How Much Plastic Are You Eating?

One study suggested that humans who eat seafood may be ingesting around 11,000 pieces of plastic a year. In 2018, microplastics were identified in human faeces. If we don’t stop plastics at the source, the number of ingested plastics will only increase over time. Currently, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization suggests that humans are only ingesting negligible amounts of microplastics, and that eating fish is still a beneficial source of protein and nutrients. But there are still many unknowns surrounding plastic ingestion and how it may harm humans.

To give you an idea of how big a problem this is, according to the organisation 5 Gyres, more than a quarter of fish sampled in Indonesian fish markets had microplastics in their stomachs. These fish are being made available for human consumption without any indication of the harm that they may be causing.