Microplastics

When we think of plastic in our lives, most think of it as being the drink bottle in front of us, the packaging around our food — but an enormous amount of the plastic in our lives is actually our clothes and bedding and that's creating a microplastic problem that is a difficult one to get the solution to.

"It's really interesting that a lot of the microplastics which have been found in me are from fabric fibres," says Craig Reucassel

Craig Reucassel has learnt a lot about rubbish and recycling over the six years since he became the face of the ABC's War on Waste program.

But a couple of things he discovered while making the third series of the show alarmed him – how much plastic is in the clothing we wear and how much is ending up inside our bodies.

"I think fashion continues to be one of the areas that shocks me the most," he says.

"We've gone from fast fashion to now we have ultra-fast fashion.

"Online organisations are pumping out an extraordinary amount of fashion at very cheap prices that's fossil fuel-based but predominantly plastic.

"Over 60 per cent of our clothing is made from plastic and in Australia, we continue to buy more and more and wear it less and less and we need to do the exact opposite — we need to buy less and wear it for longer."

How did plastic end up in my poo?

One of his least fun days at work was providing a poo sample while investigating how microplastics are getting into our bodies and if there's a potential impact on our health.

"It's really interesting that a lot of the microplastics in me are in fabric fibres," he says.