Many students at CSArts get their food from the cafeteria, relying on plastic products. We see plastic everywhere, but have you ever wondered about the invisible plastic in the soil?
In 2021, the US generated about 88.2 pounds of plastic per person, and with every pound, microplastics are produced. Approximately 10 to 40 million metric tons of microplastics are unleashed into the environment. Microplastics aren’t healthy for anyone or anything, but they also have detrimental impacts on the soil. It acts as a water filter and, when healthy, provides the antibiotics we need to fight diseases. It is the second largest carbon sink, storing three times more CO2 than the Earth’s atmosphere. We find soil wherever we go, and microplastics may not seem like such a significant threat. However, microplastics in the soil are especially bad because they contaminate the quality of the soil. Microplastics can alter soil physical properties such as its structure, aggregation, porosity, bulk density, and how the water moves through or is retained in it. They can alter the processes in nutrient and carbon cycling. The microorganisms that live in the soil are affected by microplastics because it affects their digestive system and gut.
The effects that microplastics have depend on the type of microplastic. Their effects vary based on the type of plastic, particle size and shape, concentration, length of exposure, and the characteristics of the soil. Dr. Aidyl Gonzalez, a soil scientist at Caltech, has been researching soil health for many years and sees the impact microplastics have.
“Soil is a living ecosystem, not just dirt. When microplastics enter that ecosystem, they have the potential to change its physical structure and affect the organisms and biological processes that help keep soil functioning,” Gonzalez said.
Even the healthiest soil can have microplastics. If our food supply is impacted by microplastics, then our body could be negatively affected.
“Microplastics have been detected in soils across a remarkable range of environments, but we do not yet have a single global percentage that tells us how much of Earth’s soil contains them. Developing standardized ways to measure them is an important part of answering that question.”
Even though microplastics have many negative impacts on the soil and on our bodies, we can fight to reduce the amount of microplastics. My club, the Environmental Researchers, works with Dr. Aidyl Gonzalez to collect soil samples and record data by looking at the soil microscopically. Through Environmental Researchers, we have the chance to collect data and work with Gonzalez to conduct soil research. We can record the microscopic life that lives in the soil along with the amount of microplastics. Besides research, though, there are many daily things anyone can do to take action. Simple tasks like putting away your trash and using your own water bottles rather than plastic ones can help to save our Earth. Doing beach cleanups helps to greatly reduce the amount of plastic on our beaches, and reusing bottles along with utensils minimizes our impact.
If we work together to advocate for our Earth, there is no limit to what we can do. Microplastics are another element that harms our planet, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept it. We can reduce, reuse, and recycle as a community, working to greenify CSArts.
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