News from a Changing Planet – #2
"I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening?"
"Plastics."
Plastic is probably the topic I get asked about most often when I say that I write about climate and the environment, and the effects of consumption on both.
First off, let me express one unpopular opinion: plastic is an incredibly versatile and useful material. Typically lighter than the materials they have replaced, it is much less energy intensive to produce and transport plastic. While plastic bags are a litter scourge, plastic bags result in the emissions of fewer greenhouse gases than paper bags; the same is true for glass bottles and jars vs. plastic ones, though most glass is infinitely recyclable. Making cars and airplanes with plastic means that they are lighter, so they don’t need as much fuel to travel.
Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s talk about some of the problems with plastic, which are many and serious.
Plastic is made from oil and liquid natural gas. About 4 percent of the global oil and gas production is used as the raw material for plastics, and about the same amount is used for the energy needed to manufacture the plastic, according to some estimates.
We produce and use and mostly don’t recycle a tremendous amount of plastic. From the 1950s to today, we have produced more than 8 billion metric tons of plastic, and about half of it has been made since 2004. A 2017 study estimated that, by 2050, 12 billion metric tons of plastic will have accumulated in landfills and the environment. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade, or at least not on a time scale that we are able to measure yet. And when plastic gets in a landfill or in the environment (the ocean or elsewhere), it can leach toxic chemicals. We don’t know the long-term effects of plastic in the environment; we may be ingesting plastic, and we don’t know what that will do to us, either.
Plastic consumption and ineffective disposal is a crisis.
Based on all of that, you’re probably expecting me to come out strongly in favor of the plastic straw ban.
Sure, ban them. But plastic straws are really not the problem: Even if the popular estimates are correct and more than several billion straws are strewn across beaches and floating in the ocean, that would still only represent .03 percent of ocean plastic.
Scientists’ best estimate is that between 5 and 13 million metric tons of plastic gets into the ocean every year, on top of the 110 million tons that are likely already there. To put things in perspective, the plastic in the five ocean gyres (of which the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is just one) adds up to about 250,000 metric tons.
More than half of that plastic comes from mismanaged waste from 5 countries: China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka. A better way to solve the ocean plastic crisis would be better municipal garbage collection in those countries (and for us to stop shipping plastic that we “recycle” overseas, including to some of those countries…).
I don't think most of us need straws, though people with certain disabilities do. But plastic straws aren't the problem, and I worry that we might lose sight of the larger issue if we're busy congratulating ourselves on our paper straws. (For instance, your to-go coffee cup might be lined with plastic, making it non-recyclable; coffee creamer pods are not recyclable; K-cups aren't either for the most part, though they are supposed to be by the end of 2020, though not all facilities will be able to handle them. Those things are still everywhere!)
Providing some much needed perspective, Terry Hughes, a professor of marine biology whose work has been central to proving the link between bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and climate change, tweeted, "Has anyone actually seen a plastic straw underwater on the #GreatBarrierReef? After 34 years of reef diving - I still haven’t found ONE. Banning straws while approving new coal mines is utter madness."
Here's what I'm reading:
How Republicans in Oregon killed a climate change bill by refusing to show up for work. (New Yorker)
Here's a helpful primer on the 2020 Democratic candidates' various climate change platforms and records. (InsideClimate News)
Trump doesn't seem to know the difference between global warming and air pollution. Help. (Washington Post)
Tell me what you'd like to read about, or ask me any questions you have! I'd love to hear from you.
Tatiana
Pre-order your copy (or audiobook! read by me!) of Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have.
Find more of my work here.