dolphin, I'm offended by your comment. ;)

All in all, I admire JanJal's minimal carbon footprint lifestyle and daily devotion to recycling/waste sorting.

Seriously speaking. Despite back n' forth debates, on behalf of humanity and all wildlife, we are truly grateful.

I also need to start sorting organic from inorganic wastes, and not because potential regulators tell me to. As Obama and other wise men have once said, to change the world, it starts at home [to paraphrase].

That said. I'm somewhat shocked you can be so conscientious in recycling, yet nonchalantly shrug off the omnipresence of microplastic threat to our collective health.

The following scenarios play out in my head:

Wife: Honeybunny, purple plastic ooze is leaking out from your ears and nose!

JanJal: Don't worry dear, I'll just poop it out later. First I need to buy some fresh bread from JustHot. Be back in a jiffy.

Child: Papa, why are little thingy floating in my bottled water?

JanJal: Daddy is busy composting in the garden!

Mother-in-law [residing outside Kunming]: They building trash incinerator in our neighborhood!

JanJal: Just harmless heavy metals and carcinogenic dioxins mama.[grins to self]

It goes without saying more long-term studies need to be funded in this relatively new area of research, but recent health findings are grim.

Until cancer links and reports are more substantial for mainstream to digest, governments won't heed to social pressure of revamping entire industries, such as but not limited to the synthetic textiles which ignorantly proliferate microplastics into oceans en route to our gut.

To Geezer's point, invisible hand capitalism might move markets, but may not be enough to protect our global health & environment.

Considering one in four perish from cancer, perhaps the world needs to take into account invisible pollutants in our environment more seriously.

Our problems may not just be decomposed byproducts culminating at the river's mouth....but the way we use raw materials at the river's source. This includes the breeding of antibiotic resistant superbugs in pharmaceuticals and livestock industries, not just downstream wastewater.

This threat is relatively new in scientific revelation. This empathizes the importance for our leaders to take scientific data/findings more seriously, making policies accordingly for our health sake.

Trump seems to be lacking in that regards due to his distrust of the scientific community.

Going back to Geezer...

Are you insinuating Trump is more environmentally responsible than President Xi?

Given recent studies linking ingestion of microplastics to cancer, heart attacks, infertility, birth defects, abnormal development, and other brain-related problems.... not sure I'll willingly choose this poison for family.

JanJal, the plot actually thickens.

It's not just about trash or treasure. Our synthetic textiles are also major culprits.

Each time we wash our clothes, millions of microscopic fibers are drained into sewer systems, eventually making their way to oceans, to the marine ecosystem, and back on our dinner tables as fried calamari. Over 1/3 of microplastics are released into the ocean in this manner by the shedding of textile fabrics.