We are awash in plastic. Plastic is found in all corners of the globe, from the bottom of the deepest oceans to the highest mountains.

There are huge areas of floating plastic collecting in the circulating gyres of the Northern Pacific Ocean; the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is estimated to be twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France.

Dramatic as that is, plastic is in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink. Plastic is in breastmilk. It is in many products we use, including clothing. Our tires are no longer just rubber, they are plastic, and every time you drive you are creating plastic pollution, a shower of microplastics!

We use plastic because it is useful and relatively cheap. It is great for storing food, for example. It doesn’t break like glass and isn’t as heavy. It isn’t always easy to replace in a convenient and economic way. Plastic is so ubiquitous that it seems impossible to avoid!

However useful plastic is, it is also the case that it is way overused. This is true enough in well-off areas, but globally it is a huge problem.

Many people are too poor to buy some necessary products like personal hygiene products, cleaning materials or some foods except as single-use items, let alone in bulk. Yes, buying more, especially in bulk, is cheaper per unit, but you have to have the money to buy more than a single use item at a time! So, people with less money pay more for each single-use item. A lose-lose situation for the poor and the environment. Plastic makes that possible. A huge amount of plastic single-use packaging ends up clogging the rivers and landfills. Then the plastic packaging flows to the ocean.

There are ways to think about the impact of plastic (beyond just trashing beaches and being unpleasant):

Plastic and the big picture

Plastic  breaks down slowly, so takes up space on Earth, filing up landfills. It is not easy to recycle.

When plastic does break down, the smaller particles still cause problems, sometimes even worse problems, as the smaller pieces may more easily enter the food chain, including our bodies. That is a real concern with some clever schemes to break down plastic! Smaller fragments are not necessarily better unless they are more easily recycled into other products and uses.

Plastic large enough to see (macroplastic) kills sea animals. It looks a lot like food to many animals. A plastic bag and jellyfish are pretty hard to tell apart, even for people. The animals’ guts are filled with plastic they can’t digest so they starve.

Plastic surfaces are a great place for bacteria and viruses to take up residence, forming what is called a “biofilm;” plastic is a way to spread pathogens.

This can become a problem that isn’t just a matter of sympathy for cute or interesting critters, but the kind of problem that collapses ecosystems we depend on for food and oxygen production.

Microplastics

These small plastic particles are also everywhere. Microplastic particles can be collected by filter feeders like sponges when they strain the water for food, or the microplastic particles can be eaten by plankton. Then other animals eat those sponges and single-celled organisms, and larger animals eat them in turn, and the microplastic is shunted up the food chain to larger animals, including us.

We eat plastic, breathe plastic, and some plastic can even penetrate skin. That means plastic enters our blood. The microplastic particles can lodge in small blood vessels. Your heart and brain. Your liver and kidneys. Your eyes. The placenta.

Some advice about minimizing microplastics from The Guardian.

Chemicals released by plastics

Plastics aren’t just long chains of carbon atoms made from petroleum products. That is, of course, a large part of what plastics are, and why oil companies look at them as a plan B business model as we shift to other ways to power our lives besides burning fossil fuels. Plastics also have all sorts of chemical additives to give the properties desired for commercial use.

Some of these added chemicals, like bisphenol A (BPA), are known “endocrine disruptors,” meaning they are a monkey wrench in our hormones. They can affect fertility.

The World Health Organization warned of possible carcinogenic properties of plastics.

It is really surprising plastic hasn’t caused more overt human health problems. We don’t know if that is just because we don’t have the data yet, research is ongoing, or the problem is still too new and will become more obvious later as more collects in our bodies, releases chemicals, clogs blood vessels, carries pathogens and carcinogens, and it is too late to do anything about it.

Personal actions you can take

• Avoid disposable plastic water bottles. Fill up reusable bottles. Cut back on single-use plastic and extra wrapping.

• Try buying in bulk and storing in containers you can clean and reuse. Buy things in glass bottles when possible.

• Don’t use plastic utensils. In Los Angeles you have to ask for them in take-out or delivery by law. Consider advocating for that in your community or at least letting the restaurant know (leave a message on the online order or call them) that you don’t need plastic utensils if you are eating at home. Try to find restaurants with ecological packaging if taking out, which can be very difficult even in relatively eco-conscious Los Angeles.

• There are many sources of plastics that we might not think about, like fabrics, shampoo and makeup. Read labels.

• Recycle plastic. Recycling plastic often seems to be a hoax, but not always. Re-use plastic, i.e., bags when hygienic, and even some plastic bottles (cut off the top; a plastic orange juice bottle can hold pens, paint brushes, lots of things, even herbs to plant. Be creative), and other plastic containers can be cleaned and used.

• Buy products made of recycled material or that are meant to be safer to dispose of, though the latter may be hard to confirm.

• Look for alternatives to plastic. Some products, like packing materials, that are like plastic but made from corn and the like, do dissolve in water to safe molecules (sugars, basically).

• Ask your legislatures to support meaningful actions: recycling, regulation, research into the health effects of plastic.

Additional Resources

A great group for more resources and information is Plastic Soup from the Netherlands.

A Poison Like No Other how microplastics corrupted our planet and our bodies. Matt Simon. Island Press, 2022. A great book on microplastics.

How to Give Up Plastic, a guide to changing the world one plastic bottle at a time.”Will McCallum. Penguin books, 2018. A short book with some good information and ideas.

The Plasticology Project. Paul Harvey. Indie Express P/L Australasia, 2022. A fast-reading book by an environmental scientist.   

Reckoning With the U.S. role in Global Ocean Waste. A consensus study report of the National academies of science, engineering and medicine. National Academies Press, 2022. Very deep, and very authoritative, eye opening.

A wonderful brief text/infographic about the life cycle of plastic is available from the organization Food and Water Watch.

For kids:

The Plastic Problem, 60 small ways to save the earth. Aubre Andrus. Lonely Planet Global Limited, 2020. A small book for kids, but really good ideas for all!

https://www.hiddenplastic.org/solutions A website by kids for kids and families.