As seen in a previous post, microplastic pollution is widespread: microplastics have by now contaminated the entire planet, and can be found in the most unlikely places, from marine and freshwater bodies to soil; from food to drinking water, from the deepest oceans to the top of Mount Everest. Microplastics were also found in the placentas of pregnant women and, more recently, in human blood and lungs. Yesterday, the Plastic Soup Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, released a press release about a new study from the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. The study, commissioned by the Foundation itself, found that 80 percent of meat and dairy products from farm animals tested by scientists contain microplastics. In this case, the possible cause could be the feed of cows and pigs: the twelve samples of feed pellets and shredded feed analysed were indeed found to contain plastic.
The research findings were shocking: several types of plastic were present in the blood of both pigs and cows; seven of the eight beef samples tested were found to contain plastic particles; five of the eight pork samples contained at least one type of plastic and plastic was also found in 18 of the 25 milk samples (from farms and from packaged milk from the supermarkets). For further information about the study, you can read the complete report here.
"This study raises serious concerns about the contamination of our food chain with microplastics," stated Maria Westerbos, director of the Plastic Soup Foundation, in a press release. According to Westerbos, this is nothing to do with the farmers, the cause of the contamination (or at least part of it) is indeed to be found in former food products (including from supermarkets) that are processed into livestock feed with packaging.
The European Animal Nutrition Regulation 767/2009 prohibits the addition of "packaging and parts of packaging derived from the use of food industry products", but the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) uses a so-called Reference Point of Action and contamination below 0.15% is tolerated. The Foundation wondered if other countries respect the regulation or tolerate contamination, and launched a petition to ask the Dutch Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality Minister Henk Staghouwer of to assure consumers that the Dutch food chain is plastic-free and to make sure that controls on the presence of plastic in cattle feed are a priority.
The Plastic Soup Foundation has been carrying out campaigns and investigations on the presence of plastic also in beauty products and clothes. The Foundation's "Beat the Microbead" campaign led to a report about plastic as the "hidden beauty ingredient" in many profucts.
For this research, the Foundation looked at 10 popular brands (L'Oréal, Elvive/Elseve, Garnier, Nivea, Gillette, Oral-B, Head & Shoulders, Dove, Rexona and Axe). The research in this case showed that 9 out of 10 personal care products contain harmful microplastics. More precisely, microplastics accounted for 87% of the products, proving that our personal care and cosmetic products are full of plastic ingredients.
The report also found that most companies engage in greenwashing, coming up with labels invented by themselves such as "planet positive", to make consumers believe their products are sustainable and eco-friendly (you can use the campaign's site to check some of the products of the brands studied, in case you buy them).
The Foundation also launched in 2016 the Ocean Clean Wash campaign to raise awareness about microplastics in clothes and textiles. We are well aware of plastic bags or water bottles ending up in the ocean as we can clearly see them, but synthetic clothing is actually a huge cause of plastic pollution in the ocean as more than one-third of all primary microplastics in our oceans come from synthetic clothing or other textiles and we don't realise it as they are tiny particles. Every time we wash our clothes, millions of minute plastic particles drift away in the water.
These microplastics are so small that they slip through the filters in wastewater treatment plants. They then enter rivers and oceans and find their way into shellfish and other fish, eventually getting in our bodies as well. The Foundation in this case puts pressure on clothing and washing machine manufacturers, but also invites consumers to ponder about their lifestyles and think about how they can start reducing microplastics in the environment by changing their everyday habits.
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