How Philadelphia seniors are tracking microplastics in streams and working to ‘leave a better world’

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In a lab at Chestnut Hill College, Bob Meyer searches for tiny bits of plastic in a sample of water from the nearby Wissahickon Creek.

He draws the water through a filter to catch any microplastics that might be suspended in the sample. They’re too small to see with the naked eye, so Meyer places the filter under a microscope.

“There we go,” he said. “Got a thread. Yep, and it’s pink, so I know it’s plastic.”

Meyer, professor emeritus of biology at Chestnut Hill College, is part of a group of seniors who monitors air, soil and water quality in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas, called the Senior Environment Corps.

The group has been around for decades and is now collecting data on an emerging issue. Microplastics have been found in humans’ bodies, at the bottom of the ocean and in the Arctic. Scientists are still studying the risks that microplastics pose.