Apparently, microplastics can make you gain weight, shrink your penis, infect your breast milk, and increase risks of autism… Well, shit. So what are we supposed to do now? Netflix’s latest documentary, “The Plastic Detox” is “existential” but not in the way that makes you think about the meaning of life. It’s existential in the manner that you’re thinking about the existence of humanity as a species and how we can survive.
Expecting a relaxed documentary on a Tuesday evening, we were met with a feature that was nothing short of terrifying, so much so that we had to pause halfway through.
The premise
Directed by Louie Psihoyos (“You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment”) and Josh Murphy, “The Plastic Detox” is structured around environmental and reproductive epidemiologist Dr. Shanna H. Swan, who conducts an experiment where she helps six couples struggling to conceive for several years by dramatically reducing their plastic exposure over 90 days.
The couples were asked to avoid food from plastic packaging, fragrances, detergents, synthetic textiles, petrochemical dyes, and even receipts, which, apparently, are loaded with BPA. The film visits them in Florida, California, and Idaho, checking in on their daily lives and measuring their chemical exposure levels before and after.
At the end of the experiment, most couples saw positive changes. Three got pregnant. Some sperm counts increased 50 percent, and another by 180 percent. They also reported losing serious weight, sleeping better, and being able to focus more clearly. One-third lowered their body mass index (BMI), while 60 percent reported higher energy levels.
While it can’t be legally called a scientific study because of the small sample size, the results will be used to support an application for a larger study.
Still, the documentary has its critics, as “unexplained infertility” is a complex diagnosis. The experiment also had no control group, randomization, or transparency of other lifestyle changes these couples may have made.
The documentary has its critics, as “unexplained infertility” is a complex diagnosis… Nonetheless, the science itself is from reputable sources, and the facts are glaring
The panic it induced to viewers could also be partly an editorial product, shaped by the editing. Nonetheless, the science itself is from reputable sources, and the facts are glaring.
This part will genuinely disturb you
It’s the information about our plastic wonderland on Earth and all its harmful effects that make “The Plastic Detox” one of the most unsettling documentaries streaming now.
The global conversation has long focused on what plastic does to our beaches and oceans. But “The Plastic Detox” redirects to a more personal question: What is it doing inside our bodies?
A recent landmark study published in Nature Medicine in February 2025 showed that the average human brain contains up to seven grams of microplastics, roughly the weight of a plastic spoon. The most common plastic found is polyethylene, about 75 percent.
The film focuses on two categories of plastic-associated chemicals: phthalates and bisphenols, which are endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), meaning they interfere with your hormones. As Dr. Swan puts it, these chemicals can increase estrogen that acts as a kind of involuntary, unnatural birth control.
Footage of a 2022 US Senate hearing shows John Pete Myers, founder and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, explaining that “many chemicals leaching out of plastics are EDCs. That links them to a wide array of today’s epidemics of noncommunicable diseases, like breast cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, infertility, immune disorders, and brain impediments.”
“Many chemicals leaching out of plastics are EDCs. That links them to a wide array of today’s epidemics of noncommunicable diseases, like breast cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, infertility, immune disorders, and brain impediments.”
In one segment are scenes of a clinic in Italy where microplastics have been detected in placentas and breast milk of new mothers. Other scenes show a team of researchers injecting chicken embryos with phthalates, resulting in decreased pigmentation, grossly malformed internal organs, and bodies a third of the embryo’s normal size—all consistent with common human birth defects.
“The Plastic Detox” also travels to “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana, a corridor of petrochemical plant factories with disproportionately high cancer rates for its residents.
Throughout, there are other mentions of microplastics’ effects in the human body, from autism and lower IQs to smaller reproductive organs for males and weight gain, as many plastics have obesogens, which, I think, the name speaks for itself.
It gets personal—fast
Looking around our living room and kitchen, I felt immediately surrounded by evidence. Just that morning, I had gotten a bad rash and eye allergies after wearing a fuzzy Shein cardigan. I checked the website, and the materials were made almost entirely of petroleum-based synthetic fabric.
Your skin is your body’s largest organ and, unlike your gut, which has layers of filtration before anything reaches your bloodstream, your skin absorbs what it touches directly. Synthetic fabrics like polyester, nylon, and acrylic are made from petroleum-based plastics, and many are treated with chemical dyes, flame retardants, and finishing agents. The average person can wear clothes for 12 to 16 hours a day in a long, slow, continuous exposure window to these plastic-based fabrics.
The average person can wear clothes for 12 to 16 hours a day in a long, slow, continuous exposure window to these plastic-based fabrics
What they’re doing about it
Plastics weren’t always this awful enemy. A hundred years ago, most plastics were plant-based. Then in the early 20th century, the petroleum industry discovered polyethylene, polypropylene, and other variants made by cracking oil molecules, and suddenly plastic was everywhere, from elastic stockings to trampolines.
The plastic industry is a behemoth, and its grip on US regulatory policy is both profitable and politically protected, according to the documentary’s coverage. Regulatory toxicology, the science that’s supposed to keep us safe, has long been shaped by research conducted by the chemical industry itself. “The Plastic Detox” also points out that only nine percent of plastic ever gets recycled, and even that recycled plastic stays plastic.
Regulatory toxicology, the science that’s supposed to keep us safe, has long been shaped by research conducted by the chemical industry itself
The differences between countries are stark, too, as there are only nine chemicals banned from use in products in the United States, compared with over 1,100 banned by the European Union, which requires chemicals to be tested for safety before use, under its REACH legislation.
A little positivity
“The Plastic Detox” ends on a note that’s hopeful, which you’ve been longing for after 90 minutes of dread. They quote a current “material revolution” as designers are rethinking materials from the ground up.
Dior has used Bananatex, a natural, biodegradable canvas made from abacá banana plant fibers, largely grown in the Philippines. A company called Sway is developing seaweed-based packaging designed to fully disappear in compost. Green chemistry is a growing field, and researchers are working on non-toxic, non-petroleum-based polymers.
John Warner, co-founder of the Institute of Green Chemistry, said in the documentary, “Someday, imagine when we say the world has non-toxic, safe, non-plastic polymers and materials… We can say, ‘We did it.’ But that’s going to take great risk and a lot of trials and hard work.”
So now that we’ve heard we’re full of microplastics, what the hell are we supposed to do?
The 90-day experiment itself is helpful as a personal guide outside of the clinical trial. You don’t have to overhaul everything, but just be more practical (and maybe spend a little more money for the organic stuff, too). Think of it as a long-term investment.
You don’t have to overhaul everything, but just be more practical (and maybe spend a little more money for the organic stuff, too)
This is by avoiding heavily packaged food, swapping synthetic textiles for natural ones, ditching fragrances or detergents with heavy chemicals, and clearing your kitchen of plastic cutting boards, utensils, and the like. All these shifts could produce differences in chemical exposure levels.
Now that we’re finally asking what plastic is doing to us, it’s much too late to pretend it’s not happening. But rather than freak out and get fatalistic, we can start making concrete changes like choosing non-toxic alternatives, reducing single-use plastics, and supporting organic brands. And perhaps, with these little changes reducing microplastics, the documentary guides towards just a micro-glimmer of hope.
