Whereas photos of sea turtles eating plastic bags have become the poster child of the environmental harm wrought by humanity’s plastic waste, the scope of the problem is far larger than the trash we can see. Enter microplastic. 
Within 60 seconds, people around the world will purchase a million plastic bottles & 2 million plastic bags. By the end of the year, we will produce enough bubble wrap to encircle the Equator 10 times.
Though it will take more than 1,000 years for most of these items to degrade, many will soon break apart into tiny shards known as microplastics, trillions of which have been showing up in the oceans, fish, tap water and even table salt.
Primary microplastics, any plastic fragment or particle that is already less than 5.0 mm in size or less before entering the environment. These include microfibers from clothing, microbeads, and plastic pellets (also known as nurdles).
Secondary microplastics, microplastics that are created from the degradation of larger plastic products once they enter the environment through naturalweathering processes. Such sources of secondary microplastics include water & soda bottles, fishing nets & plastic bags.
Microplastics have become a major concern for environmental researchers over the past decade. Several studies have found high levels of microplastics in marine life, and last year, microplastics were detected in 83 % of tap water samples around the world!
The US had the highest contamination rate, at 94%, with plastic fibres found in tap water. Lebanon & India had the next highest rates. European nations including the UK, Germany & France had the lowest contamination rate, but this was still 72%.
Researchers have long suspected microplastics would eventually be found in the human gut. Their size from about five mm down to microscopic means they can be ingested by a wide range of creatures.
Ingested microplastic particles can physically damage organs and leach hazardous chemicals - from the hormone-disrupting bisphenol A (BPA) to pesticides -that can compromise immune function and stymie growth and reproduction.
Both microplastics and these chemicals may accumulate up the food chain, potentially impacting whole ecosystems, including the health of soils in which we grow our food. Microplastics in the water we drink and the air we breathe can also hit humans directly.
And these microplastics not only accumulated in the water system but also found in the air. Read sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
How microplastics in drinking water might be contributed by the atmosphere, with fibres shed by the every day wear & tear of clothes. We really think that the lakes [water bodies] can be contaminated by cumulative atmospheric inputs - Johnny Gasperi, University Paris-Est Créteil
Plastic fibres may be flushed into water systems, with a study finding that each cycle of a washing machine releases 700K fibres into the environment. Rains could also sweep up microplastic, which could explain why household wells used in Indonesia found to be contaminated.
And our current standard water treatment systems do not filter out all of the microplastics. In terms of fibres, the diameter is 10 microns across and it would be very unusual to find that level of filtration in our drinking water systems.
Bottled water may not provide a microplastic-free alternative to tapwater, as the they were also found in a few samples of commercially bottled water tested in the US.
In a nutshell, it's a world domination for plastics. Creatures of all shapes and sizes have been found to have consumed the plastics, whether directly or indirectly. Even you and me.
Okay, what we can do about it? Well, for starter - JANGAN BUANG SAMPAH MERATA-MERATA. Even it's like a small effort, but trust me, its count. Second, 3R - Reduce, Reuse & Recycle.
Coz, look here please will you. We're the one contributing to it. See that statistic from our neighbour Australia for reference.
