Saturday, Oct 25

Welcome to Your Daily Dot where Dot will share tips, advice, and stories on how we can make our world better.

Dot is delighted that researchers continue to innovate solutions to our microplastics problem by devising filters to trap them before they get into our waterways. What else can we do? I’m glad you asked: 

Dear Dot,

I’ve been reading about the volume of microplastics in our oceans and waterways, and am concerned about what can be done to reduce my own. I’m new to Martha's Vineyard and am building a house, which includes a new septic system. Do microplastics affect septic systems? Is there anything I can do to stem the tide of microplastics in the ocean?

– Wash-Ashore, Vineyard Haven

Dear Wash-Ashore,

As a newcomer, errr, “wash-ashore” myself, I welcome you to the vocabulary of Martha's Vineyard. Another newcomer to our vernacular is “microplastics,” which are exactly as they sound: microscopic pieces of plastic. Which sounds benign, yes? Don’t be fooled. Microplastics get into our bodies of water when larger plastics break down, and according to UNESCO, proceed to kill roughly a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals annually. And don’t for a second think that we humans are spared this scourge. World Wildlife Fund tells us that we ingest the equivalent of a credit card in plastic each week — in the water we drink, the food we eat, and even in the air we breathe. We can, of course, blame plastic bags, plastic toys, plastic containers. But, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an estimated 35 percent of all primary microplastics in the oceans originate from our plastic clothes. Each wash cycle releases about 700,000 microfibres from acrylic and polyester, according to a report in The Guardian, and using the “delicate” cycle is actually worse than the standard cycle. Which means that those comfy yoga pants that became your pandemic staple, made from synthetic fibers, might make it easier for you to breathe, but are, sorry to say it, choking our oceans and those who make it their home. Not to mention winding up in our own bodies.

I can practically hear you saying, “What? How can my yoga pants be murdering seabirds?” Let me explain.

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