Water bottles are everywhere.
And the average American consumes up to 1,000 microplastic particles from bottled water — every week.
51 trillion tons of microplastics float in our oceans. Together they weigh over 234,000 tons — and pollute even the deepest parts of our marine ecosystems.
Microplastic particles reduce photosynthesis in crops like wheat, rice and corn by up to 14%. That puts up 400 million people at risk of starvation, over the next 20 years.
A minuscule amount of the world’s plastic water bottles.
Those frightening statistics come from Sienna Schwartz.
But the young Westporter does more than just warn people about our wasteful ways, and our planet’s grim future.
She’s doing something about it.
Move over, Greta Thunberg. Make way for Sienna Schwartz.
Sienna Schwartz
The Staples High School rising junior has created a superb website and Instagram.
Speckless — whose tagline is “Everyday Choices. Extraordinary Impact” — is well-designed, and wide-ranging.
It raises awareness of the dangers of microplastics. It offers simple actions anyone can take. And it provides links to practical alternatives to plastic products.
Speckless is the antidote to 2 constant complaints: We’re destroying our environment. And young people don’t care about anyone except themselves.
Sienna is passionate about both human and envornmental health. When she realized the extent of microplastics — they’re in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe — she was equally stunned by how few people realize the dangers.
Her research began while writing a proposal for a study she plans to conduct this year. It focuses on how microplastics affect C. elegans worms under different bacterial environments.
After spending hours each day diving into scientific papers, she realized the wide spread of microplastic pollution.
That led to #MicroplasticMonday posts. She searched online for practical, high-impact swaps, which turned into #SustainableSwapFriday series.
She found dozens of microplastic-free products too: bottles, mugs, cast iron skillets, ceramic mixing bowls, glass spice jars, shampoos and conditioners, shorts, baseball caps, windbreakers, and much more.
Three of Speckless’ many microplastics-free products.
Feedback has been great, Sienna says. Readers are often shocked to learn the extent — and danger — of microplastic particles.
Her hope of course is that people then take action: reducing use, finding alternatives, educating others.
Microplastics are tiny. Individual actions are, too.
But Sienna Schwartz knows that, together, we can make an impact on our soil, our oceans, our air.
And our future.
(“06880” often profiles Westport teenagers doing amazing things. If you enjoy this coverage, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Well done Sienna. No more plastic. At the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Uganda one of the luganda words for AIDS was Kavera which means a plastic bag. When cows swallowed a kavera they could not digest and died. Plastic kills!
Well done, Sienna!
Way to go Sienna! Don’t let up. We need more young people like you stepping up. Sienna for President!
Applause and many thanks to Sienna for all her work in raising awareness about and trying to solve the serious microplastics problems. And thanks to Dan for bringing her to our attention. We should all remember this (as well as major articles in the NY Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere this week and the last several years) as we discuss town playing fields. Artificial turf fields have 20 tons apiece of plastic pieces drying out in the sun, shredded by the activities, and more problems. Those plastics quickly shed micro- and nano-plastics into our water supplies including rivers, aquifers and the Sound, and into our bodies, as well as harboring all sorts of bacteria including MRSA.) The plastic “carpets” are not recyclable – they must be taken out of town (about every 10 years) at great expense and buried, to contaminate elsewhere, while 20 more tons of plastic are put down. More power to Sienna for trying to keep us and our world safe and healthy!
Congratulations Sienna! I am a fellow Staples High School Alum as well (Mark Nathan ’79)
We have a company called Plastech Products, where we manufacture and distribute Compostable replacements to single-use plastics. The majority of our products are HOME Compostable, and made from either corn or sugarcane.
Maybe there are some synergies between our companies?
Please see http://www.plastechproducts.com.
Interested in connecting?