Plastic on Our Plates
Did you know that the plastic we throw away could come back to us on our plates?
Where Does It All Begin?
Every time we use plastic—whether it’s a water bottle, a food wrapper, or a shopping bag—we create waste. Some of it is recycled, but a large amount ends up in landfills, rivers, or the sea. Over time, sunlight, wind, and water break these plastics into tiny pieces. These bits, smaller than 5 millimeters, are called microplastics.
Microplastics are now everywhere—floating in the oceans, frozen in Antarctica’s ice, and even drifting through the air. A recent study estimates there are about 24 trillion fragments of microplastics in the world’s oceans alone!
From Plastic Waste to Farmland
But here’s the twist: microplastics aren’t just in the sea. They are on land too, especially in the soil where our food is grown. One major reason is the use of sewage sludge—the leftover waste from water treatment plants.
Sewage sludge is rich in nutrients like nitrogen and potassium, so farmers use it as a natural fertiliser. But it also contains thousands of microplastics washed down our sinks and drains—think microbeads from soaps, fibres from clothes, and bits of packaging.
Once this sludge is spread on fields, the plastics stay in the soil for years.
Food Front: Into Our Veggies
Microplastics in the soil leach chemicals and can travel through rainwater into rivers and groundwater. Worse, plants absorb them.
Root vegetables like carrots, radishes, and turnips are most affected, since the plastics get trapped in their roots. Even tea, salt, honey, sugar, fruits, and drinking water can carry these invisible bits of plastic into our bodies.
Why It Matters
We don’t fully understand all the effects yet, but research shows that microplastics may harm soil health, stunt the growth of earthworms, and even mess with our body’s hormone system.
The reality is: the plastic we throw away doesn’t disappear—it comes back, one bite at a time.
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