The Problem

On August 1, 1955, Life Magazine published an article called "Throwaway Living", which opens with the statement:

"The objects flying around in this picture would take 40 hours to clean--except no housewife need bother. They are all meant to be thrown away after use."

It's a short article but it epitomizes the nation's fascination and reliance on the "miracle material" which began shortly after World War II and continues to this day. Although it has existed for about 70 years, plastic dominates our lives. It is inexpensive, lightweight, durable, water resistant and can be molded into just about any shape or form. But it is also virtually indestructible. As such, most plastic that has ever been created still exists somewhere on the planet today. That might be fine if plastic was infinitely recyclable like aluminum, but it isn't. Here are some sobering statistics from a study conducted in 2017:

Plastic takes more than 400 years to degrade.
Of the 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic that has ever been produced, 6.3 billion metric tons of it has become plastic waste.
Only 9% of plastic gets recycled. 12% gets incinerated and 79% of it ends up as litter or in landfills.
If this trend continues, by 2050 there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills, an amount that is 35,000 times as heavy as the Empire State Building.
Plastic manufacturing, which so far has doubled roughly every 15 years, has outpaced nearly every other man-made material.
Half of all steel produced is used in construction with a life-span measured in decades, while half of all plastic produced becomes trash in less than a year.

What About Recycling?

Recycling is great for products such as paper, glass and aluminum, materials that can be almost infinitely recycled into other products. This is not the case with plastic. As discussed in this investigation by NPR, the ability to easily recycle plastic is a myth that has been propagated by the makers of plastic — the nation's oil and gas companies — to allow them to continue producing more plastic while shifting the burden of plastic disposal to the consumer. In truth, recycling of plastic is unwieldy, costly and fraught with problems. Per the EPA, only about 8 percent of discarded plastics were recycled in 2017. Worse, even this small percentage of plastic can only be recycled once or twice before it degrades and becomes worthless.

The graph below (derived from this EPA analysis) depicts the gap between the amount of plastic recycled vs. the amount that ends up in landfills. In 2018, about 8.6% of plastic was recycled while almost 76% ended up as landfill.

How About Incineration?

This may seem like a plausible solution since many countries, including the United States, have begun doing this. But stop and think about what this actually means from a global warming perspective:

Fossil fuels must be burned to extract the fossil fuels needed to create plastic (oil or natural gas).
Fossil fuels are burned to create the plastic.
Once created, plastic could function as a carbon sink for the next 400 years. Instead, because of the danger that microplastics and plastic litter pose to humans, animals and oceans, this plastic cannot be left alone to degrade naturally. So ...
Fossil fuels will be used to prematurely destroy the plastic and release its carbon into the environment. Note that the incineration process will also create toxic waste that must be dealt with.

What's The Big Deal?

Requiring ever-growing mountains of plastic in landfills around the country is an unpleasant thought, but it is not the central problem. The problem is that plastics aren't biodegradable. They don't decompose into the base chemicals and minerals from which they were made. Instead, they break into billions of microplastics that seep into our soil and water and, eventually, into our food chain. According to this study by National Geographic, it is estimated that humans may be ingesting more than 74,000 microplastic particles every year. The impact to human health has not yet been quantified, but a 2017 study states "If inhaled or ingested, microplastics may accumulate and exert localized particle toxicity by inducing or enhancing an immune response. Chemical toxicity could occur".

According to The Washington Post, microplastic particles in our bodies can also accumulate polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chemicals linked certain types of cancers, a weakened immune system, and reproductive issues. Moreover, plastic is having a huge impact on our oceans. As stated in this National Geographic article:

Most of the plastic trash in the oceans, Earth’s last sink, flows from land. Trash is also carried to sea by major rivers, which act as conveyor belts, picking up more and more trash as they move downstream. Once at sea, much of the plastic trash remains in coastal waters. But once caught up in ocean currents, it can be transported around the world.

An article on ocean pollution by the The Pew Charitable Trusts on ocean pollution paints a grim picture:

If current production, distribution, consumption, and disposal continue at their current pace, 29 million metric tons of plastic would enter the ocean annually by 2040, the equivalent of dumping 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of plastic on every meter of coastline around the world.

What Can Be Done?

The plastic problem is literally mountainous. It's easy to feel overwhelmed. But rather than looking at the mountain, make it personal. Focus on things that are under your control. Start paying attention to what you buy and the lifestyle choices you make. Eliminating all plastic from your life should not be your goal. Plastic is in our cars, TV's, computers, appliances, electronics and tools. And most medicine comes packaged in little plastic bottles. But you’ll be surprised how much plastic you can eliminate. Take a look at some of the suggestions in this website. Not all of them may work for you. You may legitimately need a product that involves plastic. And that's fine. Just try to eliminate as much nonessential plastic from your life as possible. Starting might be as simple as changing your brand of mustard and getting rid of one plastic bottle.

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