Living in a plastic bubble, a bubble in a plastic world

What is the most common thing floating on the surface of our oceans today? Most people would be astonished to learn that it’s plastic garbage. Scientists estimate that 25% of the earth’s surface is covered with floating plastics debris. Scientists recently discovered a a floating island of plastic the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean. Charles Moore, the scientist who discovered the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, describes what he first saw from the deck of his sailboat during a trip to Hawaii, “As I gazed from the deck at the surface of what ought to have been a pristine ocean, I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic. It seemed unbelievable, but I never found a clear spot. In the week it took to cross the subtropical high, no matter what time of day I looked, plastic debris was floating everywhere: bottles, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments.” Where does the garbage come from? Moore returned to study the garbage patch and estimates that 80% comes from land-based sources, and 20% from ships. The most common type of plastic he found were plastic pellets (aka nurdles), that are used to manufacture plastic products. Over 250 billion pounds of these pellets are produced worldwide and shipped around the world. The rest of the plastic he found in the garbage patch consisted of plastic bags and plastic gadgets “that could stock the checkout counter at a convenience store.”

All this plastic is having a devastating effect on wildlife (see below, The Dangers of Plastic Bags). Birds, fish, turtles, and other wildlife become entangled in the plastic or else ingest it, and choke or starve to death. Japanese scientists have found that plastic fragments in the ocean attract and accumulate poisons such as DDT, PCB’s and other toxins in extremely high concentrations. The poisons move up the food web as jellyfish eat them (and the toxins), are then eaten by fish, which are then eaten by larger fish. Humans consume many species of fish that are known to have high levels of toxins. The problem isn’t limited to oceans, plastic garbage and windblown bags harm terrestrial wildlife and pollute rivers and lakes.

The main problem with plastics is that they don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade – a process whereby sunlight breaks it down into smaller pieces of plastic polymer and eventually down to plastic molecules. Even microscopically small individual plastic molecules are indigestible to bacteria and every other organism on earth. It may take 500 years or longer for those plastic molecules to be broken down into the building blocks of life. Plastics are washed from city streets into stormwater drains that eventually reach some sort of water way (a river or the ocean), and are eventually carried out to sea by ocean currents. The result is that the plant’s oceans are literally stewing in garbage.

People love plastic for the same reasons that it so harmful to wildlife – it’s indestructible and lasts forever. Plastic has become ubiquitous; it would be hard for most people to imagine life without it. Global consumption of plastic has skyrocketed from 5 million tons to 100 million tons since the 1950’s. Sadly, much of this plastic is disposable – over 35% is packaging that the consumer just throws away. The world produces close to 1 trillion plastic bags per year, almost 40% come from the US, and billions end up as trash. Each individual person uses hundreds of these bags every year. The numbers are staggering. Plastics are also made from petrochemicals, a product of oil, which means that our addiction to plastic is also fueling our unsustainable dependence on oil.


How can you lessen your impact?

Paper or Plastic?
Impact: Plastic bags pose a threat to wildlife that ingest or become intangled in floating or windblown bags.
Options: Bring your own reusable bags, there are now a ton of options out there. If you forget yours, ask for paper which is almost always made from recycled materials (at least partially). Avoid using plastic food storage bags; instead use tupperware-type containers.

Reduce waste from packaging
Impact: Non-recyclable plastic clamshell containers and other types of plastic packaging are wasteful not just because they’re disposable, but because they increase transportation costs by making products bulkier.
Options: Avoid buying products in this type of packaging whenever possible, instead find products in paperboard packaging or else buy in bulk. Get take-out from restaurants with compostable or recyclable take-out containers.

Bottled water and drinks
Impact: Less than 30% of beverage containers are recyclable, in addition to using a lot of petrochemicals.
Options: Don’t buy bottled water, it’s bad for you (it contains Bisphenol-A) and the planet. Instead, drink filtered tap water from a reusable, preferably non-plastic container (such as Klean Kanteen). Buy drinks in recyclable containers with a #1 or 2 on the bottom. If you buy six-packs, cut apart the rings to prevent animals from becoming entangled in them.

Trash bags
Impact: No biodegradable, especially in our landfills.
Options: Reuse paper grocery bags to line you garbage can. Reduce the amount of garbage you throw away by composting food scraps in your green bin or in your backyard composter.

The Dangers of Plastic Bags