Plastics are ubiquitous in our daily lives. They are reliable, cheap, strong, lightweight, and resistant to corrosion. Thus, they are used for packaging, building components, medical (syringes and pipettes), even clothes, and, perhaps ironically, environmental control (gloves, bags). Imagine the sanitation issues of carrying toiletries and personal hygiene products that are not in plastic? Plastic packaging is often the best way to maintain a product’s integrity during transport. And plastics are cheap. Imagine the cost to low-income families if they had to buy items with more expensive packaging?

What are plastics? They are polymers, long chains of molecules made from repeating compounds (monomers). Most originate from chemicals found in crude petroleum. Thus there will be the need for oil exploration and refining, even if all transportation vehicles switch to electric. Some modern plastics do use other materials, like corn or cotton. Plastics’ molecular structure can be engineered to effect different characteristics—to be flexible or hard, transparent or opaque. They are durable, strong, lightweight, water resistant, and relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture. There are thousands of patented plastics, all with unique attributes that make them fit for purpose.

However, plastics have a large adverse environmental impact. Very large! In fact, plastics is causing a global pollution crisis. In whatever form plastics are found, they tend to degrade in time due to radiation from the Sun to “microplastics” – not to the molecular level, but to a tiny state that is hard to separate. Given that 80% of the Earth is made up of water, most plastics end up in our oceans, seas, rivers, etc. A recent study identified 15,000 different micro-plastic compounds deriving from one disposable plastic shopping bag. Many of these micro-plastic compounds become airborne and can reach deep into lung tissue, causing various lung ailments. In our waters, there is an estimated 75 to 200 million tons of plastics, with about 33 million tons added every year. Fish and mammals consume them, including larger plastic particles which can poison or perforate their GI tract. The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and is twice the size of Texas. Perhaps you think you do not ingest plastics; you carefully remove food from containers and all. But micro-plastics are found in our stool (even in an newborn’s first stool) and incorporated in our body parts.

So perhaps you think the problem can be solved by recycling. More municipalities than ever perform plastic recycling and more households take part. However, much of the plastics put into recycling ends up in the trash anyway (and to incinerators or landfills) because of the quality of the melted monomers produced in recycling plants (contaminated with other materials or other monomer types). It is cheaper and higher quality to produce plastics from virgin sources than from recycled plastics.

What are the answers? The first is to be aware. This is a global problem that impacts the entire planet. The next is to go beyond recycling, to reduce usage and demand for plastic products altogether. Many municipalities now ban single-use plastic bags at, say, supermarkets. However, substitutes may have their own problems, such as a higher carbon footprint. Also, this would result in people changing their lifestyles in how they purchase or use items and this is difficult. We are used to our plastics-dominated society. Be aware there is an issue and think through how you best can help.

CCES has the experts to help your firm deal with excessive plastics or other materials and to find economic potential substitutes. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.