Our director of business development, Megan Ross Manning, attended the Collision Conference in New Orleans where she was able to hear from experts in the Planet Tech pavilion.
She heard from Orb Media's Chief Journalism Officer, Naja Nielsen, who posed the question, "There is plastic in the oceans, the rivers, and the lakes. Are we drinking plastic too?"
Many of us opt to drink bottled water because it's convenient, but also because we think of it as a more pure water source. It turns out that even our water is contaminated with plastic particles.
Orb Media, a nonprofit journalism organization based in Washington, D.C., tested 250 bottles of water from 11 major brands and found that they were widely contaminated with plastic particles including polypropylene, nylon, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Plastic particles were found in 93 percent of samples, which originated from 19 locations, over nine countries, on five continents.
Orb points to an increasingly hot topic, microplastic pollution that has been been found in soil, oceans, lakes, rivers and even air. Last year, Orb conducted a study that found microplastic fibers in global tap water samples. Plastic is truly everywhere.
What's not certain is how this will impact human health.
One of the things that interested us most about Nielsen's presentation was the focus on finding alternative packaging for single-use plastic items. We are encouraged to hear that international attention is being placed on eco-friendly packaging.
At Ross & Wallace we are proud to be a part of the sustainable packaging movement as a manufacturer of paper packaging options that are recyclable, renewable, reusable, compostable, and biodegradable. #choosepaper
For full details on Orb's findings please visit: https://orbmedia.org/stories/plus-plastic/text
