Microplastics
The plastic problem has another facet that is invisible to many: micro-sized plastic ingredients added to products for technical functions and performance enhancement.
Intentionally added microplastics, as they are called, are present and continuously released into the environment in significant levels: at least 50,000 tonnes per annum through different pathways. Microplastic particles pose potential environmental and human health risk because of their size and ease of ingestion, chemical composition, and persistence in the environment.
Before another environmental crisis akin to CO2 happens because of unregulated human activities, the EU is taking an initiative to restrict the use of such materials in an array of products. The world should take notice. Sustainable alternatives are needed more than ever.
Home care
Cometic
Agriculture
Paints and coatings
Not so fun fact:
Every two years, humans unknowingly release to the environment microplastics equivalent to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch through the use of products in these four categories. They are impossible to see and nearly impossible to recover.
