The Blessing and the Bane of Plastics

The history of plastics is a rather fascinating blend of chemistry, innovation and necessity. According to the American Chemistry Council, the first plastic was developed from cellulose fibers by Alexander Parkes in 1862. In an attempt to find a material that could do everything that rubber could, but at a cheaper price, Mr. Parkes found a product that could be molded into a myriad of shapes, as well as be transparent. Unfortunately, the raw material cost was too high to be cost effective, and he lost his investors!

Since that fateful discovery however, the world has seen the development of celluloid (1869); Bakelite, the first fully synthetic man-made material (1907); and rayon and cellophane (1891-1913). The 1920s, 30s and 40s brought us, nylon, PVC, Teflon^tm and Silly Putty^tm, which in 1949, sold more than any other toy in history.

Fast forward to 2009, where there is a remarkable range of items that were either made safer, lighter or more durable because of plastics and a myriad of other items whose production would never have been possible without plastics technology. From car parts to medical supplies, space shuttles to computer components, Rubbermaid^tm and Tupperware^tm , plastics have truly revolutionized our world.

But wait! There's always a catch. You can hardly get rid of the silly stuff once it is produced. It is so durable and so multifaceted in its construct that recycling it can often be costly and difficult. What to do, oh, what to do?

Roughly 20% of all waste going into landfills are plastics
Fewer than 2% of plastic grocery bags are recycled
The average person uses an average of 500 plastic bags a year

Recycle

WiseGeek.com discusses the types of plastics that can be recycled and reminds us that not every area picks up every kind of plastic- recyclable or not. You just have to check with your local municipality.

The research that I have done on “Green” issues since my last column has lead me to the conclusion that while recycling is a habit we should all learn, it is not always the most effective means of being a better steward of our resources. The Pollution Issues website notes some of the inherent difficulties of plastics recycling, one of the major ones being contamination of the recycling “feedstock,” sorted materials being prepared for wholesale, where “ [e]ven a small amount of a foreign plastic in recycling feedstock can lead to the appreciable deterioration of properties, and it is difficult to achieve a high degree of purity. “ In such case, an entire load of plastics would be rejected, and sent to landfill, from what I gathered.

Additionally, the cost of recycling is sometimes prohibitive to the implementation of recycling programs, which depends largely on 1) a market/ buyer for the recyclable materials, which are in essence, a commodity, and 2) large scale community involvement to make the recycling of items cost effective. An article at Mindfully.org* entitled “ The Problem with Plastics ” outlines some health and overall cost issues of plastics recycling.

With our current economic difficulties, can cities and states, many of which are just struggling for solvency, afford to put large amounts of tax money into programs that may not break even at the present time? It is certainly a question worth considering. Specific things are just going to need to take priority, pragmatically speaking, of course. Is it going to be welfare or the environment? Education or bailouts? It is a hard decision to make. I, for one, will continue recycling and encouraging you to do the same. I just hope that my community can keep affording it. In the mean time:

The Truly Better Options

Reuse

Reduce!

Please, keep in mind making this switch is huge and takes time to become a habit . Alas, do not give up. I probably have a dozen different bags that come and go from kitchen to van, and it took me the better part of a year to get used to grabbing them out of the hatch every time I went in to a store... any store. Even now, I forget sometimes and freak out the cashier by insisting she cram as much as possible into the plastic one she offers. Another option: just blow off bags completely for small purchases. If I'm running into a book or shoe store or the drug store for bread, milk or just a few small items, I don't even bother with a bag. After all, no code requires that you take one.

As with power walking or doing aerobics for the first time, you have to get beyond worrying what others think about you doing this stuff. Who cares!? This is not about what other people think, right? This is about doing a small, simple good thing.

Arguing the Ideas

Know, too, there are always two sides to the argument, even on plastic bags. My biggest gripe about them, personally, has been the litter often created by irresponsible people. They are truly a blight in that respect and one of the last things I want to see stuck in my community's trees and floating in the rivers in which I paddle are plastic bags (and styrofoam tm ); the birds and the fish aren't too crazy about them either.

Two links I found are from American Plastic Manufacturing and a blog called Quirk and Quarks, from the CBC. Both take largely opposing views, and I had a really hard time accepting some of the assertions put forth by the APM, based on observations alone. However, I found a few comments on the blog site instructive. One in particular from a F. Weiler noted, “ There is no one magic bullet that "solves" such problems [as plastic bag pollution] and because the issue is so complex we need to remember that addressing [the] same must also be multi-faceted. Sorry ... no simple and simple-minded solution exists!”

Well said, Mr. Weiler.

Next month: Getting Crunchy with Compost
A few extra interesting articles

If you have ideas that have worked in your community or family about “going green” and you would like to share them with other Meridian readers, please email me here (no paper mail please!): gaylor@meridianmagazine.com