Micro-Plastics Are Not A Micro-Problem
By Mike Schoonveld
Tiny chips of plastic like these and smaller are becoming increasingly prevalent in the Great Lakes and elsewhere. Photo: Mike Schoonveld
I wish I would have had Dr. Sherri “Sam” A. Mason as one of my professors when I was going to college. Mostly, I had stodgy old guys who looked like professors, had personalities exactly like what you’d imagine in a professor, and lived by the creed “colleges would be great places to work if not for all those students.”
When I met Dr. Sam Mason, then at State University of New York, Fredonia, now at Penn State Erie college, she looked like a student, laughed like a student, dressed like a student, and I’m sure was and still is a fun teacher with whom to be connected. One of her graduate students investigated the presence of micro-plastics in beer. Samples were bought by the carton or case, a bottle or two from each container were tested and being ever-frugal, both students and teacher used the remaining samples properly.
It wasn’t just a beer party. There was science to the beer research that needed to be completed. Beer is mostly water. Plenty of Great Lakes communities draw their drinking water from the Great Lakes. Plenty of Great Lakes shoreline communities are home to craft-breweries. We know from other research (much of it done by Professor Sam Mason’s cadre of graduate students) that the Great Lakes are awash in micro-plastics. If these tiny bits of plastic flotsam are getting in my Dragon’s Milk beer from New Holland Brewing, I want to know! The good news is about fifty-percent of the micro-plastics in the Great Lakes are floating on or just under the surface and fifty-percent are sinking to the bottom of the lakes. Most of the water intakes are at mid-depths, so Great Lakes drinking water (and beer) are mostly free of micro-plastics
That bit of good news doesn’t negate the fact that there is a plastics problem in the Great Lakes and elsewhere. There’s a considerable amount of plastic stuff floating on the surface or laying on the bottom of many small lakes, all of the Great Lakes, even in the world’s oceans. Some is just litter, like empty water bottles or anything else made of plastic. Much more of it is almost too tiny to see. Called micro-plastics they are particles of less than 5mm or 1mm or even 1/3mm, depending on the agency or individual defining the term “micro.” How much is out there? Sampling only the floating kind of micro-plastic, and not sampling Lake Superior at all, Lake Huron has about 28 pieces of micro-plastics per acre. Lake Michigan has almost 70 pieces per acre, while Lake Erie features about 186 per acre. Lake Ontario blows the others off the chart, with over a thousand pieces of micro-plastic per acre.
Dr. Sherri Mason is a leading researcher of the prevalence and problems of caused by micro-plastic pollution. Photo: Mike Schoonveld
These data beg the question, “How much plastic needs to be present to cause problems”? No one knows! A hundred years ago, there was none. Fifty years ago, the number was probably near zero. Zero or near zero is probably better than what is out there now.
Are present levels causing any known problems? Problems are suspected, but not definitively proven. Regardless, when is it better to find a problem, before it’s a problem, before it’s a widespread problem or after it’s widespread? Obvious answer - before. That’s why the on-going studies.
Several years ago, Professor Mason and others drummed up enough support in congress to ban the use of plastic micro-beads in skin-care products, toothpaste, and other products. Micro-beads were added to these products as “grit,” with the assumption they helped the products scrub away dirt dead skin and oil. Plastic micro-beads have similarly been banned in most developed countries around the world. Now gritty products are made with natural materials, such as ground up peach seeds, pumice, or just plain sand.
That didn’t end micro-plastic pollution. New research in the form of scooping volumes of plastic strewn across acres of lake surface to gather micro-plastics reveal most of what’s out there doesn’t originate as micro-plastics. Big pieces of plastic chip away and become smaller and smaller and eventually become “micro” size.
One of the biggest culprits, however, was never the now banned microbeads, it’s fibers from clothing. Unless your clothing is 100% wool, cotton or other organic fiber, assume it’s all or partially plastic, such as polyester, nylon, poly vinyl chloride, or other plastic material. Plastic is used in inner and outerwear from basic tee-shirts to wedding dresses. Each time plastic clothing is laundered, it sheds fibers. The fibers then go down the drain and eventually into the lakes.
Professor Mason’s research shows each plastic garment releases around 1,900 fibers each time it’s washed. Patagonia, a maker of high-end outdoor wear, a company with a goal of being as environmentally sensitive as possible, admits their synthetic fleece jackets, on average, shed 1.7 grams of micro-fibers with each washing.
Are micro-plastics going away? No.
We live in plastic homes, drive plastic cars, and rely on plastic products multiple times each day. Recycling can help. Choosing non-plastic products makes sense most of the time. During Professor Mason’s talk she showed us the bamboo cutlery, stainless steel drinking straw, and the metal drinking cup she carries with her on her travels to avoid having to use disposable plastic products at meal time.
Few people are as conscious of our plastic-coated world than Professor Mason. She was dressed appropriately in all-cotton jeans and a linen top. But being a realist, she said, “but don’t ask me to give up my fleece jackets during the winter.”
Capt. Mike Schoonveld has spent a lifetime on the water. To keep enjoying lakes, rivers, and oceans, he knows we’ve got to take care of them. Check him out @brothernaturefishing or www.brother-nature.com.
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