Contact lenses thrown into the toilet or sink significantly contribute to ocean pollution with plastic particles, American scientists warned on Monday.
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Every year in the United States, the amount of contact lenses thrown into the wastewater drainage system corresponds to the number of 400 million toothbrushes, claim scientists from Arizona State University, who presented their observations at the American Chemical Society conference held in Boston.
“Contact lenses are a very large pollutant,” scientist Rolf Halden told reporters for BBC. “Billions of contact lenses end up in the American sewage system every year. Specifically, this amounts to about 20,000 kilograms of contact lenses annually.”
Halden, who has worn lenses for most of his life, began his research after wondering what happens to all the discarded plastic packaging in which the lenses are packed, and calculated that they generate about 13 million kilograms of polypropylene waste each year.
He reminded that in the United States alone, about 45 million people wear contact lenses, which amounts to around 13 billion pieces annually.
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A survey showed that contact lens users dispose of these aids in toilets or sinks in 15 to 20 percent of cases, said scientist Charlie Rolsky from the University of Arizona at the conference.
As in other similar cases involving microplastic, contact lenses partially break down in the sewage system but do not completely degrade. Tiny plastic particles float into the ocean or become part of sewage sludge, which is often reused as fertilizer, and that eventually ends up in the oceans.
Then the previously known situation occurs. Fish and plankton often mistake microplastic for food, which is known to be indigestible. Through the food chain, it reaches our plates, thus microplastic becomes an integral part of the human diet.
Scientists gathered at the conference in Boston say they hope that the results of the research they discussed will encourage users to start disposing of them in solid waste from now on.
They found that there is only one manufacturer of contact lenses that advises users to dispose of lenses in solid waste on their packaging.
Previous research has revealed microplastic in the waters of China, Chile, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium….. In Norwegian waters, for example, shells contained an average of 1.8 pieces of microplastic, which is defined as smaller than 5 mm, and in the Arctic 4.3 pieces, indicating the global scale of ocean plastic pollution.
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It is estimated that seafood lovers consume up to 11,000 tiny plastic particles annually, and around 8 million tons of plastic waste ends up in the oceans worldwide each year.
