Bees are buzzing around in confusion – they’re having trouble recognizing flowers, forgetting scents and even struggling to navigate back to their hives.
What’s causing this disorientation? Alongside well-known threats such as pesticides and parasites, a new and unsettling risk to bees is emerging … Microplastics.
Plastic is harming bees from the inside out
Microplastics are tiny fragments of plastic that are formed when plastic waste breaks down. While they range in size and density, these small particulates have managed to reach nearly every habitat on Earth, from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest ocean floor. The negative effects of microplastics on wildlife have long been studied, but recent research suggests a new, sinister impact.
A 2024 study published in the journal Nature Communications confirmed what many scientists feared – microplastics aren’t just polluting oceans and rivers or harming marine animals from whales to seabirds. They’re showing up in fields, flowers and, most alarmingly, inside pollinators like bees. Researchers found that these tiny plastic particles can coat bees’ wings and bodies, contaminate the very nectar bees feed on and even get lodged in their digestive systems.
Once inside, microplastics do more than just take up space. They damage gut tissues, interfere with digestion, and disrupt the internal microbial communities that bees rely on to stay healthy. Microplastics can also interrupt bees’ cognitive processes, hindering the bee’s ability to learn and remember floral scents, a vital skill needed for effective foraging and pollination. Without this ability, bees struggle to recognize and locate the very plants they’ve evolved to pollinate.
Some wild bees have even been found using plastic fibers to build their nests, raising the possibility that this contamination could be passed down to the next generation of bees before they’re even born.
When bees are in trouble, the consequences are widespread. Their confusion is an early warning, not just for pollinators, but for all life that may be impacted by the growing presence of plastic in nearly every corner of our world.
This threat isn’t the only one impacting bees
However, this threat doesn’t exist in isolation. Bees are already facing a deadly cocktail of dangers.
Neonicotinoid pesticides, which are widely used across agricultural lands, can attack bees’ central nervous systems, causing paralysis and even death. Worse, impacted bees can even drag pollen contaminated by these deadly chemicals back to their nests, harming their siblings and even hurting the development of their young.
Climate change is also taking a heavy toll on our native pollinators. Shifting bloom cycles, shrinking habitats and disrupted seasons all impact typical bee pollination timing, making it more difficult for bees to forage the flowers they’ve spent countless millennia adapting to.
On top of these major threats, bees are also facing declining populations due to disease, fungal infections and even parasitic species like the varroa mite.
Now, microplastics are joining the ever-growing list of dangers, adding yet another invisible, insidious force that weakens bees and amplifies the danger of other threats.
As the study warns, the combination of microplastics paired with existing stressors could create “hotspots” of highly stressed, plastic-polluted pollinators, with ripple effects that spread through entire ecosystems and even the crops we rely on.
Plastic pollution is everywhere. It’s in rainwater, in farmland, in the food chain and even the arctic ice caps. Now it’s in the very bees that keep our ecosystems running.
Companies like Pepsi aren’t helping
It’s critical that we take action to help bees against microplastics and the countless other factors that may harm our native pollinators.
That’s why, in addition to our “Save the Bees” campaigns, Environment America and our national network are calling on governments and corporations to reduce plastic and the waste it produces. After all, the best way to keep microplastics out of our environment, our wildlife and our bodies is to stop producing and consuming so much plastic in the first place.
And yet, instead of rallying behind this common goal, some companies are actively making things worse.
Pepsi, a major company and source of single-use plastic, made a series of strong sustainability commitments in 2021. The company pledged to cut its virgin plastic usage, increase recycled content in its packaging and switch to more sustainable alternatives, among other commitments. It wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly a step in the right direction.
Now, Pepsi is backing away from those promises.
A recent announcement by Pepsi, detailed a significant rollback to its plastic reduction commitments. The company has quietly delayed its timelines, lowered its goals and continued relying on single-use plastic packaging.
It’s no longer enough to just promote recycling or create a catchy slogan, corporations need to start seriously reducing their use of plastic and the limitless waste it creates. That’s why we’re raising voices and collecting signatures to urge Pepsi not to weaken its sustainability commitments.
Pollinators over plastic
More plastic in production means more microplastics in the air, soil, water, and now, in bees.
If we want pollinators to survive, we need to act on the threats they face. And yes, that includes plastic.
We need stronger laws to curb plastic waste. We need companies like Pepsi to live up to their environmental promises, not just abandon them when it’s convenient. And we need to prioritize living ecosystems and wildlife over disposable convenience and lifeless products.
Bees can’t ask for help. But their declining numbers, disoriented behavior and growing vulnerability are already speaking volumes for them.
If we want a future with pollinators, with robust food systems, with biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, we need to make a choice.
Pepsi’s bottles may be disposable, but our ecosystems aren’t.
It’s time we choose pollinators over plastic.
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As director of Environment Oregon, Celeste develops and runs campaigns to win real results for Oregon’s environment. She has worked on issues ranging from preventing plastic pollution, stopping global warming, defending clean water, and protecting our beautiful places. Celeste’s organizing has helped to reduce kids’ exposure to lead in drinking water at childcare facilities in Oregon, encourage transportation electrification, ban single-use plastic grocery bags, defend our bedrock environmental laws and more. She is also the author of the children’s book, Myrtle the Turtle, empowering kids to prevent plastic pollution. Celeste lives in Portland, Ore., with her husband and two daughters, where they frequently enjoy the bounty of Oregon’s natural beauty.
