What’s the problem with plastic, it’s recyclable. What has this got to do with the ocean?

Plastic sandwich wrap, plastic lids for “to go” beverage cups, plastic bottles that dispense shampoo, hand sanitizer and soap. Plastics can be found just about everywhere. Plastic seems to be essential for just about everything we do. But increasing there’s talk about a plastic crisis. WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? Why is there so much plastic ending up in the ocean? Aren’t plastics recyclable? Isn’t the solution to get more people to recycle? SO MANY QUESTIONS. Let’s break down the issue and see if we can find answers.

What exactly is plastic?

Generally, the definition for plastic is pretty broad. A wide range of manmade materials are considered to be plastic. Some of their basic characteristics are: 

●made from polymers or long chains of molecules

●substances that can be molded, extruded, or pressed to make a variety of products

●light weight, flexible, inexpensive to make, and durable

●manufactured from fossil fuels and sometimes recycled materials

A discussion about plastic is complicated by the different chemical recipes used to make each type of plastic. The names of the different types plastic are sometimes unpronounceable. The names are long: polypropylene, polystyrene, polyurethane, and polyvinylidene chloride, for example.

The first man-made plastic was patented in 1856. Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic, was invented in 1907. In the 1940s and 1950s plastic began to be mass produced. Mass production increased the amount of plastic appearing in the marketplace. In 1950 the annual production of plastics worldwide was 1.5 million metric tons or 1.6 US tons. By 2020 that amount had soared to an annual amount of 367 million metric tons or 404.0 US million tons. That’s nearly 240 times MORE plastic produced annually in 2020 than in 1950. That’s A LOT of plastic!

So what, isn’t it recyclable?

The truth is that even plastics labeled recyclable are rarely recycled. Global estimates of what actually happens to plastic is that the vast majority is either carelessly discarded, deposited in a landfill, or incinerated, meaning it goes up in smoke. Very little plastic is actually recycled. It is estimated that 55 percent of global plastic waste is simply thrown out. Another 25 percent of plastic is incinerated and only 20 percent is recycled. But wait, this isn’t the whole story.

Just because a product has the recycling symbol – three arrows in a circular pattern – it doesn't mean that the plastic can be recycled. The numbers inside the recycle symbol identify the type of plastic. The number is supposed to help to identify whether the item is made from a recyclable plastic. Again, this is NOT the full story. Part of the issue is that recycling programs are not identical. Communities and trash haulers vary in what types of plastic they are able to recycle and this may vary with time. Even when plastic is collected, it may not be recycled . In may, in fact, be stored or discarded as trash. The determining factor for whether plastics are recycled is the economy for recyclable materials. Sometime the cost to recycle is not sustainable given market forces. Sometimes the collection of plastic may continue when the market is weak because local governmenst or waste companies want local residents to believe their plastic is being recycled.

Recycling versus downcycling.

Recycling means that a product can be remade. Put a plastic water bottle into the recycle bin and expect it will become a new plastic water bottle. Even if this did happen, plastic recycling is expensive. It requires water and energy for production and creates air and water pollutants. It is often cheaper to make plastic from raw materials rather than from recycled material. Even when recycling is possible, it can’t be sustained indefinitely. Plastics degrade as they go through the recycling process. For that reason most plastics are downcycled rather than recycled. Downcycling that previously used plastic is transformed into a different type of plastic, one that can never be recycled. For example, a plastic bag might be used to make a composite form of lumber, tote bags, or park benches.

In summary, the majority of plastic is single use. When thrown out it is either buried, burned or if mismanaged ends up as plastic pollution on land or in the ocean. What plastic does enter the recycling process it is more likely to be downcycled than recycled.

Identifying the source of the problem.

The rate of plastic waste generated per person daily varies worldwide. The highest per person rates have been recorded in Kuwait, Guyana, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, and the United States. Although the citizens of these six countries generate high levels of plastic waste, these countries don’t represent the greatest risk for their plastic ending up in the water. The United States, Australia, Japan, and South Korea are examples of countries where their economies can support effective waste management infrastructure. This means that when discarded their plastic is less likely to end up in the ocean than in countries with economies that are stretched thin. Plastic pollution is a serious environmental and social problem. Even in countries with sufficient infrastructure there are likely to be industrial sources for plastic pollution.

How much plastic is there in the ocean?

Plastic enters the oceans by blowing off the land; washing down rivers and rolling out with the tides; dumping off of barges and being released by industrial marine sources. The result is that bottles, bags, syringes, toys, fishing nets and ropes, and so many other forms of plastic debris can be found in the ocean.

Plastic isn’t water soluble. This means it doesn’t dissolve, disappear in the vastness of the ocean. Plastic, however, through exposure to ultraviolet light and the mechanical forces of waves, and wind, and temperature changes can deteriorate, broken down into smaller and smaller particles. These small particles, also known as microplastics, float on the ocean’s surface, sink to the bottom and settle into the sediments, become air born and dispersed in the wind, ingested by marine organisms, and wash ashore.

It is estimated that there are more than five trillion plastic particles floating on the ocean’s surface. Accumulations of plastic have been observed worldwide. One of the most well-known example is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, estimated to contain 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. Fifty-two percent of the plastic in the ocean is estimated to have come from commercial fishing, items such as fishing lines, nets and ropes. Another 47 percent has been categorized as hard, sheet and film plastic. If it were possible to immediately prevent humans from contributing to the plastic waste entering the ocean, plastics would still be found in the oceans for many, many years into the future.

These facts have serious, if not dire, consequences for the well-being of the ocean’s creatures and for humans. These consequences include but are not limited to entanglement with fishing gear of turtles, birds, and whales; ingestion of plastic resulting in starvation because animal’s stomachs are filled with indigestible material; asphyxiation when airways are blocked; and cancer from toxic chemicals related to plastic pollution. All these things affect humans by disrupting fishing resources, clogging marine transportation corridors, creating toxic zones, and much more.

So what is the solution? How do we save the ocean?

Can we save the ocean?

Can we save the ocean? That question is as big as the ocean. It is also related to the question: Can we put a stop to global warming? The answer to both questions depend on the status of the extraction and production of oil products. As the demand for electric vehicles increases, the need for oil to run vehicles will decline. This, however, doesn’t eliminate the need for oil. The oil industry has another market for oil that will keep exploration and production profitable for the foreseeable future. Oil companies make more than $400 billion annually with plastic. Analysts expect plastic production to triple in the next 30 years. In this same time period, it is highly unlikely that a way will be found to recycle or downcycle fast enough to offset the current rate of plastic production let alone an accelerated pace. It also is unlikely that an effective way will be found to clean up the plastic that already contaminates the ocean.

The solution to saving the ocean lies in finding a way to reduce global demand for plastic. Without this reduction oil will continue to be produced, gases will continue to be released that add to our planet’s warming climate, and there will be an even greater need to bury and burn plastic waste and more will wash out or dumped in the sea.

Resources: the documentary The Story of Plastic, the article How big oil misled the public into believing plastic would be recycled. and the website Our world in data.