The Plight of Plastics

“Only we humans make waste that nature can’t digest.”
— Charles Moore, oceanographer

Plastic has become a pervasive theme of everyday life. Its cheap production and convenience of disposability have ensured that most products and packages have plastic components. Hence, we are arguably facing a plight of plastics.

When the plastic crisis is mentioned, many of us think of turtles with straws jammed into their noses and can rings cinched around their shells. Perhaps the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or even trash-filled albatross carcasses, come to mind.

Yet the crisis has become evermore wicked with the advent of microplastics. What we sometimes fail to recognize is that the crisis’ impacts extend much farther than emotional pathos.

These minuscule bits of plastic debris (e.g. fibers, fragments, beads, films) are already a part of mainstream discussions, but many people don’t realize their alarming reach. We’ve literally found microplastics on the peaks of Mount Everest; in the depths of the Mariana Trench; flowing through our bloodstreams and resting in our lungs; and even in the human placenta, an organ that’s vital for healthy pregnancies.

Plastics are problematic from their production to their consumption and disposal, wreaking havoc on the natural environment—and threatening public health.

From Oil To Plastic

The life cycle for plastics is troublesome from start to finish.

First, plastics are created with crude oil. A common idea is that this oil is the stuff of decayed dinosaurs, which is perhaps partially true. More specifically, crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons formed from the remains of ancient plants and animals—hence, “fossil fuels.”

Our extraction of fossil fuels has been precarious from the start because, fundamentally, they’re not a renewable resource. (i.e. Once we’ve drilled the oils out, they take a disproportionately long time to regenerate.)

Because we’ve been using fossil fuels at such an unprecedented rate, it’s becoming increasingly evermore difficult to extract them. And yet, oil rigs both inland and offshore continue to drill. Our demands are causing the ideal conditions for ecological overshoot… and for devastating environmental damage when less-than-infrequent oil spills occur.

Social and Environmental Costs of Refinement

After the oil has been extracted from deep layers of rock, it has to be refined at a petrochemical plant. There, they branch into hundreds of oil-based varieties for commercial use.

Guzzling up obscene amounts of water and energy, refinement processes have an overwhelmingly negative impact on the environment. Indeed, refineries are the greatest polluters within the oil industry. Through accidents, emissions, and purposeful dumping, they are responsible for jetting hundreds of contaminants, particles, and gasses into the environment.

The atmospheric impacts of refineries are obvious—think smokestacks, chemical flares, and persistent greenhouse gases. However, the environmental impacts reach farther than that. Per the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nearly half a billion gallons of wastewater are discharged by refineries every day. That equates to 712 Olympic swimming pools of toxic metals, ammonia, oil and grease, and industrial salts being dumped into public waterways. (In 2017 alone, this accumulated and amounted to 14,200 pounds of cyanide.) Such pollution wreaks havoc by encouraging algal growth and corroding drinking water intakes.

To make matters worse, refineries and their entities are often disproportionately positioned in or near historically redlined neighborhoods. “Redlining”, while now overtly considered illegal, comes from when real estate lenders intentionally segregated predominantly Black and mixed-race neighborhoods. It’s a pernicious form of structural racism that was (and is) discriminatory against lower-income and minority populations.

The EPA’s environmental justice database shows that 43 of 81 of refineries are in areas where the percentage of people of color living within three miles exceeds the national average. Even more of them are in areas where the percentage of low-income households exceeds the national average. (Click here to explore the EPA’s interactive injustice maps.)

The intertwinement of racial, economic, and climate injustice is stark. Clearly, the issues presented by oil refinement are both social and environmental.

Once Oil Is Plastic

Once the oil has been refined and the plastics formed, they’re used for… well, just about everything. Drinking cups, children’s toys, household pipes, synthetic clothing, exfoliating facial scrubs, jet fuel, and automobile parts are only a few!

The versatility and accessibility of plastic are its greatest economic strengths, of course. But the seemingly infinite fluctuation from material to material complicates our understanding of each one’s health, environmental, and disposal implications.

There is at least one constant, though: it’s that every type of plastic contains a plethora of chemicals.

Several thousand chemical compounds are already known within plastics. Most of these chemicals are loosely bound to the plastic material, so they “leach” into their surroundings. (e.g. The food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.) Recent studies show that every plastic product leaches—even down to our bin liners, shower slippers, and coffee lids.

PVC: One Toxic Example of Many

Again, there are thousands of variations of plastic compounds. It’s difficult to evaluate what exactly this means for human health. Studying how they affect the human body is a colossal undertaking, but enough is known already to assume some level of hazard.

Polyvinyl chloride (commonly known as “PVC”), for example, is considered a carcinogenic substance. In addition to certain cancers, it has been linked to disruptions in the central nervous system; damage to the liver, kidneys and lungs; and a set of symptoms collectively called “vinyl chloride disease,” which affects circulatory and skin function.

And yet, PVC is a chemical most of us interact with on a daily basis. It’s readily used in items like shower curtains, rain gear, electrical wiring, household pipes, and IV bags.

Notice how intimate that contact is. We touch and drink from these things.

PVC isn’t the only devil in the plastics industry, though. General phthalates and bisphenols (e.g. BPA) rank similarly in terms of toxicity. If toxic materials in our everyday items is the baseline, then we must be more responsive to the unknown.

The Systemic Favor of Plastic

Our quick-moving, profit-driven, consumerist culture tends to favor treating the symptom instead of nurturing the root of the problem. Even with growing bodies of research against plastics, our desires and demands manage to keep pace. The adaptability of oil-based products is just too quick, and too profitable, for an economy to ignore.

It’s like we’re chasing a revolving door of noxious materials. Whenever we discover the adverse effects of one, we invent something questionable (and likely equally dangerous) to replace it.

The overarching point here is that plastics are purely synthetic materials derived primarily from nonrenewable resources. They cannot be grown or easily processed by the earth. From what we’ve projected, they take hundreds—if not thousands—of years to decompose on their own.

If this is true, then our direct contact with those chemicals could be equally as malignant and long-lasting. It’s imperative that we avoid the copious varieties of plastic in the market.

Facing the Plastic Plight as Consumers

When a cause is collectively approached, its manifold gain compounds.

As consumers, we can choose to denounce plastics by avoiding excessive packaging. Shopping in the bulk section. Carrying our own bags. Being mindful of the materials in our items. Researching companies’ values. Honoring our own values, even if it’s inconvenient to.

By “voting with our wallets,” we’ll redirect the economy from its get-rich skew back to durable, safe, and sustainable alternatives.

Fair reader, every decision you make has impacts larger than the price tag. Remember this as you march through the aisles and consider your next purchase.

Your body, the natural world, and the whole of humanity will benefit when you do.

⋆.ೃ࿔ :･⚝⭑

Revitalized from The New Leaf Project, a previous blog. Originally posted on 5July 2022.