Microplastic contamination has escalated from an isolated marine issue into a defining anthropogenic crisis of the “Plasticene.” This mini-review evaluates the systemic risks of microplastics ($<5$ mm) through Garrett Hardin’s seminal 1968 framework, “The Tragedy of the Commons.” While advanced environmental detection technologies have mapped the absolute ubiquity of these particles across the biosphere and human tissues, mitigation remains paralyzed. We argue that the linear economic model of plastic production capitalizes on private economic gains while externalizing ecological debts onto global open-access resources. Resolving this crisis requires shifting away from “end-of-pipe” technological fixes toward legally binding, globally enforced production caps-enacting what Hardin termed “mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon.”