End Plastics
5 Bizarre Microplastics Facts
July 31, 2025
Our modern world is littered with more than visible environmental damage but also with silent, invisible killers: microplastics. These particles, ranging in size from 5 millimeters to 1 nanometer,come from countless forms of human manufacturing–either placed intentionally in products or broken down over time–spreading into everything and everyone. They’re in our drinking water, air, food, and bodies.
Through weathering, digestion, and mechanical breakdown, they become almost undetectable, yet remain harmful to our health and the wellbeing of our ecosystems. While microplastics are undeniably dangerous, they also show up in bizarre, shocking, even borderline comical places. Here are five microplastic factual phenomena to bewilder you.
1) Mount Everest Is Not Above Plastic
Microplastics that have been discovered on Everest’s peak represent the highest elevation that plastic has ever been found. A 2020 study revealed that particles in snow samples from just below Everest’s peak held concentrations with up to 12 microplastics per liter.
A place like Mount Everest is considered to be a remote, untouchable, glacial heaven — hard to reach and should be even harder to pollute. But the fact that plastics are embedded in its snow reveals how far-reaching and persistent our pollution is. At 27,700 feet, even the sacred Himalayas are now safe with microplastics.
2) Brushing Up — On Pollution
Toothpaste includes many additives to enhance its visual appeal, but one of the most shocking ingredients is polyethylene, a common plastic chemical. They make up those decorative blue particles found inside some tubes which are partly made of calculated plastic material. These “cutesy” strips consist of enough calculated plastic material to turn a head or a hundred. We are choosing some pizazz in our toothpaste over our health.
You’d hope that a product for gum and tooth health would use only natural components, but wellness isn’t the only goal in the toothpaste industry. Toothpaste brands release 0.199 billion microbeads per year with polyethylene as a component in pursuit of a more appealing look. Microplastics definitely do not aid dental hygiene as much as we are led to believe.
3) Bugs and The Plastic They Lug!
While the breaking down of plastics seems like a process that would not be harmful, it is even more abnormal that certain insects can even digest microplastics at all. Superworms, Waxworms, Rice Moths and other plastivore insects can break down plastics through a process called biofragmentation.
The process begins in the guts of microorganisms , cleaving plastic polymers into smaller units. But these plastics don’t vanish, they’re excreted into smaller microplastics that pose even greater environmental risks. Once the insects die, they leave behind even finer fragments that continue to pollute the planet. What we would hope was their “superpower” only helps plastic go deeper into the ecosystem.
4) Microplastics Live… Before Life
Yes, microplastics can be traced within almost everything, but there are some regions of the world where the presence of artificial materials feels increasingly eerie. One of these ominous identifications of plastic is the unborn human placenta.
The placenta is an organ that grows during pregnancy in order to provide support to the developing fetus. By definition, the placenta removes waste products while supplying oxygen and nutrients. That is why it is completely terrifying that man-made polymers can be found in a human appendage designed to eliminate malevolence and impurity.
It is a tissue defined by rebirth and new beginnings — and before the child is born it is propagated with stained polypropylene and other man-made coatings like paint and other harmful chemicals. These substances that do not belong in humans, let alone the exalted process of pregnancy.
5) Our Genes Are Microplastic Schemes
We know microplastics are inside us, but the fact that they can change who we are is rarely discussed. When they’re small enough, they can enter the bloodstream or lymphatic system and cause cellular toxicity, damage, stress, and death, disrupting normal cell function.
Additionally, microplastics interfere with DNA binding, especially during fertilization. Polyethylene particles in the bloodstream can trigger chromosomal aberrations, leading to genetic disorders. These microscopic invaders aren’t just pollution, they’re roadblocks to human development.
Microplastics can even deteriorate our DNA by causing “clastogenesis and aneugenesis at the chromosome level.” They may shape not only what our world looks like, but what you look like, what you care about, and what you’re made of.
Microplastic are silently invading our planet, our bodies, and our thoughts. Join EARTHDAY.ORG’s movement to reduce plastic pollution by signing the Global Plastic Treaty petition , demanding governments drastically reduce plastic production. Choose plastic-free or reduced-plastic products whenever possible, and support local clean-up efforts through the Great Global Cleanup.
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