Pollution Sources

Often they aren't quite where people expect, in part because there's a constant push to make it an issue of individual responsibility rather than collective solutions.

That is one of many new findings, released Wednesday, from the most comprehensive study to date on microplastics in California. Rainfall washes more than 7 trillion pieces of microplastics, much of it tire particles left behind on streets, into San Francisco Bay each year — an amount 300 times greater than what comes from microfibers washing off polyester clothes, microbeads from beauty products and the many other plastics washing down our sinks and sewers.

I mean, yes, sure, you can choose not to drive a car, but that's more difficult than buying natural fibers, or whatever. The world will not be saved by individual virtue.