As part of No Waste November, the NYUAD Student Government Sustainability Committee partnered with Tackling Microplastics by Awareness (led by Gauhar Meiram) to launch the One-Day No Microplastics Challenge. Students were invited to spend a full day avoiding products that contain or release microplastics (from synthetic clothing and cosmetics to food packaging, cleaning supplies, and everyday plastic items). Participants then submitted short reflections on the experience, capturing the practical and emotional realities of navigating a world where microplastics are nearly impossible to escape.

The winning submission comes from Aleksander Klodawski, whose reflection stood out for its honesty, humour, and thoughtful engagement with the challenge. Aleksander describes the strain of hyper-awareness, the moments of surprise and discomfort, and the broader questions raised about our relationship to microplastics and the long-term health implications they pose. His piece offers a grounded, relatable insight into what it means to try (even for just one day) to reduce microplastic exposure in a heavily plastic-dependent world.

At first, when taking on this challenge, I thought it would be a simple case of “I will avoid anything that seems to be made of plastic for a day. It should be fine.” Yet, simple research and some preparatory reflection the day before made me realize how difficult this challenge will be. I found myself going through the possible things that I may be doing throughout the next day. They all seemed full of possible microplastics encounters (I am writing as if they were my conscious enemies or something). I planned the next steps and even told myself while falling asleep that I had to be really hyper-aware tomorrow not to lose the challenge.

Maintaining laser sharp focus proved to be both super necessary and extremely difficult, as it proved to be really difficult to go about your day without encountering sources of microplastic. I had to be focused all the time which was straining to say the least. My commitment, among other things, led me to believe that D1 is a safer option for this challenge than D2. So, even though I usually eat at the latter, I chose the former for the day. This allowed me to avoid plastic bowls and trays of D2 (I know that they are not that "contaminated" with microplastics, but I did not want to take any chances and stay true to the challenge). During the day I also needed to buy something from the pharmacy on campus and I nearly failed the challenge by accepting my medicine packaged into a plastic bag. Quite understandably, the pharmacist looked at me a bit confused, but did not press the issue and just gave me what I bought directly.

I do not want to use up all the space I have here to write about what I did, as I also wanted to focus on how I felt while avoiding microplastics. Before doing the challenge I knew that they are everywhere, but actually paying attention and noticing them throughout a whole day made me reconsider and rethink my day-to-day behavior. I felt surrounded by, for the lack of a better word, a force that did not feel bad in the moment but had a promise of being detrimental long-term. One has to wonder how humanity will maneuver around the health problems that microplastics are already proven to cause, not even mentioning the ones about to be revealed in the coming years.

All this makes me think that while acting against microplastics, we should try not to panic, because “desperately” trying to complete this challenge was making my life and interactions with people awkward. In short: we should be reasonable about avoiding microplastics.

*The NYUAD Sustainability Committee frequently contributes to the Sustainability Column. Email them at feedback@thegazelle.org.