By Dr Heather A. Leslie, environmental scientist and author of Exploring Everyday Microplastic Exposures

For years, the conversation about plastic pollution has focused on the visible: bottles on beaches, animals tangled in packaging, bags choking rivers. These images are powerful, though they do not reveal another part of the picture - unfolding in tandem - one that is microscopic, continuous and poorly understood.

We are living in an age of invisible exposure to microplastic particles in our homes, workplaces and public spaces thanks to the design choices of manufacturers and weak regulators. These particles are like tiny polymeric skeletons carrying a multitude of chemical additives, some with terrible toxicological track records. My previous research led to the discovery of microplastics in the human bloodstream. Others have found plastic particles in lung tissue, placentas, and hearts. But these studies leave us wondering, where exactly did the microplastics showing up in people come from in the first place?

I wanted to learn about the range of different everyday products that result in microplastics queuing up in our living environments and into positions where they can be breathed in and swallowed. An overview like that could hold clues to preventing at least some microplastic exposures. The first step to solving any problem is to be aware of it.

Around 350 peer-reviewed studies later, I had mapped the breadth of microplastics exposure from a wide range of products and product systems. And this created a foundation for action, which is the happy ending to this story which I'll get to.

What emerged from the research is the realisation: if the product has plastic in it, it will be releasing microplastics. The amount of microplastics they shed ranges from low to astronomically high. And as a species that is using plastic stuff all day long, we are surrounded by such sources.

Consider what happens when you make a cup of tea. A single plastic teabag, brewed for five minutes, releases around 2.3 million microplastic particles and billions of nanoplastics into your cup. A new plastic kettle can release five to 35 million particles per litre of boiled water.

The sum total daily dose for the human population is still impossible to estimate meaningfully. But we can already see two things: firstly, how each of these products are likely driving up daily exposure to different degrees, and secondly, anyone willing to start avoiding the products they don't trust anymore can start mitigating their personal microplastic exposure.

Understanding where exposure comes from gives you choices. A wooden chopping board instead of plastic, loose-leaf tea without the plastic teabag, a cotton towel instead of polyester, and tools like the PlasticFreeFuture app can help. Not heating your food in plastic can help too, because hot plastic is a powerful microplastics dispenser.

My scientific review also shines a light on lesser-known microplastic exposures we face. Microplastic sources people may not have expected arise from inhalation of microplastic-polluted air thanks to synthetic textiles, tyre wear and possibly also what is known as 'stratospheric aerosol injection'. The latter involves spraying microplastics and other chemicals from planes, that fall out of the sky into our air, and onto crops, streets and playgrounds.

Yes, I found plenty of examples of microplastic sources that are impossible for individuals to avoid. Mitigating exposure sources like these requires collective action, good governance and manufacturing redesign.

System change is a great ambition and starts with individual and collective actions that are aligned with characteristics of the desired future system. The slow wheels of government will only churn if there is huge pressure from society and it normally it takes (too) long, as we know from many late lessons from early warnings.

If our institutions would start adopting the precautionary principle it would accelerate the nascent health impact research on microplastics. We'd see governments letting go of 'paralysis by analysis' and taking some no-regret steps in public procurement practices. Manufacturers would be redesigning products.

But policy change speeds toward the goal like a heavy truck going uphill with the brakes on. People are trained to wait for policies while forgetting they themselves are powerful. Just refusing to buy plastic versions of things is like not voting for them. Imagine not drinking from that plastic-lined coffee cup on the way to work anymore, because of a new awareness that it is more of an impoverishment than a treat. Plastic will eventually lose its ground as the go-to answer to every design question.

The plastic age promised us convenience. The body of scientific data we now have in our hands compels us to consider, with clear eyes, what that bargain has actually cost us. Who is ready to shift away from some old habits that perpetuate the polluted status quo and towards a new chapter with pure food and fair winds? Now that sounds very good to me.

Dr Heather A. Leslie is an independent environmental scientist based in Amsterdam. Her report, Exploring Everyday Microplastic Exposures: Recent evidence of products delivering microplastic to humans (2026), was commissioned by the Plastic Soup Foundation with financial support from the Flotilla Charitable Foundation and can be downloaded for free from the Plastic Soup Foundation website.