What’s To Be Done About Plastic?

As I recall bags flailing in trees like caught kites, and dealing with plastics on the street in front of my house and where I go for walks, I just want it all to go away. It’s not likely to happen soon. 

Plastics are double- edged in the current world – we can’t live easily without plastic, but our planet is inundated with plastic pollution, on land, air and sea. Plastic bags fly freely, plastic barges float in oceans, and flattened bottles and plastic pieces scuttle in the wind all around our streets, yards and fields. And microplastic floats around in our bodies. 

Plastic is light which makes shipping cheaper. Since the start of production just over 100 years ago, it has made our lives easier (unbreakable bags, containers) and safer(athletic helmets), and perhaps more economical. 

But there is more to plastic, to which we don’t pay much attention. Plastic is often thrown away after one use and does not break down easily. We recycle about 234 pounds of plastic per person per year in the US, but in reality, only 5-6% of plastic produced is recycled in the U.S.. Conservation Minnesota reports that 40% of local trash is plastic packaging waste, due to double in the next 20n years.

Half of all plastics ever produced have been made in the last 20 years and production increases yearly. Think of all the plastics that will take up to 400 years to break down. 

Then there is the pollution that plastic production creates, starting with fossil fuel extraction. Making plastic releases many volatile organic compounds (VOCs), causing air pollution, which causes health problems. The land pollution is most obvious; water pollution is more hidden. Microplastics have been found in 90% of bottled water and 83% of tap water.

The National Geographic writer Laura Parker reported in February 2024 that plastics are an untamed and unmanaged beast:

• More than 1 million plastic bags are used every minute, with an average “working life” of only 15 minutes, 500 Billion are used annually.

• Only 9% of the 9nine billion tons produced from the start has been recycled

• The ocean is expected to contain 1 ton of plastic for every 3 tons of fish by 2025. Economic damage to the ocean ecosystem is in the billions of dollars.

• If current consumption habits continue, we’re on pace to have discarded 12 billion tons of plastic waste into landfills and our environment by 2050. 

In the next few months of the CR, I will be highlighting plastics and what we can do about them. While producers can find solutions, it is really up to us , the consumers, to demand changes in how and if plastics are used. I will include a What We Can Do (WWCD) – giving some ideas for making change. As a beginning (although many are beyond this and may offer their own ideas) I suggest we become aware of all the plastic that we use. You may be surprised at the hold it has on us.