By Patricia Houser
For Nature’s Sake
Patricia Houser
Plastic is a marvel of industrial and scientific innovation, part of a 20th century chemical revolution that today provides essential equipment in a range of fields. The role of catheters, breathing tubes and more comes to mind in medical settings.
Still, as the industry evolved, inventing ever more consumer conveniences and throwaway products, it often did not account for the impacts, for instance, of chemicals in plastic that can be leached into food, groundwater and air. Many consumer plastics are also designed to only be used once. “Single-use” products comprise about half of all plastic waste, so that people regularly throw out mostly unrecyclable products and buy more.
Meanwhile, discarded plastic persists in the environment for hundreds of years, often breaking down into “microplastics,” fragments smaller than 5 millimeters (about the diameter of a pencil eraser), light enough to be airborne or washed into streams.
The accumulation of that waste can be disruptive and deadly in places like the ocean, where 100 million marine animals die from plastic waste per year.
The global plastic glut also infiltrates the air in our homes and businesses, where carpets and upholstery and clothes made from synthetic materials release microfibers into the air that can then, according to research, be inhaled. We also unwittingly consume plastic in foodstuffs like salt, beer, vegetables and fruits, according to recent research.
A famous analysis of several studies, completed in 2019 at the University of Newcastle in Australia, concluded that humans may consume an estimated 5 grams – a credit-card sized amount of plastic – per week.
The United Nations in March approved a landmark agreement to create the world’s first-ever global plastic pollution treaty. The US federal government in June passed a ban on single-use plastic items in all national parks (no more takeaway cups or plastic forks where the buffalo roam in Yellowstone).
While governments are confronting the challenge of plastic waste, we can also, as individuals, investigate and act. For more on the issue, consider the questions and answers below:
- True or False: The triangular symbol stamped on many types of plastic in the US, made by three arrows with a number in the middle, is our government’s assurance that those objects can be recycled.
- Which one of the following is NOT an example of “single use” plastic? a) plastic bags; b) the clear plastic box that strawberries come in; c) plastic baby bottles; d) a Styrofoam take-out “clam shell” container; e) the plastic wrapper for paper towels; f) baby diapers; g) take-out coffee cups (paper lined with plastic film)
- Complete the sentence: “Microplastics have been found in:” a) the snow on Mount Everest; b) the deepest of ocean trenches; c) human placentas; d) the bodies of fish; e) apples; f) the Connecticut River; g) rain in the Grand Canyon; h) all of the above
- True/False: Researchers have found more microplastics in bottled water than in tap water.
- Which of the following clothing items will release the most plastic microfibers into the air and laundry rinse water? a) a polyester fleece jacket; b) a 100 percent cotton jacket; c) a 100 percent wool jacket
- Which two of the following, according to environmental advocates, should be the highest priority for individuals seeking to do their part in fighting the plastic waste crisis? a) Refuse b) reduce c) reuse d) recycle
Answers: 1. False: The triangle with number in the center on plastic is called the resin identification code, used by the plastic industry to promote the idea that different types of plastic can be recycled. In reality, most plastics are not technically or practically recyclable. According to a 2021 report on plastics and microplastics, from New Haven-based Environment & Human Health, Inc., it’s mainly the plastics labeled with a 1 or 2 that are recyclable.
It’s also important, say local officials, not to “wish-cycle,” throwing everything in the recycling in hopes it will go through. Robert Brinton, the director of Public Works and town engineer in Orange, and Steven Johnson, Milford’s assistant public works director, said putting things like plastic bags and polystyrene packaging in the recycling bin are actually counterproductive. At the recycling plant in Shelton, says Brinton, “If plastic bags are found in single stream recycling loads, the entire load is rejected as contaminated and is disposed of as trash.”
An easy guide for what to put in recycling can be found at RecycleCT.com, which can also be downloaded as an app on your smart phone.
2. C: Plastic baby bottles are the only category in this list that are designed for reuse. Even reusable plastic can be fraught, however. The Cleveland Clinic and others point out that many plastic bottles and sippy cups are made with the plastic polypropylene, and shed millions of microscopic plastic particles into the liquid they contain.
3. H: All of the above.
4. True: A 2019 study showed that individuals who drink bottled water ingest around 90,000 microplastic particles from their water every year, while those who consume only tap water are likely to take in the smaller amount of 4,000 microplastics per year.
5. A: “Fleece,” despite its name, is typically made from polyester, and so sheds pieces of plastic in the wash and into the air of your home. Microfibers that reach sewage treatment plants from your bathroom drains are not totally filtered out at the plant.
6. A and B: Refuse and reduce. Before recycling and reusing, say experts, we should aim to reduce our reliance on plastics.
For an explanation of why recycling cannot be the only answer to plastic waste, read “Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work and Will Never Work,” from May’s Atlantic Magazine, co-authored by former Environmental Protection Agency official Judith Enck.
Experts liken the global plastic glut to an overflowing sink, where mopping up the waste will not solve the problem if you do not also “turn off the plastic tap.”
Patricia Houser, PhD, AICP, shares her exploration of local and regional environmental issues in this column as a member of the nonpartisan Milford Environmental Concerns Coalition.