Signs of Winter 2: Plastics, Plastics Everywhere

Photo from Grendz,com

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Almost four years ago the World Economic Forum published a report entitled “The New Plastics Economy” (January, 2016). The report listed four extremely disturbing points about plastics in our social and economic systems:

1. 95% of plastic packaging (valued at $80 to $120 billion per year) is “lost” after its first use.
2. Worldwide, 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling but only 5% is subsequently reprocessed and then reused.
3. 8 million tons of plastics enter the world’s oceans each year (and this tonnage is increasing each year).
4. The world’s oceans contain 150 million tons of plastic, and it is predicted that by 2050 there will be more plastic, by weight, in the oceans than fish.

Worldwide use of plastics has increased 2000% in the past 50 years and is expected to increase by additional 200%  in the next 20 years. Plastic production currently utilizes 6% of the world’s annual production of oil and accounts for 1% of the world’s carbon-pollution production.

Photo by jar-O, Flickr

I have written about plastics before. They were invented just over a century ago (Signs of Fall 4, September 28, 2017. )They are one of the physical hallmarks of the Anthropocene (Signs of Summer 10 August 9, 2018). They exist as macro-pollutants in our soil, freshwater, and marine ecosystems and as micro-pollutants that have worked their way into our tap water, table salt and even our beer (Signs of Fall 12, November 22, 2018).

Plastics are extremely complex, organic polymers that have a wide range of functional properties that are generated by their intricate molecular structures. The names of the specific types of plastics reflect these fundamental structures, but since many of these names are difficult to say or remember (or spell!), a simplified classification system describing the seven “grades” of frequently encountered plastics has been devised. Most items made of plastic have their grade (numbers 1 through 7) stamped right on them.

Photo by Pexels. Southpack LLC

Grade 1 is “polyethylene terephthalate” (“PETE” or even shorter “PET”). These are tough plastics that are excellent barriers against liquids and gases. These are the plastics in most drink bottles and food containers. They are immensely recyclable and their long polymers can be used to make textiles, carpets, auto parts and more.

Grade 2 is high density polyethylene (HDPE). These plastics are made up of long, unbranched polymer chains that can be formed into extremely dense and strong objects. Milk and juice jugs, shampoo bottles, etc. are typically made from #2 plastics. These are also very recyclable and can be used to make plastic crates, building materials and fencing.

Grade 3 is polyvinyl chloride (PVC). This is a very strong plastic that can be used to make detergent bottles and plastic toys. It is frequently referred to, though, as the “poison plastic” because it can contain many toxins. It is, because of its hazardous nature, seldom recycled.

Grade 4 is low density polyethylene (LDPE). It is fundamentally similar to Grade 2 plastic except for a higher number of side branches in its molecular structure which reduce its overall density and cause it to form thinner sheets. Grade 4 is used to make plastic grocery bags, garbage bags and many types of squeeze bottles. Handling #4 plastics is sometimes difficult especially multiple material recycling systems: the light, filmy bags tend to blow about in the sorting systems clogging machinery and interfering with the sorting of the other materials. These #4 plastics, though, are very recyclable but are most efficiently handled separately.

Grade 5, 6 and 7 plastics are, respectively, polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS (“i.e. Styrofoam”)), and the catchall category of “other.” Small food containers (like yogurt containers) and plastic straws are #5 plastics. The recycling of these materials is possible, but is seldom done. Most recycling systems do not take 5 or 6 or 7 plastics.

Photo by hhach, Pixabay

A logical response to many of the problems caused by plastics was to increase the rates of recovery and recycling of the plastic materials. Many communities vigorously collected plastics from their citizens and sent these plastics, typically, on to China for reprocessing. Unfortunately, the gathered plastics materials were not all equally useful, and the mixed plastics sent to China contained, along with “useful” (i.e. easily recyclable) plastics (like the #1 and #2 plastics), a large volume of “low quality” (i.e. harder to recycle) plastics (#’s 3,4,5,6 and 7 plastics). In 2017 China announced that it would no longer accept mixed plastics and now only 56% of the plastics once exported are accepted in foreign markets.

Many recycling centers around the country initially tried to get their contributors to only gather and donate #1 and #2 plastics. Detergent bottles (#3’s), grocery bags (#4’s), yogurt containers (#5’s) and Styrofoam packages (#6’s) were expressly forbidden to be included in the recycling materials. Recyclables also could not be packaged in trash bags or even the clear “recycling” bags (these are both #4 plastics)! For many recycling systems, though, the inability or unwillingness of their participants to heed these restrictions led a total ban on plastic collection. In most communities, plastics now can only go to trash incinerators or landfills.

Photo by Pexels

What can be done about this? Are we just going to bury ourselves in plastic waste? Each of us can take control of our own little ecosphere by not buying things packaged in plastic. Or, if that is too onerous, find a recycling center that takes #1 and #2 plastics (and, maybe also, #4’s) and only purchase things packaged in those polymers. It is time to do something positive! It is time to take some control!

Just a couple more points about environmental plastics: a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience this past spring reported on a study conducted high up in the Pyrenees Mountains in France. Researchers took air samples in this remote area and found significant concentrations of microplastics. Microplastics are pieces of plastic that are less than 5 mm long (smaller than a sesame seed, to quote one researcher) and often thinner than a human hair. These plastics originate from the breakdown of macro-plastics in cities, landfills and farms (especially farms on which sewage sludge is sprayed). These micro-plastics have been shown to clog the digestive systems of insects, fish, and aquatic birds and mammals. Sea birds, sea turtles and whales have all been killed by the accumulation of these plastics in their stomachs and intestines.

These micro-plastics also attract a variety of toxic chemicals in the environment (including dioxins, PCB’s, DDT’s and PAH’s) and can deliver extremely high doses of these dangerous poisons to any organism (including humans) who ingest them. Bacteria (like E. coli) also are concentrated on these airborne and waterborne plastics.

Our plastic-covered world is more that just unpleasant to look at, it may have the potential to kill us all