'Do you know how to cook?’ Someone asked me the other day. Naturally, I said yes — I’m actually quite proud of my cooking prowess. However, a while later as I lay in my bed, the question got me thinking.
‘Do I actually know how to cook? In fact, does anyone know?’ On the surface, it’s a pretty ignorant question. After all, cooking is an art that’s been perfected across thousands of years, right from when man first discovered fire. Cooking is the safest way to consume food as it kills any and all bacteria and other harmful substances that would otherwise affect us should we have consumed our food raw.
So, why do I question it right now? The answer, microplastics. Specifically, the presence of microplastics in our food and ultimately, in our bloodstreams. How can we make our food, and ultimately our planet, safer in the microplastic era? Also Read: AI has an environmental problem, and you should be worried Microplastics are one of the most unnerving part of human existence today.
Society is almost powerlessly dependent on plastics in the modern age. Right from food packaging, water containers like disposable plastic bottles to even the polyester clothes we wear, plastic is everywhere. According to the UN, over 1 million plastic bottles are purchased every minute on earth and 5 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year.
In fact, UNEP says we generate almost 400 million tonnes of plastic waste a year. That’s a staggering amount of plastic, no wonder it i.
