why are people more concerned about microplastics than regular plastic, doesn’t regular plastic also break down into smaller and smaller pieces?

Question

Like when people are worried about the microplastics in toothpaste, but not the plastic tube it comes in. Isn’t that tube going to break down into way more microplastics than the toothpaste itself contains?

In: Other

Answer 1

they’re generally concerned about ingesting (eating) those microplastics and then having them accumulate in their stomachs.

besides that, larger plastics also are easier to collect and have them recycled (in theory at least) than microscopic particles.

but yeah from an environmental standpoint all plastics “deserve to be worried about”.