Dear Dot: We’re All Fed Up with Plastic. But Here’s What We Can Do! 

Dear Pat, Judith, Kathleen, nevrinwinter, Amber, and so, so many others,

If there is one question that Dot is most consistently asked, it is this: How can I avoid plastic? (With the corollary question: What do I do with all the plastic I already have?) And though Dot has addressed a number of questions about plastic (compostable vs. biodegradable? Microplastics in our bodies?), it’s worth revisiting the topic. 

Clearly, we’re all feeling overwhelmed by the ubiquity of plastic and distrustful of what we’re hearing about it. To be fair, concerned and overwhelmed are perfectly sane responses. What’s less sane is the situation itself: Here we are, in the midst of a climate crisis largely created and amplified by the extraction, processing, and burning of fossil fuels. And even then — with more awareness of the impacts of climate change than ever before and with 89% of citizens around the world eager to see government action to address it — we’re mass producing plastic products made largely from fossil fuels, including kids’ toys, cosmetics, clothing, medical devices, food storage containers … just about anything. 

How Did We Get Here?

Dot has already guided readers along the path from a world without plastic to a world drowning in it. Short version? In 1869, the first synthetic polymer was invented by John Wesley Hyatt as a substitute for ivory. In 1909, Bakelite (the world’s first plastic) was introduced into the modern world, becoming (according to Wikipedia) “a great commercial success… used in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings, and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewelry, pipe stems, children's toys, and firearms.” In 1950, the world produced just 2.2 million tons of plastic. It now produces close to 500 million tons a year. 

And, as Our World in Data informs us, for every 5 kg of plastic produced, 1 kg ends up polluting the environment. (Our World in Data is in the UK. Translating their metric measurements, we learn that for every 11 pounds of plastic, 2.2 pounds becomes plastic pollution.) Our plastic pollution problem, it seems, has less to do with the existence of plastic than with its disposal. 

The Problem with Plastic Pollution

We could reduce plastic waste by 98% by vastly improving the means of disposing of it in developing countries. “In high-income countries, most waste is collected and sent to controlled landfills or to facilities that incinerate or recycle it,” Our World in Data’s research reveals. However, “in many low- and middle-income countries … less than half of solid household waste is collected.” Most is either burned or dumped in open dumps, where it easily leaks into the environment. 

[This is where Dot would like to point out that the corporations that benefit from plastic’s cheap price tag don’t pay for that disposal and recycling. We do.] 

But let’s be very clear: So far, we’ve been talking about reducing or eliminating plastic pollution by disposing of it properly, not about ensuring that our plastics live on via recycling. 

Recycling Isn’t All it’s Cracked up to Be

Which makes this a good time to address your question, Judith, which, to refresh everyone’s memory, was this: Can plastics recyclers be trusted to do what they say? Or are they just taking our money and ditching the plastics sent in to them? Similarly, nevrinwinter’s praiseworthy concern that people aren’t recycling properly or at all and her plea for truth deserve an honest answer: What’s true is that plastics recycling is mostly a scam. Not a “liberal scam,” as nevrinwinter’s neighbors suggest, but a fossil fuel industry scam. It’s estimated that only 9% of plastic has ever been recycled.  Plastics recycling (and/or the belief that our plastics are being recycled, even when they’re not) is an ingenious way to keep us using plastic, which is, of course, an ingenious way to expand the market for fossil fuels. 

In other words, skepticism is warranted. The fossil fuel accountability advocacy group, Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), recently released a report concluding that companies promoting the recyclability of plastics “lied.” Recycling plastic requires meticulous sorting, since there are many different types of plastic, and most of them cannot be recycled together. This sorting, of course, makes an expensive process even more expensive (and remember who’s paying!). What’s more, the quality of plastic degrades each time it is reused, becoming essentially useless after one or two cycles. And without much of a market for this degraded material, recycled plastic — theoretically more virtuous than virgin plastic — is worthless and will wind up being burned or dumped. Recycling was sold to us as a solution when it was never designed to be one, but until we reduce production, it remains the least-bad option.

But There’s Hope

But here’s something interesting, again from Our World in Data: if we can improve plastics recycling in low- and middle-income countries, we could almost eliminate plastic pollution. 

Wait … what? 

Shocking right? But here’s the reasoning: Those of us in wealthier countries, which have a fairly robust and efficient waste management system, are responsible for less than 0.5% of the world’s plastic waste. The solution, then, is to invest in basic infrastructure — collection trucks and sanitary landfills — in developing countries. According to a study, “high-income countries typically spend about $50 per person on waste management. In low-income countries, it’s $1 at most. … [so] each dollar spent upgrading systems in a low- or lower-middle-income country prevents roughly 25,000 times more plastic pollution than the same dollar spent on advanced infrastructure in a rich country.” 

Of course, this only addresses the issue of plastic pollution, not its impact on our health. For that, we’ll want to curb our own plastic use. And waste management does nothing to help us curb the production of plastic, which, for the love of all that’s truly recyclable, should stop!

And now to your question, Pat, about where to find a place in New York City to recycle your plastic film and bags: While I applaud your determination (and Dot spent many years washing out bags, collecting them, and then dropping them off at my neighborhood grocery store, which had a collection bin), your and my time is better spent on things other than sourcing where to take our plastic film and bags. In a column entitled “Dear Dot: Is Plastics Recycling a Scam?”, Dot reported that “Plastic Wars, a CBC documentary, cited experts noting that there was no economically viable way to recycle most plastics, which have ultimately ended up in a landfill — including plastic films, bags, and packaging.” 

What We Can Do

Where does all this information leave us? Well, I propose that it leaves us empowered. Armed with the truth, we can respond better, we can deploy our time and attention differently. We can stop participating in a charade. And we start, as Dot is wont to preach, by practising the 3Rs in this order: 

#1: Reduce! Use less plastic whenever possible. If you can, buy items in glass or metal containers instead of plastic. Visit the refill store in your community and stock up on shampoo and dish soap and laundry detergent. Take reusable produce bags to the grocery store. Speaking of which, go to farmers markets and buy loose produce rather than items that have been bagged and packaged. 

#2: Reuse! Okay, we’ve already amassed a ton of plastic containers — from takeout to Tupperware. What now? Repurpose what you can — turn plastic bowls into decorative planters, for example, or berry baskets into drawer organizers. Use yogurt tubs as containers for stray hardware, for craft supplies, for sewing notions. 

This is a good spot in which to address Kathleen’s question about what to use instead of plastic food storage containers and if it’s safe to reuse all those we already have. Dot recommends glass for food storage, while Marketplace editor Elizabeth leans toward metal. Neither will leach microplastics or chemicals into your leftovers (which plastic will, especially with hot or acidic food). Others prefer ceramic containers. 

Whether or not you can (relatively) safely reuse plastic containers depends on their specific chemical makeup, which is difficult to discern. The numbers on plastics (called the Base Resin Code) denote the kind of base plastic that items are made of. (Most of the soft plastic used in takeout or deli containers, for example, is #5, which is polypropylene, a somewhat more benign plastic.) Apart from the base resin, plastics contain numerous chemicals that are added to provide specific qualities, including flexibility, color, and flame-retardancy. Manufacturers are not required to let us — or even the FDA — know what these chemicals are, as they’re considered “proprietary.” Toxicology tests on plastics are performed not by the FDA, but by manufacturers themselves, which is dicey to begin with, but what’s more, there are no regulations stipulating how those toxicology tests must be performed. So it’s the Wild West out there in the world of plastic.

What we do know, according to a story in Epicurious, is that most plastics will leach their chemical additives into whatever they contain, to varying degrees of noxiousness. Extreme temperatures hasten the breaking down of plastic, so avoid heating or freezing things in plastic containers. And, since plastic sheds more microplastics and chemicals as it breaks down, toss containers at the first signs of scratches, discoloration, or wear.

#3: Recycle: Yeah, yeah, it’s less than 10% effective, but you should still follow best practices by making sure recyclables are clean-ish and properly sorted for your municipality. Also, avoid “wishcycling” — throwing in what you hope is recyclable rather than what you know for certain is — because it contaminates recycling batches, clogs machinery, and drives up costs for recycling facilities. Skip trying to recycle plastic film and bags, and just avoid them as much as you can in the first place or find ways to reuse them — lining a litter box, for instance. Also, when the option exists, purchase items made from recycled plastic to help incentivize recycling. Dot, for instance, uses Who Gives a Crap recycled plastic doggie waste bags and kitchen garbage bags. 

Dot is going to add a fourth R that should probably be our first R: Raise your voice! Join others in demanding a Global Plastics Treaty. Financially support the organizations working on it that have the largest, most effective reach — Dot loves The Story of Stuff — and keep your eye on the High Impact Coalition, a group of like-minded countries formed after the recent failure of a consensus but nonetheless focused on taking action. Talk to the manager at your local grocery stores and urge him to talk to producers about reducing plastic packaging. (One grocery store manager told Dot that he so rarely hears from customers that, when he does, the words carry a big impact.) Write to manufacturers that overpackage items. Contact your elected representatives, whether in Canada or the U.S. And don’t forget to applaud those organizations and companies who are eschewing plastics, using glass containers and offering refill options.

Dot understands and shares the concern of Bluedot readers who feel we are all drowning in plastic. We are! But taking small steps in our own lives and pushing for systemic change are good ways to push back against plastic. 

Exhaustedly,

Dot

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