Are Plastics Quietly Rewriting Our Future?

FloWater Co-founder and CEO Rich ‘Raz’ Razgaitis reflects on the growing evidence linking declining human fertility to microplastics and toxic chemicals, and why we can no longer afford to ignore it.

I didn’t expect a Netflix documentary about couples struggling to conceive to stay with me the way it has. Not because the stories were unfamiliar, but because of the quiet thread running through all of them. A question that felt less like speculation and more like a warning.

What is happening to human fertility?

Data from numerous studies indicates sperm counts in men have dropped by about 50–60% globally since the 1970s and has accelerated since around 2000. For example, a 2017 meta-analysis at the Ican School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, published in the journal Human Reproduction Update, delved into 185 studies covering nearly 43,000 men from 1973 to 2011 in the United States and other Western countries. It specifically found a 59.3% decline in total sperm count among men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

What this all means is that today’s average man may have roughly half the sperm count of his grandfather. That surely is a major public health signal.

As a father of two daughters, I found myself watching Netflix’s ‘The Plastic Detox’ not just as a business leader, but as a parent thinking about their future, and the future of children they may one day have. It is hard not to feel a knot in your stomach when you hear the growing body of scientific evidence pointing to a dramatic decline in male fertility. Even harder when researchers are increasingly connecting the dots to microplastics and the toxic chemicals they carry, including PFAS.

I want to be clear. I am not here to scaremonger. Fear alone doesn’t solve anything. But awareness matters. Because once you start paying attention, you realise how deeply embedded plastic has become in our daily lives. Not just the obvious single use items we throw away, but the invisible particles that find their way into the water we drink, the food we eat, even the air around us.

At FloWater, we have long asked a difficult question. What if single use plastics are not just waste, but a human made invasive species? Something that spreads, persists, and slowly disrupts the systems we depend on, including our own bodies.

A decade ago, that question felt provocative. Today, based on the mounting evidence, it feels uncomfortably plausible.

The good news is that this is not a problem without solutions. In fact, some of the most powerful actions are also the simplest. Avoiding single use plastic water bottles. Reducing reliance on disposable packaging wherever possible. Choosing systems and habits that prioritise long term health over short term convenience. These ideas have been at the core of the FloWater mission since we started in 2013, and they feel more urgent now than ever.

But let’s be honest. Detoxing from plastic is not going to be easy. Micro and nano plastics are already everywhere. They are in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink from our taps and the bottles we buy in grocery stores. This is not about perfection. It is about progress, intention, and collective effort.

For businesses, this means rethinking how you provide water and reduce waste in your workplaces. For consumers, it means making small, consistent choices that add up over time. For all of us, it means refusing to look away.

Because this is not just about the environment anymore. It is about human health, fertility, and the kind of future we are creating for the next generation.

So, start somewhere. Change one habit. Question one default. And then keep going.