askchapo

There's reasonable concerns about plastic coming into contact with food. Swapping to glass, stainless steel, and ceramic is a good idea, especially if it's going in the microwave.

You can get vitrelle glass servingware from IKEA that is microwave-safe, cheap, lightweight, and durable. Because it's thin it's easy enough to have an excess of larger bowls and plates that you can use to store food in the fridge with (invert the plate over the bowl instead of using cling wrap). Don't throw away all your plasticware and replace it with silicone alternatives because that's not really the solution that marketing firms would have you believe.

Honestly aside from the microplastics that you are exposed to from roads due to tires, especially the busier roads, I'd venture a guess that synthetic fabrics are probably your next big personal source of microplastics that you would be able to do something about. My unscientific hunch is that synthetic materials create a cloud of microplastics wherever they are, especially if they are fluffy. If this is a concern for you then I'd start buying natural fabrics and phasing out the synthetic fabrics where possible over time.

I'd also limit the use of melamine cleaning sponges to where it's an absolute necessity.

Something tells me that the microplastics that we are exposed to via stuff like rain and drinking from single-use plastic bottles is going to pale in comparison to other sources but idk for sure and it's early days so time will tell.

As for recyclable plastic? Lol what a mess. So much of plastic that goes into the recycling bin ends up in landfill and what doesn't get diverted ends up in storehouses and on barges and being burned with some miniscule percentage actually being recycled.

I'm not sure what the right answer is for plastic recycling. I wouldn't get too invested in it honestly. I'd say that in principle it's better to put pressure on governments and corporations by utilising recycling programs that are available. Right now it's not going to do much good but governments and corporations would much prefer that everyone was apathetic about plastic waste and simply ignored the problem so it's better not to let this be the case. Those supply chains in the "recycling" system are valuable and they will be necessary when governments finally get serious about managing plastic waste. It takes a lot of effort to shift the habits of the masses and it takes time to establish supply chains, so it's better to maintain the habit and to encourage others to do so plus it's important to keep those supply chains ticking over for if/when we have a breakthrough or a government gets serious. Just don't put much emphasis on it right now on a personal level - you aren't going to save the planet by fastidiously cleaning that gross plastic container which has been sitting in the corner of your fridge for months. You can just throw it away, it really doesn't matter that much (at least under the present state of affairs).