Do we eat a credit card's worth of microplastic each week?

More or Less: behind the statistics

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Saturday, 24 August 2024 - 9 minutes

The claim we all swallow 5.5 grams of microplastic each week – the same as the weight of a credit card – has been repeated by charities, newspapers and the World Economic Forum. But when you understand how this number was calculated, and the range of possible answers for the amount of plastic you eat, you might not want to repeat it yourself. Professor Jamie Woodward from the University of Manchester explains what’s what. Presenter: Kate Lamble
Producer: Beth Ashmead Latham
Researcher: Ajai Singh
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound mix: Giles Aspen
Editor: Richard Vadon

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