Plastic is everywhere in our lives. We are living in a plastic world. A trip to the grocery store can result in using a ton of plastic. Where did all this plastic come from? Single use consumer products are currently the largest type of the plastic circulating the globe today. For example, much of this plastic has been created within the last 2 decades.
Find your way around:
What is plastic?
All plastic is made from oil. However, oil is a non-renewable resource, meaning that there is only a small amount of it on Earth. This is a result of the long periods of time that it takes for the decomposition of plant and animal matter to take place and produce oil.
Oil usage required for production.
Snippet from Custom Made
Great Plastic Island
Have you heard of the great plastic island floating in the Pacific Ocean? If not buckle your seat belt and check out the graphic below.
Everyday use has created the formation of the great garbage island. Additionally, most of the plastic we throw away in the trash or recycle ends up in our rivers, all of which make their way to the ocean. This plastic ends up in the giant garbage island because of ocean currents.
If we don’t start limiting our plastic usage, the next building trend may be building islands with them. Check out this extreme real world example of reusing plastic building a plastic island.
Current plastics production grew to 381 million metric tons in 2015 (Our World in Data). This is in comparison to 0 metric tons in 1950. Notice the dramatic year over year rise in production from 1950-2015.
Why worry about plastic?
Firstly, plastic does not break down like other materials. It can take 15-1,000 years to breakdown 1 grocery bag. Secondly, the chemical process used to create plastics is the reason behind such a large range. For example, PET plastics created in 1950 will be dissolved by 2950 and bottles created in 2000 will be gone by 3000.
Tons produced every year.
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Can anything break it down?
The only process that seems to break down PET based plastics is sunlight (or photo-degradation for you science buffs). UV light breaks plastic down into smaller and smaller pieces. These smaller pieces do not fully degrade however for up to 1,000 years, and expose animal and plant life to toxic chemicals such as bis-phenol A (BPA).
What about recycling?
Snippet from CustomMade
Why worry about this?
Scientists have found that algae eat micro-plastics as food. Small fish then eat the algae. Therefore, leading to an increasing concentration of these toxic chemicals the higher up the food chain it goes (bio-magnification for you science buffs). Seafood exposure is the route of transmission for humans. Our body then stores the chemicals and micro-plastics in our fatty tissue.
Can we reduce our exposure?
The first thing we can do is reduce or eliminate our consumption of seafood. This will dramatically reduce our exposure to the toxic chemicals found in seafood. However, I know that this can be hard ( I was hard-core salmon addict myself for much of my life!). Although, once you take the first step, it becomes easier over time. If you need plant based products to help, take a look at GoodCatch Foods. They offer products that truly mimic seafood. The next step which we will discuss below is how we can reduce our own plastic use.
Can we reduce our plastic use?
Yes! Remember, small steps in the short term yield massive results long term.
The scale of single-use bags.
Snippet from CustomMade
Ideas for reducing your personal plastic use:
- Use reusable grocery bags when going to the grocery store.
- Beyond regular bags, smaller mesh bags can be purchased to keep your produce organized instead of using the bags provided
- Purchase items (cereal, rice, pasta) in bulk using a reusable container or bag.
- Want to buy organic?
- Check out your local farmers market to avoid the plastic wrapping that often comes with grocery store organics.
- Make juice from fresh squeezed fruit rather than buying juice.
- Make your own cleaning products rather than purchasing cleaning products.
- Local co-ops often allow you to purchase castile soap in a refillable glass bottle. This soap can be used for dish soap and household cleaners.
- Use a razor with replaceable blades rather than disposable razors.
- Reuse containers for leftovers, and choose glass containers if possible.
- For new parents: When at home, try cloth diapers instead of disposable diapers.
Final Thoughts
Plastic is all around us and a lot of the products we purchase come in plastic. The seafood that many of us love are heavily contaminated with heavy metals, micro-plastics, and toxic chemicals like BPA. Although it can feel overwhelming, remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. These small steps will add up to big changes over time.
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