer because it would just shut a bunch of it off and we know that, but we need to wash it and then we hang it to dry, or maybe it tells us that we need to hang dry. So the older your garment is, the longer you've had it, the more you've washed it actually more is released. The lower quality, the cheaper the brand were actually found to release 170% more over the lifespan of the garment, and the higher the quality, the fleece brand was actually released less. So that's an interesting fact. And some acrylic fibers are actually the worst. They're even anything with acrylic sheds more than if it just said polyester. So the top loading washing machines actually are worse culprit. Unfortunately, they can release seven times more than front loading machines. And the higher the temperature, the stronger the agitation also releases more. The bottom line is that over 40% leaves the wastewater treatment plants and ends up in our lakes, rivers, and oceans. And 35% of the microfibers in our oceans are coming directly from our laundry facilities, laundry from our homes, laundry that's just being washed all over the planet without the proper consciousness and awareness. So how can we find solutions so that these microfibers don't end up in our landfills and in our environment such as our ocean, which is really our biggest part of our environment on the planet, it makes up more mass than any land does, and we really need to take care of it or we're all going to get sicker. So here's some solutions. One is, is that we can apply filters into our wash loads, like our top loading washing machines now. They're companies that are making this really great filter that you can put into that center part of the machine, and it will catch up to 90% of the microfibers so that they don't go into the water, into the wastewater. I will mention a few of these in the show notes, so be sure to check them out, see if you can afford to get one, or maybe if you share laundry with others, you can all chip in a little bit and have this filter be another thing like a water filter. But now it's a water filter for your washing machine to help catch pollutants that are going downstream. And there's even a company out of, is it Boulder? I don't know. It's in Colorado called TSUs Solutions, and it's a waterless washing machine. I'd never heard of this before. It's being funded by Patagonia, and it washes with a pressurized carbon dioxide instead of water, and then you hang dry. So you wouldn't have to be concerned with any kind of wastewater pollutants coming from your machine, although I bet this is something that costs a lot of money. So if you're somebody that doesn't have to be concerned with costs of a washing machine and you can afford to get such a type of machine, it might be the way to go. I know it sounds kind of odd to a lot of us to not use water for washing our clothes, but this is technology, probably technology at its best, possibly because water can be scarce in some areas and it can be an issue for conserving. And so it's probably something that is worth looking into if you can afford to do so. Also, if we have fleece and any type of microfiber, polyester, acrylic, synthetic fiber clothing, we just need to really wash it less, maybe spot clean it, but try not to wash it more than you need to. Really doesn't need to be washed very often, especially fleece like a jacket or something like that. It's like maybe if we wash it once a year, depending on how often we wear it, that should be plenty. And good news is that Patagonia is looking into mitigating solutions, including product redesign to prevent the shedding of such micro fibers. So that'll be interesting to see coming in the near future, hopefully. So now I just want to touch base on cotton, kind of get off the polyester and go into cotton, because I think a lot of people, more people than not think that cotton is a natural fabric and it should be a natural fabric. It's a plant and it grows, and there's these little cotton balls that you can, it's like the flour, right? And you harvest the flour and it's got this cotton that you can then spin into fabric. Well, unfortunately, it's not a harmless garment as you would think it is. Since cotton conventionally produced cotton, meaning it's not grown organically, it's conventionally grown, is grown just like any other conventionally grown agricultural crop with lots of pesticides and herbicides and toxic chemicals, including Pero chemicals or PUFAs violates and other asso dyes are used in the production of cotton that is not organic. Conventional cotton is actually really, really not natural at all, and it's not really a better choice if you're going to use cotton, first of all, if you're reusing cotton, like buying reused, recycled cotton thrifting, if you find something that's cotton thrifted, then it's better than buying something brand new cotton. That's definitely a better choice than buying something polyester, I suppose. But really it's very problematic due to the cotton agricultural industry and how many chemicals they use. Believe it or not, y'all, it is the number one ag crop that pollutes more that uses more toxic chemicals in the growing of that crop than any other agricultural crop that we eat and consume. So I don't know why that is. I don't know why it's maybe hard to grow. Maybe it was so mass produced that now they use so many chemicals in the production of growing the crop. It's maddening if you look into it, it's just sickening. So organic cotton is very readily available. It is less expensive than some other natural fabrics such as hemp, even recycled poly bamboo tensile. There's definitely other fabrics that can be more expensive than organic cotton. Now, I know organic cotton sheets. Some companies sell really expensive ones, but you can find ones that are pretty affordable out there and pretty readily available these days. So as with what we eat, please go organic. Our skin is the largest organ of the body. And yes, our organs absorb things. So what sits on top of it think natural as much as possible, seek out organic cotton, hemp and other natural fibers such as silk wool and tensile, which is made from tree pulp. Most sustainable option is trademark 10, not the Tencel trademark guarantees that the production was environmentally sustainable. Sourcing natural raw wood fibers and certified biodegradable fabrics that are made with SIL aren't guaranteed to be eco-friendly and may come from unsustainable sources and are blended with other fibers. Unknown tensile is also produced using tree pulp from sustainably harvested forests and uses less toxic chemicals that are recycled in a closed loop process. I'll have another episode in the future to go into all the benefits and data around sustainable clothing, which is a passion of mine for years, and the fabrics that are used such as hemp, organic cotton, tencel, and even some alpaca sustainable wool. There's so much to talk about. It's a huge topic. But for now, I'm going to wrap up this episode. I'm going to put some show notes with links and other information that you can gather, and I hope this was very helpful to kind of get a glimpse of what's happening and just spread some awareness around this. It really does affect us all, and I feel like it's a really important topic. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you and I hope you have a beautiful day. Peace. Them free. Yes, force not control.