Microplastics: From Pearls to Peril

Plastics have taken over our lives, and microplastics have taken over our bodies.

Plastic pearls from my workshop. Image by the author

In a noisy yet unheard suburb of a small town in India, as a seven-year-old, my day often started with the grating sound of a plastic churning machine.

My Dada (paternal Grandpa) was a machine operator, and everything we made needed plastics. I remember Dadi (grandma) and mom sharpening the sides of coffee mats and door knobs using knives made by grandpa.

Every little plastic piece that was cut was collected in a bag, and we had a separate machine that melted them again, turned them into coils, and finally into beautiful pearls.

I enjoyed looking at the entire process. When those white pearls of plastic cooled, I used to run to check them out.

I would call them ‘snowflakes’. They looked just how I imagined snow would be.

So, how could what looked like the most attractive, least harmful thing to me as a child turn out to be one of humanity’s worst nightmares?

The known intrusion and the unknown possibilities