Crosscut Now
Apr. 13, 2022 - The plastic in everything
4/13/2022 | 1m 15sVideo has Closed Captions
When Dr. Lyda Harris looks at the water, she can see something that’s invisible to most.
When Dr. Lyda Harris looks at the water, she can see something that’s invisible to most, microplastics. These pieces of plastic, less than five millimeters and more than one micron in size, are everywhere. As a microplastics fellow at the Seattle Aquarium, she gets an up-close look at how these tiny particles affect the waters around us and the creatures that inhabit them.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Crosscut Now is a local public television program presented by Cascade PBS
Crosscut Now
Apr. 13, 2022 - The plastic in everything
4/13/2022 | 1m 15sVideo has Closed Captions
When Dr. Lyda Harris looks at the water, she can see something that’s invisible to most, microplastics. These pieces of plastic, less than five millimeters and more than one micron in size, are everywhere. As a microplastics fellow at the Seattle Aquarium, she gets an up-close look at how these tiny particles affect the waters around us and the creatures that inhabit them.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Microplastics are everywhere.
In the series "Human Elements," Dr. Lyda Harris gets an up-close look at these tiny particles, which are smaller than five millimeters in size.
- [Lyda] All cars now are made out of plastic.
You have some of the paint chips on the road are plastic, water bottles, plastic cups.
It's in our beer, it's in our table salt, it's in the air, it's in the shellfish, it's in meat, it's probably in your salad.
- [Starla] Dr. Harris is a microplastics fellow at the Seattle Aquarium.
For her, it's not just about getting people to skip takeout containers or to buy sustainable T-shirts.
It's about changing the way we think.
- [Lyda] We're also consuming at a rate that we've never consumed before.
It is society for the producers of the plastic items, which are a whole different beast than individual actions.
- I'm Starla Sampaco.
Find full episodes of "Human Elements" on crosscut.com.
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