each microplastic bead travels with uncertainty of its destination. remnants of the once beloved plastic… a word so often utilized, yet so rarely recognized for its full power over and against humanity.

for 50 years, mankind has been dominated by a realm of perpetual convenience, as this versatile material reserved a permanent home inside our hearts and minds. yet little did we know — while society was marveling at its sheer durability — that each micro-particle would soon become its own time-bomb across every crevice of the globe.

looking translucently flawless on the outside, the deep dive under plastic’s surface tells a whole different story. the history of plastic begins with the origin of crude oil, becoming plasticized and shaped into products, before utilization, and periodically directed to recycling. this is where, due to economic inefficiency, plastic instability, and a rise in single-use goods, less than 5% of u.s. plastics wind up here, even if placed in recycling bins.

for those recycled, new chemicals are introduced in this universal mixing of products, as plastics’ permeability enables pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and numerous chemicals to be added. across the globe, the un environment programme reports the association of over 13,000 chemicals with plastic products, of which 7,000 are potentially harmful substances, and 3,200 of those substances carry one or more harmful properties. under this surface, plastic conceals multi-layered toxicity, slowly leaching out of even the smallest particle upon breaking down.

between arctic sea ice riddled as a sink for microplastic concentrations, increasing pfas chemicals in polar bear livers, mountains of plastic fast-fashion clothing in chile’s deserts, mosquito-infested plastic-clogged waterways in uganda, and the over 8 million tons of plastic deposited from land to the ocean yearly, these microplastics travel by the wind, land, and sea to coat the globe. most are undetectable by the naked eye, seamlessly blended as a foreigner in our natural world, infiltrating our bodies without obstruction.

once inside, the smallest microplastics — nanoplastics — have a mysterious way of slipping past bodily defenses, spreading chemicals, and often claiming indefinite residence inside organs. pfas and plastic particles are presumably in every person, present in the lungs, brain, kidneys, blood, placenta, liver, and testicles, causing cancers, hormonal imbalances, infertility, and adhd, among many other health issues. the larger the plastic, the more impassable it becomes, making it harder for the body to excrete it. this proved true for a whale on the philippines’ coast, washed ashore deceased with 88 pounds of plastic inside.

this harrowing reality, caused by something so ubiquitous, is what threatens every living being on this planet. from fruits and vegetables, to cotton plants and maple trees, to wild salmon and livestock, plastic is not only a perceived everyday necessity, but woven into each fiber of our very existence. to open this window of truth behind this inanimate material, we must take a first-hand look at its journey. continue reading below.

what am i? that is the universal question circling my mindless presence while being stretched, heated, and morphed into a creation entirely new. polished, perfect, thousands of polymers intertwined, just waiting for their capacity to be tested.

significance is a new concept, yet it feels like an old friend. it is easy to get drowned out in this warehouse among millions of my clones, rolled up in tightly wound bales, loaded into trucks, and distributed like a web across the globe. yet somehow, in my short life, i feel my significance measured in dependence. someone is waiting for me.

my voyage ships me to a familiar place. a dark warehouse acts as the separation between our storage and the stimulating world. hands unbox me into a grocery store, becoming stationed on two metal rods. children, scanners, and blinding lights take up the space. people file past — dutifully pushing their carriages — as i am newly unsealed, stuffed with two small items, and placed alongside my counterparts.

carried out, handles stretching, my finality and purpose are solidified in an instant. dependence by humanity constituting only a negligible moment of my existence. the magic period of my creation has been reduced to myself in tatters. whisked by the breeze from the individual’s hand, i get caught in a tree. dangling, before my memory is swept away in the wind.

i am nearly torn in two by the time someone rescues me from the roadside, drops me in a blue bin, which lands me in a truck surrounded by multitudes of soiled plastic. chemicals, medicine, fertilizers, and spoiled milk aromas swirl. appreciation floods while witnessing other plastics’ fate, but this prompts the realization of how little i was utilized. a new question forms in my inanimate presence.

why was i made?

plastic. everywhere… plastic. i begin to realize my existence and my reason in this odorous truck.

we’re heading back to a factory.
it is the only sensible purpose behind this confinement, soon leading to light. loaded on conveyors, loosely sorted, while the accumulation of products’ chemicals permeates my surface. even the sanitization does not remove their foreign presence. the air fills with micro-particles as my worn surface is shredded, melted, and remade. tainted, manipulated, thousands of polymers intertwined, just waiting for their breaking point.

i survive the next years of over-stimulation and tattering, before landing in a cold watershed, where a piece of myself breaks off in the current.

minuscule enough to evade obstacles, the liquid feels like preservation as much as a trap. i feel myself diminishing as salt particles surround me. its harsh touch holds no effect in corroding my already contaminated being.

plankton. coral. stingray. sea ice. the current carries me across new stimuli, new biodiversity, and new environments in which i am embedded. my predetermined purpose relinquished, now ebbing and flowing from fish gills, whale baleen, and among the shrimp in this endless new home. presumably forgotten, slowly leaching chemicals into the serene abyss. permanence is now an unargued notion, as a final fish—a salmon—innocently engulfs me. i meld into its muscle walls, which soon become frigid and hard on ice.

i am small. i am insignificant. all it took was the transition from the fork to the mouth, and down into the stomach, before becoming lodged in a human’s liver. the species that morphed me into creation, now to never be rid of my presence. this is where i will remain, along with thousands of my friends, for a time i do not know how to measure.

i suppose it will be until something dislodges me. i never thought this would be the end of my journey, with so much left to see, so much life left to touch.

maybe my other pieces made it farther. but as insignificant as i feel, somehow this seems monumental. i am only one out of billions.

they are out there, circling the globe, just waiting to invisibly settle. settle on the bottom of the ocean floor. settle in someone’s lungs. settle in the roots of a coffee plant in africa.

but somehow i feel discontented. i know my presence here isn’t wanted, and i will be causing harm for the rest of my existence. living forever, just waiting to see where i will land next.