I am busy and don't have time to research all of the ways corporations have poisoned us.
What are some good rules on how to avoid microplastics?
Eat local foods?
Avoid processed foods?
Walk/bike?
Use dry soaps?
Don't use any take away containers?
Avoid walking near busy roads?
Use cotton/wool for all clothing?
I've found bits of plastic trash in almost all of the potting soil I've bought. I'm at the point where I think a heavily filtered hydroponic setup is one of the only ways to really minimize microplastics.
The micro plastics are in the soil. If you live urban or suburban, your soil is likely more contaminated with micro plastics than food grown on a rural farm.
Microplastics are so small that they are found in rainwater - as in, they’re found in water collected precipitation in a pristine vessel. They’re literally everywhere, in every part of our ecosystem and food chain at this point. There is unfortunately no escaping them.
Think of it like PFAS or some other harmful chemical (which, you know, it basically is): the layperson would be categorically unable to get a meaningful measurement from a glass of water, but it can still fuck you (and everyone else) up real bad in the long run.
A quick google finds me an article going into the measurements taken with the tap water here: it's so little it's in the range of a measuring error for none at all.
I'd have to pour 350 cups of water to find even one particle, if I'm unlucky
I don't think you understand how small the particles are. You can't filter micro plastics out of soil because the micro plastics are the same size as the soil particles. Take a bucket of sand and dye half red. How are you going to filter it?
There are methods to destroy micro plastics like raising the temp. But that will kill the bacteria in the soil making it sterile.
They're there in varying sizes. We're not looking for perfection. We're looking for 'good enough'. And if the place you live is so polluted that you can't even grab some dirt out of your yard without poisoning your plants... I think you have to get out of there
I don't think you understand the physics of the problem. Have you played connect 4, the game with the checkers that you drop down a slot?
Imagine the black checkers are dirt particles and the red checkers are microplastic. The game set with the slots is the filter the particles drop through. Play a game and then open the slider at the bottom to dump the checkers. Do the red checkers stay in the game set while only the black fall out? Of course not, because they are the same size.
There is no possibile way to filter the plastic because it is the same size as the dirt in all its different sizes. There are large and small dirt particles. There are large and small micro plastics. If you remove 1% of the microplastic you remove 1% of the dirt, so the remaining dirt is just as contaminated. You didn't filter it, you only removed an equal amount of dirt and plastic.