Plastic games

There is an alarming report about microplastics going around. I mean the report is going around, not the microplastics. The microplastics are apparently everywhere, not just around. In our stomachs, in our lungs, and maybe even in our flesh.

Canadian scientists have concluded that because these tiny particles of plastic are absolutely everywhere, including polar glaciers and the deepest of the Marianas trenches, each adult ends up inhaling these particles up to as much as 121,000 particles every year. Some are so small, that instead of being stopped by our natural defenses, they embed themselves in our lungs.

We've got to remember that just very recently, an alarm was raised about innumerable plastic particles in bottled water. We thought we were being healthy by sticking to water instead of soda, and avoiding all kinds of allergens and bacteria, but actually, it turns out we were swallowing spectacular amounts of plastic. Whether we were being equally successful in excreting that plastic intake, I have my doubts.

(I've been struggling to lose weight for a few years already, but despite the endless cycles of starvation and then reward, the fat isn't going anywhere. I am suddenly suspicious those layers aren't fat, or muscle posing as fat, but instead, plastic. Inch upon inch of plastic wrapping themselves around my tummy and resisting all efforts to be dislodged.)

Horrors! So now we have to worry about plastic in our lungs aside from those already inside our bellies.

Last year, I encountered a particularly poignant and somewhat disgusting art exhibit in Taipei. The enterprising Taiwanese artist had somehow gotten his hands on various wildlife, including fish and birds. I don't know what kind of preservation techniques he had mastered, but somehow, he had the skill to not only dry the fish or the bird, but freeze the contents of their stomachs as well.

It was a lesson in plastic, of course. Once frozen, the guts of these birds had been semi-extracted, given a sticky glaze, and then positioned in counter-pose to the carcass of the avian. So one could see plastic bits of wrappings and floss, extruding from the stomach of the bird, so the human audience could appreciate just how much of their own domestic refuse had eventually landed in bird stomachs. Or trout stomachs. Or beaver stomachs.

It was an indictment of human negligence. Or human greed. Or human indifference. Or all of the above. We are killing our co-inhabitants, and here was graphic evidence of that.

But as it turns out it is not just the fauna that we are choking to death. It is ourselves. We are shoving plastic upon plastic into our kids, friends, and neighbors. And into random strangers millions of miles away, too.

I have gotten slightly better at refusing plastic on all occasions. Sometimes, I even tote my own carrier bag, even if carrying a canvass shoulder bag makes me look slightly prissy. But that isn’t enough.

I look at the packaging of most products, and the amount of protective materials that have been thrown into one small grocery item never fails to amaze me. What we have done in the name of convenience and food preservation is mind-boggling.

Just buying a yogurt cup from Starbucks turns into an entire production number, with fork, paper bag, and plastic container with three different compartments plus paper napkins thrown together for about P100 worth of sales. Perhaps yogurt can be packaged in a more earth-friendly way? How about reusable big tubs which just gets scooped out upon demand?

This scientific report isn't the first wakeup call. There will be plenty more, especially as scientists get better at reviewing plastic's impact on our bodies, kidneys, esophagi, and our sophisticated set of neurons and receptors. If we don't want to receive the worst possible diagnosis however, we should already be doing the little things we can to minimize use.

Plastic is not life.