The War on Plastic Heats Up

We consumers have become unwittingly hooked on plastic. Manufacturers have increasingly resorted to plastic in packaging their products. (Don´t you just love those deceivingly humongous packages that hold a tiny product when unwrapped leaving you with a big mess?) We buy them, unwrap the product, and discard the plastic. In the trash it goes to be carted to the landfills of America where it sits for hundreds of years before disintegrating. Sometimes it doesn´t even get there – it is discarded as litter along our highways and byways, on our beaches, in our streams, waterways, and oceans. Plastic is a big problem – bigger than we may even expect or of which we are aware. We must now address this problem seriously. It isn´t a simple one nor will it take extreme sacrifice to resolve. But we must begin now.

Plastic pollution has become an epidemic of environmental destruction. The facts are alarming and it is worldwide in nature. In the United States alone, consumers use $4 billion in plastic bags a year numbering in the hundreds of millions. It is estimated less than 5% are ever recycled. The rest end up in landfills – or worse, in our environment as litter - where they can take hundreds of years to decompose and even when they do so they are pollutant in nature. The chemicals of which they were made enter our water supplies in some quantity. They become harmful fodder for animals and birds.

Marine debris contaminates the world´s oceans. Sixty to eighty percent of this debris is man-caused plastic from littering ashore washed into the oceans via storm drains or rivers. Ocean currents carry this debris far and wide, sometimes thousands of miles from the source. It may not disintegrate for many, many years.

Marine mammals and birds confuse lightweight floating plastic as food and ingest it often times resulting in a prolonged struggle with starvation and death. (A sea turtle sees a floating plastic bag as a jelly fish, a sought after delicacy to the turtle. Eating it may eventually kill the already endangered turtle.)

Collection, hauling, and disposal of plastic bag waste create an additional environmental impact. An estimated 8 billion pounds of plastic bags, wraps and sacks enter the waste stream every year in the United States alone putting an unnecessary burden on our diminishing land fill space and causing air pollution if incinerated. These numbers are unfortunately growing day by day.

Some cities and states are recognizing the problem and are becoming proactive in solving it. San Francisco has initiated a policy whereby large retailers are encouraged to provide alternatives to plastic virtually discouraging plastic bags. Many other are doing the same including Boston recently considering possible city rules restricting the use of plastic bags.

However, the plastic bag makers are not going quietly into the night. The small town of Fairfax, California found that out when they decided to ban plastic bags in local stores. According to an article in E Magazine in their July/August ´08 issue, "Plastic Industry Strikes Back", the plastic bag makers threatened to sue whereupon the town retreated from immediately initiating the program. Other cities such as Oakland, Annapolis, and Philadelphia followed suit, intimidated by the threat, according to E Magazine´s rendition.

The basis for the legal stance by the plastics manufacturers was that substituting paper was far more environmentally harmful than plastic bags. In that they are probably somewhat correct. Research shows that making paper bags as substitutes for plastic is even more wasteful of energy resources and emits more greenhouse gases making that choice one of prime consideration. However, are the manufacturers considering the overall polluting aspects of plastic in their arguments? No, apparently not – just the manufacturing aspects. And, to argue that plastic is somewhat less environmentally costly than paper is rather a disingenuous approach to the problem wouldn´t you say? Find a better way to package and, when using plastic, do not overdo the packaging – a far too common mistake.

In fairness, work is being done on a biodegradable plastic bag which appears promising. But not until the current uproar did this take place; again, industry is always behind the power curve based on their profit motive, bottom line approach to any problem. When enough pressure is applied, they have the talent and innovativeness to change

There have been numerous entrepreneurs jumping on this trend away from plastic into a more environ-friendly reusable bag for shopping, etc. The internet is replete with ads for various types of alternatives. Some are good, others complicate the problem for while the bag is reusable it is also another plastic product. As an example, one large chain, with more than one hundred supermarket locations in California, offers their customers a bag with the company´s logo on it for a low price of $.99 each. Two major problems with this though. First, the bag is made of polypropylene which is another pollutant cousin of plastic. Their bag does not appear designed for long term use, exceptionally sturdy or durable, and will undoubtedly be another discard on the way in short order to the landfill. Secondly, the bag is imported from China! Just what we need now – another polluting product from our biggest trade deficit rival. Must China solve all our problems?

What can we do as consumers? Well, let manufacturers and retailers know that you are watching them and their practices. Nothing ever happens until the buying public becomes active in solving a problem. Problems can seldom be legislated no matter what politicians say. In fact, many times legislation complicates the matter and results in more problems than the one legislatures tried to solve.

Most manufacturers and retailers have websites. Email them with your concerns and complaints. Write them letters. Get your local newspaper reporters involved. Bad press is the last thing a company wants.

Take individual responsibility. Even the small act of buying a canvas tote bag or two to take to the market can eliminate hundreds, maybe thousands of plastic bags over time.

I recently interviewed Mr. Frank Tinelli, aka ´Go Green Bag Man´, and wrote an enlightening article on his own battle with plastic bags. Frank has recently begun making a reusable canvas tote shopping bag with goals in mind to make a difference in the war. He formed a business, Go Green Aid Company, which appears to be doing well and is a supplier of ammo in the plastic wars. Wish him well. It´s a start. His motto is ´Go Green is More Than a Slogan; It´s a Lifestyle!´

No need to become a ranting and raving fanatic on this issue. We don´t need more enviro-whackos to go overboard on the problem. However, each of us can and should do something on a daily basis to reduce, reuse, and recycle. We have an increasingly fragile earth. As population increases by vast leaps and bounds – especially in Third World countries – the problem of polluting plastic will continue to plague us unless we take action as individuals now and each do some small part to reduce our dependence on it.

Have you done your part today? If not, please do.