As plastic waste is left out everywhere, its decomposing release is called microplastics which cause more harm than regular plastic. Microplastics are present in many plastic items we use on take-out meals.
As Servo changed their meal option to be take-out, the negative impact from the single-use plastics increased greatly on the campus community.
We infer that the type of container used for meals was polypropylene (PP). A peer-reviewed study on the different types of plastics that are used for takeout describes that the proportion of flaking microplastics in PP was about 32 percent (Du et al. 2020).
Humans consume microplastics through take-out containers, table salt, tap water, and dust (Du et al. 2020). Yet it was also studied that a person may ingest from 12-203 microplastics in a week (Du et al. 2020).
If you do the math, that means students consumed thousands of microplastics over the last year due to the increased use of plastic containers on campus.
As a consequence of the pandemic, carry-out/take-out became more popular to adhere to social restrictions. However, many restaurants also struggle when choosing what containers were going to be utilized.
Some restaurants were implementing reusable containers such as Tavolino who claims they try to use microwaveable containers and dishwasher safe (Fredrich 2021). Trying to opt for a less plastic usage container can be costly due to the type of material used for containers.
Not only are microplastics absorbed by the meal consumption from plastic containers but they are also leaching into the ground and the oceans.
References
Du, F., Cai, H., Zhang, Q., Chen, Q., & Shi, H. (2020). Microplastics in take-out food containers. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 399, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.122969N.PAG
Fredrich, L. (1970, May 29). Let’s talk about the environmental impact of carry-out (it’s complicated). OnMilwaukee. https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/environmental-impact-of-carry-out