The Problem With Plastic

Nothing exemplifies modernity like plastic. It’s cheap. It can be molded into all sorts of shapes and textures, dyed any color or be transparent. Unlike glass or ceramics, it can be flexible and durable, and it won’t rot or corrode like wood or metal. These qualities make it ideal for use in shopping bags, drinking straws, car bumpers, water pipes, even paint. On the other hand, because most plastic doesn’t biodegrade, it’s with us, literally, forever. Almost 80% of all plastic ever produced is entombed in landfills, strewn across the world’s landscapes or drifting in the seas, where it can ensnare marine life or be devoured, injuring and sometimes killing creatures. Rising awareness of these downsides has provoked new restrictions around the world, particularly on single-use plastics. But alternative materials exact their own toll on the environment.

More than 60 countries have introduced bans or taxes aimed at reducing plastic waste, with many charging a few pennies for plastic shopping bags. Plastic straws and single-use plastic cutlery and plates will be completely prohibited in the European Union by 2021 in a drive to shift people to alternatives such as bamboo forks, cardboard containers and reusable coffee cups. European countries spend an estimated 630 million euros ($700 million) annually removing plastic waste, a tourism-killer, from coastlines. Cities, such as New York, are banning or taxing plastic bags as well. More companies are reducing plastics in product packaging, which accounts for about 40% of all plastic. Calls to use less of the material have grown more urgent since 2018 when China, which once imported as much as 45% of the world’s used plastic for disposal or recycling, stopped accepting the waste in part because much of it was contaminated. Even before China changed its policy, just 9% of plastic was being recycled. The process isn’t always cost-effective since the half-dozen main chemical variants of plastic must be separated first.