We dispose of 16 billion coffee cups globally, each year. While these to-go cups may seem easily disposable, the thin plastic lining laminating the inside of the cups pose a serious problem for most recycling centers, resulting in less than 1 percent of coffee cups being recycled a year. These plastics are also the same polymers found in tea sachets, meaning while they aren't degrading in the natural environment, they are melting in our cups as we drink them.
Source: Earth Day
As microplastics wash into our ocean, it has been found that more than a third of fish caught in the UK contain some remnants of plastics. Meaning as more fish eat the plastic that washes into the ocean, we in turn consume the material when we eat fish.
Source: The University of Plymouth
There are at least 67 different types of microplastics found in cosmetic products like lipstick, mascara, eyeshadow, and deodorant, among others. While the human body may sweat off these substances, skin being the most absorbent part of the body, absorbs many cosmetics into the bloodstream, their plastics included.
Toothbrushes and toothpaste are two big purveyors of the plastic problem. 50 million pounds of non recyclable, non biodegradable toothbrushes are dumped into landfills every year, and release the poison gas nitrous oxide in the creation of their signature nylon bristles. Toothpaste, meanwhile, is filled with tiny microplastics and beads that not only wind up in our waterways, but don't disintegrate in our gums, trapping bacteria that dentists believe may lead to possible gingivitis.
Sources: The Washington Post, Foreo