A January study caught the public’s attention when researchers found that the average one liter bottle of water contains 240,000 tiny pieces of plastic. However, that information barely scratches the surface of the plastic problem that goes to the cellular level, and Congress wants to do something about it. 

A recent hearing in the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee explored how plastic is literally everywhere.

Microplastics have been found in our livers, our lungs and the breast milk we feed our babies.

Sen. Jeff Merkley

“On top of mountains, at the bottom of the sea, in the food we eat, in the air we breathe, in drops of rain, and even drops of our own blood,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said. “Microplastics have been found in our livers, our lungs and the breast milk we feed our babies.”

The plastics transfer through containers that hold water, food and clothes, as well as household appliances, like dishwashers, and the lining around detergent pods. 

“Like people shed skin cells, plastics shed particles of plastics,” Merkley said. 

The expert witnesses described the situation as a circle. People consume nanoplastics, the plastics go through their systems, and they go to the bathroom. That wastewater is treated and turned into biosolids that are sent to farms.

“This application allows plastic particles within the sludge to be re-released into nearby waterways as runoff or moved through the soil into the groundwater,” said Dr. Sherri Mason, the director of Sustainability at Penn State Behrend. 

Plastic in the body’s system can have negative health effects, which are still being researched. However, the chemicals on plastic are already known to be carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and lead to insulin resistance.

“Formulations of plastics are estimated to use upwards of 13,000 chemicals and microplastics are widely documented to harm aquatic and terrestrial wildlife,” said Dr. Susanne Brander, an associate professor at Oregon State University. “They can slow growth, alter behavior and cause reproductive disruption. They also cause adverse effects in mammals and particle presence is now confirmed in the human heart, placenta and lung tissues, as well as in circulation in the bloodstream.”

The purpose of this hearing was not just to learn about the problem, but to figure out how to stop plastics from entering the environment in the first place and filter out what’s already there. The witnesses said it starts at the macro level with a recycling and waste plan. 

“You don’t tackle this problem when you’re dealing with something that’s nano sized,” Dr. Mason said. “You deal with it when you’re talking about something that’s big.”

“We really don’t have very good understanding about the occurrence of nano plastics in the environment and our water supplies,” said Brent Alspach, the vice president and director of Applied Research at Arcadis. “And until we understand that occurrence, we really can’t conduct meaningful treatability or toxicity studies to really understand, in turn, how we should take action about microplastics,”

Plastics are not only difficult to remove from the environment because of their microscopic size, but also because they’re synthetic and therefore don’t degrade. As they sit in the environment, they get smaller and smaller over time, becoming ever more difficult to remove.