Pollution, eh?

You could be ingesting up to a credit card worth of plastic every week, according to a new study. Research has shown that plastic pollution is now so extensive, that people could be eating five grams of microplastic per week without knowing it. Commissioned by WWF and published by Australia's University of Newcastle, the study showed that the most considerable source of plastic fibre ingestion comes from bottled and tap water. Shellfish also contain significant amounts of plastic, with beer, honey and salt including smaller amounts of almost invisible fibres. "Microplastics have been defined as plastic particles with an upper size limit of five mm," reads the study. "Microplastics are of significant concern as they may pose a direct threat (by ingestion), or indirect threat (by acting as potential stressors or vectors of contaminants) to humans." 94.4 percent of tap water in the United States has been found to contain microplastics with 72.2 percent of tap water in EU including the same. The US sees an average of 9.6 fibres per litre while the EU has approximately 3.8 fibres. The study said that the amount of plastic consumed by a person depends on their geographic location and lifestyle options, but that the average person could be ingesting almost 1,800 fibres every week just from water. "Not only are plastics polluting our oceans and waterways and killing marine life, it's in all of us," said director general of WWF, Marco Lambertini, "If we don't want it in our bodies, we need to stop the millions of tons of plastic that continue leaking into Nature every year."