How to Reduce Microplastics Exposure: Simple Swaps After Netflix’s Plastic Detox

March 27, 2026 Thomas Allen

Welcome to our new microplastic blog! I’m writing this little intro to introduce you to what this blog will contain. This blog consists of 6 different sections. In the first 4, I’ll walk you through what microplastics are and why they are of concern to many scientists. In the last 2, I’ll be looking at how people are addressing the problem, and what we at ecojiko are specifically doing to help.

Microplastics are... well they’re an indescribably large phenomenon. I really hope you read this blog to the end, because I’ve learned so many things throughout my research that I’d never heard before, and I think it's very important that this information reaches as many people as possible. I’ve also tried to cite as many good sources as I can, so please do use these links to read more into facts or topics that catch your interest.

The subject matter is dense, and this blog is therefore very information heavy, and to be honest, slightly depressing, but the subject deserves the attention. So grab a cuppa and settle in for a read. I hope I can teach you something new.

Part 1 - What are microplastics?

Microplastics refers to any kind of plastic debris that is less than 5 millimeters in length, and they are, by far, the most pervasive form of marine debris found on the planet. All microplastics are insoluble in water, meaning that they don’t break down on contact and are able to persist for sometimes thousands of years. Because of this label, microplastics are considered one of the primary forms of human pollution. It’s also very important to note that microplastics are not only found in the sea, and are also found in the air and on the ground.

They are notably different from ordinary plastic waste because of their size, with them being small enough to permeate into basically anything naturally found in the ocean. Microplastics are very likely to be ingested or incorporated into the bodies of many, many forms of marine life. Above water, microplastics on land are able to not only work their way into animals via water pollution, but can also permeate into soil and lower the viability of plant rich ecosystems. Small enough plastics can even accumulate in the air of many ecosystems, allowing them to invade indoor and outdoor spaces.

These small chunks of plastic can often become impossible to see with the naked eye, as erosion breaks them down further into nanoplastics. Nanoplastics, as an aside, are a form of microplastic that are from 1 μm to 100 nm in size. For some context, 10,000 μm (or micrometer) is equivalent to 1 centimeter, and 1,000,000 nm (or nanometers) is equivalent to 1 millimeter. Because nanoplastics can get so incredibly tiny, they are extremely hard to measure, so we don’t really know the quantity of nanoplastics in the environment, making them a true invisible threat. Nanoplastics are even small enough to even cross cellular membranes and affect cells directly, including in organs like the brain, which make them the ongoing subject of testing to determine their effect on our health. Another concern is that we don’t know the limit of how small microplastics get, with our equipment unable to detect ocean microplastics that are smaller than a certain threshold. It is entirely possible that microplastics could reach the size of atoms, at which point, only a microscope could pick them up.

Part 2 - What are they produced by?

Microplastics are obviously produced solely by human-made plastic, through a huge variety of sources. I could go on for literal pages about all the different things that contribute to the problem, with things as obscure as baby bottles, bridge building and windows. There is a classification between types of microplastics, with the types being divided into primary and secondary microplastics to determine where they’ve come from.

Primary Microplastics

Primary Microplastics are effectively anything that was tiny from the moment it was produced, and was purposely intended to be really small. This would include things like:

Microplastic scrubbers/microbeads in facial cleansers or cosmetics that replace traditional ingredients to provide better scrubbing power

Plastic glitter
Clothing Microfibers
Plastic pellets or nurdles, are the pre-production form of plastic that are transported before being melted down and made into products

Primary microplastic pollution is usually caused by unintentional accidents. Nurdles are by far the main cause of primary microplastic pollution, caused by escape somewhere along the process from manufacturing to handling to transportation. Basically, they’re extremely easy to lose, especially during a large spillage or accident. This is an even larger problem because nurdles are chemically inert and therefore do not ever biodegrade naturally. And these aren’t isolated incidents, as nurdles are the third largest unintentional source of plastic pollution in the EU.

Secondary Microplastics

Secondary Microplastics make up the bulk of microplastic pollution, and are a result of other, larger pieces of plastic breaking down into smaller pieces. This can happen because of physical erosion, biological degradation and photochemical processes that over time reduce the plastic to become unseen to the naked eye. This process is known as plastic ‘fragmentation’, and it takes place whenever plastic is abandoned, but it’s especially prevalent in the ocean. To give you a VERY condensed list, some examples of secondary microplastic sources include:

Textiles, tyres and other forms of urban dust together account for over 80% of all microplastics in the seas and environment because of how easily they degrade. Even while wearing your clothes, movement can shed microplastic particles. In a similar phenomenon, driving your car degrades the tyres a tiny amount every time the car moves, leaving behind invisible plastic and rubber particles that are picked up by wind and are carried all over the area, often ending up in the ocean.
Any and all plastic containers and packaging will fragment into microplastics when abandoned in the environment. These include single use items like plastic bottles, food wrappers and even tape for cardboard boxes. These containers don’t only pollute after use, with plastic packaging releasing microplastics into the food inside it, which means that people consume microplastics from them.
Paint is the largest source of microplastic leakage into oceans and waterways, with the 1.9 million tonnes of paint that end up in waterways each year representing 58% of all microplastics in the ocean. Most of this comes from waste mismanagement, with more coming from illegal dumping, and a good percentage coming from paint wearing off of commercial ships and offshore rigs.
Electronic waste is also a large contributor to microplastic pollution. Electronic waste disposal is still not up to par, and many electronic devices, especially in developing countries, are dumped (the developing countries are not the ones doing the dumping, but merely the dumping ground for western tech giants). As these devices are discarded and mishandled, they break down into microplastics, heavy metals and other toxins, exacerbating the problem.
Secondary Microplastics also includes any plastic object that was abandoned but not classified as a single use plastic. This could include items like pens, stuffed animals, tables and plastic storage boxes. These items are often hard, if not impossible, to recycle, so end up dumped or burned into C02 in landfill.

Part 3 - Where are microplastics found?

As you may have guessed from the previous sections, microplastics are essentially found everywhere. Not just everywhere humans are. Just everywhere.

Microplastics are in land, sea and air, permeating into virtually every environment. Famously, in 2018, microplastics were discovered in the waters of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world’s oceans. Conversely, they’ve been found on distant mountains, far from their source. Clothing microfibres have also been found to persist throughout the entire ocean food chain due to their presence in zooplankton, and therefore to whales, other filter feeders and their predators, as well as smaller animals like sardines.

Because of this, microplastics are found in the bodies of all animals, in varying amounts. Humans have one of the highest levels of microplastic ingestion, with the average person eating and breathing in over 100,000 particles of microplastic per year due to the amount of meat and plastic packaged products we eat. Microplastics have been found in human blood, saliva and tissue, as well as many of our organs. Lessons from the field of environmental toxicology also raises flags about microplastics and their relationship to cancer and reproductive issues.

Microplastics are not especially location specific, and are really quite common in our world today. In 2014, it was estimated that there are between 15 and 51 trillion (that’s 51,000,000,000,000) individual microplastic fragments in the world’s oceans, which was estimated to weigh between 93,000 and 236,000 metric tons. It’s worth noting that not only was the statistic weighted towards the higher end estimate, but that it was done more than a decade ago, when the plastic consumption sat at 367 million tonnes worldwide. By the latest record in 2019, this reached 460 million. With these kinds of changes year over year, the difficulty of gathering such data, and the fact that it was only conducted for oceanic pollution, it's safe to say that the amount of microplastic fragments worldwide is a lot higher than 51 trillion.

Section 4 - Why are they a concern?

Environmental Impact

Based on documented evidence, many scientists believe that microplastics are a serious problem for the environment at large. This is based on the incredibly long lifespan of microplastics and their ability to build up over time as consumption scales and they continue to be ingested by organisms. A comprehensive review published by the EU’s Scientific Advice Mechanism in 2019 concluded that microplastics are present in every part of the environment. While they found no evidence of widespread ecological risk from microplastic pollution, they commented that their observed risks could become widespread if pollution continued at its current rate. There is a very real ‘toxicity debt’ that humans have built up by allowing plastic to degrade in the environment without addressing it for many decades.

Because microplastics are highly inconspicuous, they are able to enter the food chain of marine life from the bottom and become embedded in animal tissues through ingestion or respiration. Many controlled tests have shown that animals will bioaccumulate microplastics after exposure, accumulating them in their guts and gills. These particles can be somewhat expelled like normal food, but the particles are often able to embed themselves before that can happen. Inevitably, the plastic carries up the food chain as predators eat those microplastic laden animals, which eventually contaminates the entire ecosystem. This obviously carries over to humans, with a study finding that Europeans were exposed to around 11,000 particles of microplastic per year due to shellfish consumption. Humans are also exposed to microplastics via water consumption, as water, especially bottled water, is easily contaminated by microplastics.

Human Health

In relation to human health, the effects of microplastics are still being tested, with the effects of long term exposure not being fully revealed because of the relative recency of the problem. However, several studies have drawn a link between micro and nanoplastic consumption and its possible impacts on the human body. Microplastics have been associated with various health conditions, like respiratory diseases and inflammation, as well as physical stress, damage and immune responses. Furthermore, a study from 2024 concluded that patients with arterial microplastic buildup were at higher risk of a heart attack or stroke. Recently still, studies have found that exposure to microplastics can alter gene expression, and thereby lead to the onset of long lasting conditions.

It’s worth noting that humans are exposed to microplastics through various routes, and the associated health effects are complex and variable. At the end of the day, studies are few and far between, and little is known regarding the concrete impacts of microplastics on human health. This is further complicated by how there are many different types of plastic, often with wildly different chemical compositions that further skew data and testing. The science is inconclusive, and we don’t really know what effect microplastics could be having on our bodies. And really, the absolute last thing you want to hear from a scientist is a resounding ‘we don’t know’. Regardless of this, the one thing that is certain is that no one is arguing they’re good for us, so diminishing plastic pollution should be an ongoing effort for the sake of the planet and future generations.

Part 5 - What can be done

Many have offered up proposals for curbing the plastic problem, and there is no shortage of possible routes to pursue to reduce or eliminate plastic pollution. The core problem with microplastics is that they are impossible to recover once deposited into the environment, so there is no easy one solution to microplastics.

To briefly name some ideas, biodegradation is one such proposed method, which gets rid of plastic through producing microorganisms that are able to decompose synthetic materials with enzymes. Once broken down, the raw carbon could be used as an efficient energy solution that can help to offset the negative environmental impacts of plastic. Others propose filtering microplastics via waste water treatment plants in order to prevent the transfer of microplastics from human areas to natural water systems. Dust control has also been a proposed measure to avoid the spread of microplastics from urban areas into natural environments by stopping extensive amounts of industrial material from spreading into the air during building. And these solutions, while all promising and impressive, are a solution that will take time and funding to come. The easiest and furthest reaching solutions, at least at a macro level, tend to be education, policy and legislation, but these options tend to be marred by corporate strong-arming and government negligence. The search for profit has tended to make the most powerful entities turn a blind eye to the plastic problem. Just recently, Walmart, Nestle and Mars pulled out of the US Plastics Pact, an agreement that was meant to promote reducing plastic waste in the consumer goods industry. The companies don’t care, but that doesn’t mean any of us should let up the pressure on them to act. And even if they won’t, we, the people, can.

Now, it's easy to just say that we all need to band together and try a little harder, but it is truly the case that individual action can triumph over corporate power. For one of the most prominent examples, tobacco companies have fallen far from their heights in the 50s and 60s due to grass roots scientific initiatives that were able to convince people to make the correct choice and stop smoking. Cumulative individual action caused the industry’s turnover to fall dramatically throughout the last century, with rates dropping by more than half by 2004. For further examples, meat consumption in the UK has reached record lows in recent years due to movements for healthier, plant based diets, dropping by 14% from 2012 to 2022 to the lowest rate since records began, a trend that continues into 2026, which has resulted in less animals being culled and farmed. First hand purchasing has also seen a significant drop off in recent years, as more people opt for second hand options to reduce waste and save money. Renewable energy pushes and more efficient electronics have also come about as a result of pushing from climate groups, and individual action. People’s choices do unequivocally stack up when enough action is taken, independent of any company’s choices or influence.

So, how does this apply to the microplastic problem? Well, by making the choice to use products that don’t contribute to pollution, we can all start to build towards a future with reduced plastic pollution. Naturally, this is easier said than done, but some small changes can go a long way. Like, for example, not replacing things as often. Be it clothes, phones or cleaning products, getting a long lifespan out of the product should be the natural thing to do. This is far easier than any other option, because it simply involves us all being just a tad less hedonistic and a tad more resourceful. You can also just upcycle anything you’re not using rather than scrapping it. You might not want your old phone, but I’ll bet you someone else would. And besides, you get some of your money back as a bonus. Recycling too, can be a great option, but it is much less effective than just buying a thing once and using it for decades before it breaks. Same goes for clothing, as buying one nice, quality jacket, for example, over a cheap one can go a long way to stop you from needing to replace it. Buying organic meat, while expensive, is also a great way to limit your microplastic consumption. And let’s be honest, if it's too expensive, you don’t need to eat meat anyway, right?

Raising Awareness

Public awareness of the scale of the microplastic problem is, frankly, not where it should be. That’s partially what this blog is designed to help with, after this topic has been largely shunted to one side by a number of news agencies and large businesses. I mean, even issues as large as climate change are still critically underdiscussed in terms of the science that matters.

The Plastic Detox was released this month onto Netflix, and focuses in on the microplastic problem like no other documentary before it. Epidemiologist Shanna Swan explores how ramping microplastic ingestion has been causing a phenomenon called endocrine disruption, wherein microplastics cause problems in the body’s hormones, the chief among them being infertility. In a Supernanny type makeover, Swan pushes the people on the show to make serious, radical changes to reduce their microplastic intake, replacing all their plastic cookware and health products with wooden and organic alternatives respectively. The results of her small scale experiment show incredible results that go beyond fertility, and into the broader health benefits observed in the participants.

It’s a brilliant watch for those who are curious about how microplastics impact all of us on a day to day basis, and want to know how to reduce their intake in a practical way. Beyond just the lifestyle segments, the documentary goes on to show the scale of the issue and the mechanics behind how it’s ballooned into such a vast problem. And of course, The Plastic Detox comes to solidify large companies and negligent governments as the perpetrators of microplastic pollution, and how their lack of safety measures, especially in the US, are unequivocally damaging people’s health and the wider environment.

Part 6 - What we’re doing at Ecojiko

Let’s not kid ourselves, we’re a small fish in a huge pond. Our ability to make an impact is seemingly much lower than the multinational corporations we’ve been talking about. But, you’ll also remember what was said a paragraph ago about small, individual action making a cumulative impact, right?

As a company that prides ourselves on sustainable and durable products, we’ve made it so everything we produce has the lowest possible carbon footprint and the longest possible lifespan. You can get a good 18 months of use out of 3 Swedish dish cloths by comparison to the 1 use lifecycle of a paper towel. And you can biodegrade the dish cloth at the end, unlike paper towels that are usually packed with microplastic polymers. Our various bamboo products, like our cutting board and our scrubbers, are all made with sustainably sourced wood and bamboo and transported via sea to lower their carbon impact as much as possible. And again, these are much better options for your health compared to their plastic counterparts while also being a lot more durable and cost effective. Same goes for our metal drinking straws, or our metal and bamboo lunchboxes. Maximum usefulness with the minimum carbon footprint. After all, it's our firm belief that every pound you spend is a choice of the kind of world you want to live in.

And rest assured that we covered all the bases, because our packaging is always 100% cardboard or paper, and therefore 100% recyclable. We even make an effort to reuse packing boxes from other retailers to make sure nothing goes to waste. And with every sale we make, whether online or in stores, we donate 5% of the sale to Surfers Against Sewage, a brilliant organisation that does incredible work tackling sewage and plastic pollution all around the UK.

Conclusion

So, now we all know what microplastics actually are, without any veneer of corporate mumbo jumbo. They are, of course, a very big problem, but they are by no means an insurmountable one. The choices we make today are going to be extremely important for the people of tomorrow, and we owe it to them to make the effort to curb plastic consumption in a meaningful way. They won’t just disappear from the environment, or our bodies, but we can make sure the problem doesn’t keep growing. Every day is a choice to make a tiny change. And who knows, maybe enough tiny changes can become something a whole lot greater.

^[1] Microplastics and nanoplastics: fate, transport, and governance from agricultural soil to food webs and humans | Environmental Sciences Europe | Springer Nature Link

^[1] Degradation Rates of Plastics in the Environment | ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

^[1] Development solutions: Building a better ocean

^[1] Inhalable microplastics prevails in air: Exploring the size detection limit - ScienceDirect

^[1] How Plastics From Your Clothes Can End Up in Your Fish | TIME

^[1] Why food's plastic problem is bigger than we realise

^[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405665024000738

^[1] Chapter 9 - Microplastics and nanoplastics

^[1] Micron (µm) | Infiniti Electro-Optics

^[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanometre

^[1] The Global Plastic Toxicity Debt - PMC

^[1] Can Nanoplastics Alter Cell Membranes? - PMC