Salt Sold in Asia Contains the Highest-Levels of Plastic in the World

The war on plastics just found its next front as researchers in South Korea discovered that most of the salt sold in Asia is full of microplastics—the tiny particles that are left behind when plastic breaks down in the oceans. So with every pinch of salt you add to that plate of french fries, that bowl of savory pho, or those fresh-boiled edamame, you're eating some plastic as well, which is, you know, just great.

It's not like we all didn't already know that plastic was everywhere. Recent studies have found microplastics in 90 percent of bottled water, as well as 83 percent of the stuff that comes out of the tap, worldwide (not that many of us would drink that anyway). Microplastics are in our oceans, in our fish, and now they're in our salt shakers too. But there's something about it being in salt as well that makes it seem even worse.

"Recent studies have found plastics in seafood, wildlife, tap water, and now in salt," said Mikyoung Kim, a campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, which sponsored the study. "It’s clear that there is no escape from this plastics crisis, especially as it continues to leak into our waterways and oceans."

Watch: Scientists Accidentally Discovered A Plastic Eating Enzyme That Could Revolutionize Recycling (HBO)

This latest study examined 39 salt brands sold across the globe and it found microplastics in 90 percent of them, according to the co-author Seung-Kyu Kim, a professor of marine science at Incheon University. Salts sold in Asia contained the highest levels of microplastics, especially brands of sea salts on the shelves in Indonesia. If the average Indonesians eats only 10 grams of salt per-day, they could be ingesting as much as 2,000 microplastics each year.

There's a clear connection between the amount of plastic waste produced by a country and the levels of microplastics on the salt sold in its supermarkets, explained Seung-Kyu Kim.

“The findings suggest that human ingestion of microplastics via marine products is strongly related to plastic emissions in a given region," he said. “In order to limit our exposure to microplastics, preventative measures are required, such as controlling the environmental discharge of mismanaged plastics and more importantly, reducing plastic waste."

Indonesia is one of the top contributors to plastic waste on Earth, second only to China. In a given year, the country can produce more than 3 million metric tons of plastic waste, nearly half of which typically ends up in our oceans. All this plastic waste is responsible for iconic—and heartbreaking—scenes of oceans filled with floating litter, but it's also behind problems we can't see in a viral video. The Indonesian island of Bali routinely appears in these "oceans of plastic" stories, mainly because its a) full of tourists and b) doesn't have an actual island-wide trash collection system.

But even seemingly pristine ocean environments in Indonesia, like out on the remote island of Sumba, are full of microplastics. Researchers at the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) found an "abundance" of microplastics in the waters off Sumba as well, a clear sign that this issue is way bigger than a few trashed beaches in Bali.