Tired of Plastics? Switch to Bioplastics

Every year, the world produces over 400 million tons of plastic products.

- Ashwani Chatrath

Nearly a third of this staggering amount is designed for single use-plastic bags that carry our groceries, bottles that quench our thirst, and packaging that wraps our food. Much of it never gets recycled. Instead, an alarming volume-equivalent to the load of about 2,000 trucks every single day-finds its way into water bodies like oceans, rivers, lakes, and ponds. What follows is not just a story of visible pollution in the form of floating plastic waste, but a quieter, more sinister invasion that is happening at a microscopic level: the spread of microplastics. Defined as plastic particles smaller than five millimetres, microplastics have stealthily entered every part of our environment. They drift in the air we breathe, settle in the water we drink, and even cling to the food we eat. Researchers have discovered them in bottled mineral water, in everyday household items, and shockingly, even in human bodies. What makes them particularly menacing is their durability-they do not decompose for hundreds of years. Once released, they are here to stay, quietly accumulating and weaving themselves into the cycle of life. The sources of these microscopic pollutants are disturbingly diverse. They are created when car tyres rub against roads, when plastic packaging breaks down, when household goods wear out, and even when garbage heaps are set on fire. Everyday chemicals-like detergents and pesticides-add to the mix. One often overlooked culprit is the washing machine. A single cycle of washing synthetic clothes can release over 1,900 microscopic fibres into the water system, many of which eventually reach rivers and oceans. This persistence makes microplastics not just an environmental hazard but a long term health threat as well. Marine ecosystems have already begun to feel the weight of this invisible invasion. Plastic accounts for between 60 and 80 percent of the waste choking our oceans. Fish, turtles, birds, and mamma