Michael O’Neil
Matrix 1
659 Words
The Plastic Problem
Bettina Hassener of the New York Times describes the problem of plastic waste as the
plastic footprint. She argues that many people are aware of the issue with carbon dioxide
emissions and clean drinking water, but plastic is one issue that people remain ignorant about.
Plastic is so widely used because it is cheap, easy to manufacture, and has a wide variety of
different properties making it suitable for many applications. According to the EPA, plastics
only occurred for less than 1% of the United States’ municipal solid waste in 1960; however, this
number increased to 12% in recent years.
Plastic Waste Disposal
According to Discover Magazine, 63 pounds of plastic per person ends up in a landfill
each year in the United States. About 16% of municipal solid waste in the US is plastic. The
article cites the EPA, which states that only 6.8% of total plastics were recycled in 2007.
However, 36.6% of plastic soda bottles and 28% of plastic water and milk jugs were recycled
that year. I think this shows two potential problems. The first problem is that these statistics
could conclude plastics which are not recyclable, which is clearly a sustainability problem.
These second issue is that consumers may not know what plastics, such as packaging material,
are recyclable. Also, cash refund for recycling only applies to bottles, so maybe if it applied for
other plastics it could increase awareness and incentive to recycle.
Plastic Recycling
The process of recycling potentially has its own sustainability issues. The plastic must
first be transported from the pickup site, typically outside residential homes. Energy is then
consumed in the process of converting the used plastic into new products. One article in Popular
Mechanics did a study on this and found that recycled plastic bottles uses 76% less energy
overall than using new material. However there are some recycling processes where the plastic
must be “downcycled.” Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) soda bottles are usually recycled into
polyester fibers for carpets are clothing. It is much more expensive to recycle PET into new PET
than it is to make it from petroleum.
Plastic in the Ocean
According to Ed Fitzgerald, a writer for the Ecology Global Network, about 10% of the
world’s plastic waste ends up in the ocean. The waste, carried by ocean currents, gets trapped in
ocean dead zones. The plastic dump in the Atlantic Ocean is estimated to be twice the size of the
United States. This plastic slowly breaks down overtime, and can be mistaken by food by
smaller organisms. The ratio of the mass of plankton, which serve as food for small fish, to
plastic debris is one to six. If the indigestible plastic makes its way up the food chain, it could
potentially end up in the fish we eat. Some of the plastic also sinks to the bottom of the ocean,
damaging the ecosystems and life forms of the sea bed. According to Wassener, cleanup of the
plastic debris is very difficult because of the small size of the degraded plastic debris. There is
also no single nation responsible for maintaining the environmental sustainability of the oceans,
so cleanup and prevention tasks fall in the hands of non-government organizations.
Solutions
One solution would be for manufacturers to be more efficient with their plastic. For
example, Poland Springs altered their design for their water bottle and made the cap size smaller
which so less plastic is used per bottle. While this helps reduces plastic waste, it also could have
increased their sales as they advertised this on their products. I think that consumers may be
more inclined to buy products which are labeled as environmentally friendly. Consumers
should also be more conscious about their plastic waste. Reusable water bottles are better than
using individual water bottles. If consumers want to purchase bottled water, they should buy the
larger gallon or more sizes rather than the individual water bottles to save plastic.
References
Numbers Plastics, From Manufacturing to Recycling to Long Death in a Landfill . (2009,
October 21). Retrieved November 5, 2012, from Discover Magazine:
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/oct/21-numbers-plastics-manufacturing-recyclingdeath-landfill
Plastics. (2012, July 24). Retrieved November 5, 2012, from EPA:
http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/plastics.htm
Bassener, B. (2011, August 14). Raising Awareness of Plastic Waste. Retrieved November 5,
2012, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/business/energyenvironment/raising-awareness-of-plastic-waste.html?_r=0
Fitzgeralrd, E. (2008, August 14). Pacific Ocean Plastic Waste Dump. Retrieved November 5,
2012, from Ecology Global Network: http://www.ecology.com/2008/08/14/pacificplastic-waste-dump/
Hutchinson, A. (2008, November 13). Is Recycling Worth It? PM Investigates its Economic and
Environmental Impact. Retrieved November 5, 2012, from Popular Mechanics:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/recycling/4291566-2