Â鶹´«Ã½

The damaging effects of plastics to our environment are largely hidden from us in the United States. We use plastic, throw it away, and it’s gone. And it is challenging to even image it.

Think of Manhattan Island buried under two miles of plastic trash. That is how much there is today in the world. Or consider the Great Pacific garbage patch that is twice the size of the state of Texas. Closer to us is the Sargasso Sea’s North Atlantic garbage patch that is the size of Texas. Some patches of plastic break off and end up on North American beaches. Plastics make up 94% of these vast trash patches in the oceans.

As for the Chesapeake Bay, research suggests that 94% of plastics stay in the Chesapeake Bay rather than flowing out to the Atlantic Ocean. A study by Penn State researchers published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin in December 2024 confirmed that tidal marshes in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are hotspots where microplastics accumulate — the same areas where crabs and fish feed their way toward adulthood. Microplastic particles are in oysters, crabs, fish, waterfowl and chickens. Basically, in everything we eat from the Chesapeake area. They are also in us.

Plastic’s unexpected curse is that microplastics are widespread throughout our bodies. The most startling findings come from brain tissue analysis. The amount of microplastics in the human brain appears to be increasing over time: concentrations rose by roughly 50 percent between 2016 and 2024. Once in the brain, it stays there. Recent animal studies indicate that microplastics in the brains of mammals reduce decision making abilities, increase risky behavior, reduce socialization and create an animal version of Alzheimer’s.

We don’t know the effect of rising microparticles on the human brain because we cannot run experiments that raise the microparticle level in our bodies and then watch for behavioral changes. All we can do is autopsies that correlate the amount of microplastics in a brain with pre-death behavioral issues. That is a young and slow science.

Recent studies have shown that microplastics in bacteria aid in their resistance to our common antibiotics that are essential for our health. Other studies have shown that microplastics in our cells reduce the strength of our bones. These results have been published this year and a lot more research is required.

We can reduce the generation of trash and plastics in it, but that has become political as the Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill recently reduced by 40% federal funding to address trash. Congressman Andy Harris and his fellow Republicans gutted the EPA — the very agency that funds trash reduction programs. Andy also voted for deep cuts in programs that support the Clean Water Act. Democrats opposed all these cuts.

The Trump administration killed an attempt by the United Nations to control plastic production worldwide. A multinational conference was held from Aug. 5 to Aug. 14 in Geneva, Switzerland. The goal was to limit plastic production as well as control associated dangerous chemicals. By refusing to agree to any regulations on plastic production, the Trump administration prevented effective limits on the growing problem of plastics in our environment and microplastics in our bodies.

Despite Republican resistance to protecting our health, we can take some actions. We certainly could recycle more. Worldwide only 9% of plastics are recycled. The United States is behind with only 6% of plastics being recycled. Recycling plastics is more expensive than buying new plastic. This added expense thwarts the recycling process. Ninety-four percent of plastic waste ends up in landfills, incinerators and dumped in the environment.

We can hope to change people’s behavior. People should reduce use of plastic, for example, buy water in cans, don’t eat or cook with plastic utensils, don’t store or buy food in plastic, etc. We should all be doing this to reduce microplastic consumption but not nearly enough people do it to put a dent in worldwide plastic demand.

Finally, we can develop an alternative to plastics that fully decomposes and disappears in the environment. Scientists from Rice University and the University of Houston are developing a material that is biodegradable and may replace plastic. Full development may take a decade. With no government action, we’ll live with growing amounts of plastic trash in our environment and microplastics in our bodies.