When it comes to plastic products, we are no strangers to them, such as plastic bags for vegetables, cups for drinking water, and fast-food containers for eating takeout, etc., which are used every day. Plastic products, especially in food packaging, in the process of use, shed hundreds of billions of micro-plastic particles, is “polluting” the food we eat.
The growth of takeaway orders in recent years has been accompanied by a rise in the amount of takeaway waste, putting enormous pressure on municipal waste disposal, especially disposable plastic packaging, which is stable and difficult to be degraded under natural conditions. Generally speaking, takeaway packaging consists of three major categories: lunch boxes, tableware and bags. Plastic is the mainstream of all three types of packaging, accounting for about 80%. The rest of the material includes paper, aluminum foil, non-woven fabric and so on. The approximate total amount of takeaway packaging ranges from 460,000 tons to 1.68 million tons.
When the takeaway food temperature exceeds 65 ℃ will precipitate 16 kinds of harmful ingredients, including BPA, and be leached into the food into the human body, and 80 ℃ or less, the temperature will increase the release of BPA in plastic lunch boxes. The smallest microplastic particles are much smaller than human cells, some of which cannot be excreted by the body and can easily pass through blood vessel walls. Microplastics are usually defined as pieces of plastic less than 5mm in diameter.
Currently, the presence of microplastics has been detected in seawater and sediments from the equator to the poles, in shellfish such as mussels, in vertebrates such as fish and birds, and in table salt. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals contained in plastics are also released into the ocean. It has been found that “microplastic” particles can enter the brain through the blood-brain barrier in just 2 hours, and can also enter the body's organs through the bloodstream, causing damage. This increases the chance of inflammation, neurological disorders and diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. Plastic particles can cause physical damage by rubbing against organ walls, leading to symptoms of diarrhea, rectal bleeding and abdominal cramps.
