Microplastics and the smart phone revolution

As a final blog post for the MOOC I would like to share my advice for how you can help protect the oceans.

The first issue I want to discuss is microplastics. These have been in the news a lot recently, but they are essentially tiny plastic particles which are found in personal hygiene products, such as face washes, toothpaste & body scrubs. The particles are used to exfoliate the dead cells. However, as we wash our faces in the bath or over a sink, the microplastics are flushed into the drain.

These small particles are not completely removed by waste water treatment plants and eventually make their way into the oceans, where they are accumulating. They are commonly mistaken for food by the zooplankton (microscopic animals of the ocean), molluscs, fish and even sea birds.

Image of microplastic ingestion by marine zooplankton (right), how microplastics can move around the marine foodweb (left)

There are alternatives, such as sand, salt or coconut. There are two ways you can help with this issue, the first is to look at the ingredients in any care products you buy, and the most common microplastics you might see on the back (and should avoid) are:

• Polyethylene / polythene (PE)
• Polypropylene (PP)
• Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
• Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)
• Nylon

Or, if you have a smart phone, you can download an app known as “Beat the microbeads”. You simply scan the barcode of a product you wish to buy and it will tell you whether or not it contains any microbeads, and you therefore shouldn’t buy it. You can also take a look at the ‘Good Scrub Guide’ which provides a list of products free of microbeads (http://www.fauna-flora.org/initiatives/the-good-scrub-guide/).

Whilst we are on the topic of smart phone apps, Paris wrote an excellent blog post about eating sustainable fish (http://moocs.southampton.ac.uk/oceans/2015/10/10/eat-responsibly/) and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) have an app known as “MSC Seafood Finder” which provides lists of sustainably sourced seafood from a large number of retailers (all of the UK supermarkets are on here) and can help you decide which products to buy sustainably.  Also a recent campaign by Greenpeace is highlighting the best Tuna brands you can buy within the UK, take a look at it here (https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/not-just-tuna) and avoid John West & Princes tuna until they change their sustainability policies!

It’s been great to have been with you on this journey over the last six weeks, and I hope you have learnt much about the oceans, and will help spread the knowledge you have so that we can have a healthier, more sustainable ocean in the future!

Information on microplastics from the Marine Conservation Society (https://www.mcsuk.org/what_we_do/Clean+seas+and+beaches/Campaigns+and+policy/Microplastics)

Image 1: http://www.fauna-flora.org/initiatives/the-good-scrub-guide/

Image 2: http://discardstudies.com/2013/07/22/the-plastisphere-and-other-21st-century-waste-ecosystems/

Image 3: https://plastictides.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/microplastic-ingestion/

Image 4: http://get.beatthemicrobead.org/