The Quiet Rise of the Plastics Crisis
Key takeaways
- WINNIE LAU is Project Director of Preventing Plastic Pollution & Safer Chemicals at The Pew Charitable Trusts.
- How to Counter an Insidious Global Threat
- We see it scattered across roads and piled up in heaps in our cities and towns.
WINNIE LAU is Project Director of Preventing Plastic Pollution & Safer Chemicals at The Pew Charitable Trusts.
How to Counter an Insidious Global Threat
Plastic is, quite literally, everywhere. We see it scattered across roads and piled up in heaps in our cities and towns. It is in consumer products, vehicles, food packaging, clothing, cosmetics, and medical devices. It has been found in the Mariana Trench, on the flanks of Mount Everest, and in the land and water in between. Microplastics—or plastic particles that are less than five millimeters in size—are floating through the atmosphere and in people’s meals. As a result, they have worked their way inside everyone’s bodies and gotten tangled up in brains, hearts, and other organs. Scientists have discovered links between spiking rates of chronic conditions and illnesses and increased exposure to plastics.