ecology
june 2015
9
The effects of microbeads are mainly felt by marine animals. These tiny balls of plastic do not possess the capability to biodegrade under normal environmental conditions, and so, they remain and accumulate in bodies of water each year. Often, aquatic life mistakes microbeads for other organisms, like zooplankton, and ingests the microbeads as a food source. Thousands of marine animals fall for this cosmetic trap. Once fish consume microbeads, the plastic toxins become concentrated and the fish are poisoned. But who cares about the fish anyways, right? Well, the microbead-infected fish (fish serving as a metonymy for all aquatic life) can transfer its manmade, concentrated toxins into the tissue of whatever consumes it. But what does this mean? It means humans are now at risk. Your face wash might not look like much, but it contributes around 300,000 microbeads to our water.
Plastic bags and microbeads have more in common than just their composition. Both are designed for a one-time use. This similarity is simple, but detrimental. People place such a small value on plastic, and yet plastic has such a negative impact on our environment. John Hocevar, an environmental campaigner, stated that this negligence “will kill us. We will drown and be poisoned in our own waste unless we get our act together”. And so, a handful of states (including California) are taking steps to ban microbeads completely. This may seem to be a small step towards environmental recovery, but, nonetheless, it is still a step. And right now, baby steps – microsteps to be exact – are one of the best things we can do.