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 Market Mysteries of the week

  Can we ever get rid of plastic waste?

Answer:

No, pretty much every piece of plastic that has ever been made will be on this planet longer than humans.

Corporations will need to stop making it.

Why is it so hard to make plastic disappear?

We created plastic to be cheap, light, and durable,

which is why it’s so hard to break our toxic relationship with this

miracle material

. Plastic has driven considerable advances in every aspect of human life. Plastic is all around us, from the cars we drive to the shoes we wear and the food we buy. Plastic was created to feel disposable. So, plastic was just tossed in the landfill for most of the last century without a second thought.

Where does the plastic go?

Most plastic ends up in landfills

overseas to be burned, releasing toxic fumes,

or blown into the ocean to become marine debris

. More than

one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute

, and over 400 million tons of plastic are produced each year. Once discarded, plastic just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, called

microplastics

, without actually decomposing. These microplastics collect near the ocean's surface to form patches of floating trash pushed around by ocean currents. This

plastic dust can stretch across thousands of miles of open ocean

, existing in every world ocean and waterway, even the Mediterranean Sea.

The lightweight microplastics tend to float near the surface where the food chain begins. As tiny plankton eat these particles and larger creatures eat the plankton,

the microplastics accumulate inside animals without ever breaking down entirely.

It’s become more and more common to see videos of fish caught with a stomach full of brightly colored plastic bits.

Is this a big problem?

Yes, but we don't even know how big yet

.

The average human eats about a credit card worth of microplastics every week

, even more for people who eat a lot of fish. Health experts don't know what long-term effects plastic will have on human bodies, but scientists have found microplastics pretty much everywhere, from glaciers to the ocean's depths and

even in human blood

.

The problem isn't just that plastic is everywhere, but that

plastic tends to cling to even more harmful substances

. Toxic gunk like oils, fertilizer, and gasoline love to stick to plastic. They can glue themselves together,

get into our waterways, and eventually into the food on our table

. As these harmful substances collect and move up the food chain, a process called

biomagnification

, top predators like eagles, orcas, bears, and

humans end up with the highest amount of toxins.

What about recycling?

Recycling isn’t a magic wand

that erases the impact of plastic use. As we’ve highlighted in past pieces,

recycling can be largely ineffective

. Due to issues with contamination or lack of facilities, only about 30% of our trash gets recycled. Food waste and plastics make up

nearly half of what ends up in our landfills.

Plastic must be broken down into its basic blocks to be reassembled into a new shape. However, the wide variety of plastic types can make recycling multiple kinds together challenging. Even if a plastic fork can be broken down and made into a new one, most plastic is downgraded by the recycling process. As a result,

only 5% of all plastic in the US actually gets recycled

. The rest ends up in landfills or gets incinerated for electricity generation.

Recycling doesn’t stop the plastic from reaching a landfill. It just delays it.

The solution is not to recycle more plastic but rather to make less overall.

Where do businesses come in?

Fixing the plastic problem will require businesses to rethink their product lifecycle

.

 Just 100 corporations account for 90% of plastic waste 

worldwide, and Coca-Cola is the largest polluter. Coke’s packaging is the

most common litter on beaches worldwide

. Though Coca-Cola has committed to sourcing from recycled plastics and recycling as much as it produces, making more plastic from recycled materials is not a long-term solution. Coke will need to find an alternative to plastic.

Not every alternative so far is a good one

. New plastic-alternative bioplastics are made from natural sources like starch and cellulose instead of refined petroleum. Companies like

Worldcentric

market their 100% compostable utensils to replace standard single-use plastic utensils, but these bioplastics can’t be recycled and can only be broken down by a specialized facility.

The key to addressing pollution is to

stop making plastic

altogether.

More than half of all plastic is produced to be used once

and then discarded; think plastic wrap, take-out containers, packing foam, and water bottles.

Corporations will need to reevaluate their packaging, products, and manufacturing processes to cut single-use plastics.

I stopped using plastic straws. Are we saved?

Great work, but the burden of responsibility ultimately falls on companies.

We have to raise awareness

to sway both public opinion and corporate policy away from our dependence on plastics.

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