Plastic pollution is pretty mainstream as far as environmental problems go. I mean, we’ve all heard about protecting the turtles by not using plastic straws, right? Many people even go as far as to equate sustainability with going plastic-free. Plastic does have many negative qualities, but it’s heavily integrated into our world. Unsurprisingly, despite the impacts of plastic, it seems impossible to phase out.
It’s true that plastic is everywhere, but the reasons for our reliance on and use of it are multifaceted. So, let’s break down the impacts of plastic and why it’s so hard for us to overcome our plastic dependence as a society and as individuals.
Is plastic bad for the environment?
The overwhelming impacts of plastic on the environment are negative. Essentially, the entire life cycle of plastic has harmful consequences and byproducts. Overall, our problems with plastic are systematic, widespread, and devastatingly damaging.
How does plastic harm the environment?
Plastic’s durability, while being an attractive quality for manufacturers, means that it can never fully degrade. Instead, plastic must be mechanically broken down. Because of this, plastic only gets smaller and never fully goes away. When plastic breaks down, the end result is microplastics, which persist in the environment and the food chain.
The startling truth of the matter is that every piece of plastic ever made still exists and is in the environment in some form. It’s also incredibly inefficient and difficult to recycle plastic, so that isn’t an adequate solution to mitigate the impacts of plastic. Most plastics are too thin to be recycled, and the process is resource-intensive.
The impacts of plastic pollution:
Plastic is almost synonymous with existence; it seems impossible to escape it. As such, the impacts of plastic are no joke. Aside from the obvious issue of plastic getting ingested by wildlife, plastic actively contributes to climate change, and water, air, and land quality issues.
Plastics chemically and physically pollute waterways by leaching harmful chemicals into the water. Microplastics are insoluble and can absorb environmental contaminants, making them extremely toxic. They also release a variety of noxious chemicals as the plastic breaks down.
Furthermore, plastic can pollute air and land through emissions and its inability to biodegrade. For instance, if the production, disposal, and incineration of plastics continue at their current rate, global emissions are expected to reach 1.34 gigatons per year.
Are the impacts of plastic always negative?
Although it can be hard not to just think of plastic as an environmental blight, there are some benefits to using plastic. The impacts of plastic aren’t always negative! There are essential uses and places for plastic, like the medical field. That isn’t to say there aren’t potential workarounds to do away with this use, but the point I want to press is how essential plastics have made some positive impacts. As such, we should keep these in mind when thinking of solutions to the negative impacts of plastic.
Plastic does have its uses.
Overall, plastic creation was a huge step in terms of innovation. Understanding why it is that we even use plastic is key to understanding and navigating potential shifts away from this material. Although I’m not a fan of plastics because of the damage this material has had on the planet, I can’t ignore the positives that have come from its creation and use.
These benefits have played a part in why it’s so difficult for us to make the transition away from plastics altogether and despite our plastic problems are worth keeping in mind moving forward. If we keep these benefits in mind, the problem then becomes easier because instead of a full shift it’s a slow transition.
Common plastic uses:
- Food preservation
- Convenience
- Medical supplies
- Textiles
- Packaging
- Transportation
The problem with plastic.
Despite knowing the negative impacts of plastic, we rely on it heavily, which is problematic. Although, as discussed before, plastic has necessary uses, we still find ourselves reliant on plastic for unnecessary uses.
Rightfully, most people think of non-essential plastics when thinking about our plastic problem. This can include inefficient use of plastic or single-use plastics. Non-essential plastics get tossed readily and sometimes are even a headache for consumers. It also gives us a false sense of how much plastic protection our goods need. This makes plastic use almost a part of our culture and generates a lot of waste.
At the end of this cycle of inefficient plastic use is inefficient recycling. We create all of this waste that isn’t typically necessary, and then don’t have the means to proactively process it. This creates a ton of emissions and landfill accumulation, both of which have severe environmental consequences.
Plastic recycling is inefficient because of sorting difficulties, contamination, and other materials included with the plastic. Only a small amount of plastic is even collected for recycling, and there are seven types of plastic, which make recycling difficult or impossible.
Yet, the problem persists for many reasons.
A swift solution to our plastic problem would seemingly be putting legislation in place to regulate the use and end-of-life handling of plastic products. However, in practice, this seems to be extremely difficult to accomplish.
The root of this seems to be disagreements between governing bodies, with figuring out who needs to take more responsibility being the crux of the issue. Climate conferences have also been notoriously disappointing due to ulterior agendas and sensationalism.
Legislative loopholes, the inability to equitably designate responsibility, and disagreement over who pays for what contribute to our inability to fully phase out plastics. Those setbacks paired with our reliance on fossil fuels have put us in a position where we have a reliance on plastic products that seems unavoidable and uncontrollable.
Is there any way to stop using plastic?
In an ideal world, it would be great to say that we could collectively come together and address the negative impacts of plastic easily and quickly. But, thus far, that’s just not where we’re at.
Practically everything has a plastic component, after all. This can be such a drag, but it also makes individual action feel futile. If the world isn’t geared towards sustainability, then living sustainably feels like a pipe dream.
While fully making that leap away from plastics may be unrealistic now, there are still other potential solutions to cut our reliance on and reduce the impacts of plastic. So, below are 5 ways we can address the negative impacts of plastics.
Learning more is a great place to start.
First, understanding the good and bad of plastics and finding alternatives is a great way to start phasing out plastics at the individual level. Learning more about the impacts of plastic will help you spot greenwashing, find swaps or more ethical products, and understand the meaningful ways we can try to attack this problem.
Repurposing plastic products is also helpful.
Next, reusing plastics if possible is a solution, as this reduces the initial impacts of plastics and can serve more purposes as needed in your home. Easy ways I’ve found to reuse plastics are like frozen produce bags with zipper tops, reusing bottles for planters, storage, or crafts, and repurposing containers, either from personal care products or food.
Buying in bulk can reduce plastic use too.
An often overlooked way to dramatically cut down on plastic use is buying in bulk. There’s typically more plastic packaging on smaller and individually wrapped items than on bulk items. Buying in bulk, therefore, is a more efficient use of plastic and packaging in general. This is a good option if you can’t get away from using items with plastic, and it still makes a difference.
Alternative materials can take plastic's place.
Since there are so many plastic types and additives in plastics, recycling and repurposing these materials creates a secondary material that can’t be used. Because of this, we desperately need to reach for and prioritize plastic alternatives.
Therefore, on a more encompassing level, we need to use different materials for non-essential plastics. Doing so situationally will ease overall environmental problems and reduce plastic’s impact. Overall, making this shift to other materials will lead to better end-of-life recycling and use of our resources.
Then we need better waste management.
Compostable plastics, or bio-plastics, are a plastic alternative that is touted as an end-all-be-all solution to plastic waste. While compostable plastics are an amazing innovation, it hasn’t taken plastic’s place. Plus, just like regular plastics, it’s hard to process this material at the end of its life.
In general, our waste management is inefficient and costly. Regardless of whether we stick with plastics or move exclusively towards compostable plastics, we need to address how we manage all waste.
So, ultimately, finding better recycling possibilities and waste management solutions is key to truly handling the problems and impacts of plastic. We need ways to deal with the plastic waste we continue to create, as well as the waste that’s already been created.
We may not be able to stop using plastic now, but there are ways to lessen the impacts of plastic.
It may be hard to conceptualize what steps we can take to stop using plastic, there isn’t even much research about this because of how difficult of a problem this is. Something has to be done though. Suppose we can’t stop using plastic or figure out how to make the lifecycle of this material circular. In that case, the problem will become uncontrollable – even with the amazing scientific innovation time may bring.
Although the problems we have with plastics may seem intimidating and unachievable, there is still hope to be had. With new technology always being propelled forward and individual solutions we can partake in, we can have an impact and address our reliance on plastics.
The consequences of filling our world with plastic won’t go away immediately, yet we can still work towards being the change we want to see in the world. It’s hard to stop using plastic, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. Let’s keep pressing forward, continue to learn more, and collaborate to create a sustainable and equitable future.