Plastic: A transformative invention
Plastics are synthetic polymers produced from fossil fuels. Their use has skyrocketed since the 1950s when they were first introduced. They now prevail over other natural materials due to their low cost, versatility, durability, and the ease of their use in manufacturing.
Too much plastic waste is generated
Scientists who crunched the numbers were stunned to find that we have produced more than 8 billion metric tons of plastic over the last 65 years (1950-2015), and half of it was produced in the last 13 years. Also disturbing is the fact that only 9% of the plastic waste that was generated globally had been recycled. The rest was either incinerated (with toxic emissions), sent to landfillls, or ended up in the natural environment.
Why is plastic a problem?
All plastic that is made becomes a permanent part of the Earth's ecosystem because plastic is not biodegradable, which means that no microorganisms break it down. Sunlight breaks the polymers down into smaller and eventually microscopic pieces, but the unnatural synthetic polymers persist as "microplastic".
With the current global popularity of single-use plastic items, scientists are now realizing that we must reduce our plastic consumption in order to avoid potential global health issues related to the ingestion of microplastic.
Plastics are synthetic polymers produced from fossil fuels. Their use has skyrocketed since the 1950s when they were first introduced. They now prevail over other natural materials due to their low cost, versatility, durability, and the ease of their use in manufacturing.
Too much plastic waste is generated
Scientists who crunched the numbers were stunned to find that we have produced more than 8 billion metric tons of plastic over the last 65 years (1950-2015), and half of it was produced in the last 13 years. Also disturbing is the fact that only 9% of the plastic waste that was generated globally had been recycled. The rest was either incinerated (with toxic emissions), sent to landfillls, or ended up in the natural environment.
Why is plastic a problem?
All plastic that is made becomes a permanent part of the Earth's ecosystem because plastic is not biodegradable, which means that no microorganisms break it down. Sunlight breaks the polymers down into smaller and eventually microscopic pieces, but the unnatural synthetic polymers persist as "microplastic".
With the current global popularity of single-use plastic items, scientists are now realizing that we must reduce our plastic consumption in order to avoid potential global health issues related to the ingestion of microplastic.
The environmental and health problems with plastic
- Toxic chemicals are used to produce plastics – phthalates to soften them, BPA an endocrine disruptor to harden them. Styrene, the building block of polystyrene is toxic all by itself.
- They are unnatural synthetic polymers that do not biodegrade, so they last centuries, maybe forever.
- Plastic is broken down by sunlight into smaller microscopic pieces, called microplastics.
- Because microplastics and plastics bind other hydrophobic toxins (pesticides, heavy metals), they become a concentrated source of toxins, whether or not the plastic itself is toxic.
- Zooplanktan and other marine animals eat microplastics and plastic, which, together with bound toxins, move up the aquatic food chain to your dinner plate.
- As of 2015, 5 billion metric tons of plastic had been sent to landfills or the natural environment. That's about 25 tons per square mile of Earth Surface!
- With the sky-rocketing rates of plastic production and single-use plastic consumption, global "landfill and litter" plastic waste is expected to reach 12 billion metric tons in 2050, or 60 tons of toxin-containing plastic and microplastic per square mile of Earth surface!
Photo: Jeff Tatro