The public health problem of our time – and how you can help

Plastic is everywhere. We pump crude oil out of the ground and then process it into virtually anything we want.

It is on and in all your electronics. Kitchens and bathrooms are largely coated with it. About 60% of all clothing is technically considered some type of plastic. Then there’s furniture, cars, ships and even the internal coating of beverage cans.

Our world is awash with plastic, not only in our environment, but also in our food and our bodies. About 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year, including a staggering five trillion plastic bags and 583 billion plastic bottles.

That’s about 650 plastic bags per person per year, with each plastic bag taking about 1,000 years to decompose. All that plastic breaks down into microscopic fragments that can quickly enter our bodies.

Studies show that microplastics can enter our bloodstream and even end up in our brains, where they can cause inflammation, neurological disorders or even neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.

But plenty of action is being taken to change our addiction to plastic. The End Plastics Initiative, part of the Washington DC-based Earth Day organization, aims to reduce our dependence on plastic by 60% over the next 16 years.

Reckon spoke with Aidan Charron, director of Earth Day’s plastics initiative, about what’s happening in that world and how we can cut back.

Consider:

There still seems to be a lack of public awareness about plastic. Some people don’t believe it is harmful. What strategies do you use when you encounter people who have no idea or don’t want to think this is bad for us?

Aidan Charron:

That’s part of the reason we call it Babies vs. Plastics report. There is a large group of people who say they do not want to believe the major problems we have with plastic. That’s difficult when you have to deal with all the evidence. If you don’t want to believe that oil will kill you, you should at least understand that there are 16,000 possible chemicals and only 4,200 of them are non-toxic, and that’s only because those are the only ones that have been tested. I tell people to look at some of these chemicals and what they can do to our bodies and the environment.

Why did you call it babies versus plastic?

We wanted to convey the idea that plastic affects us all and not just floats far away in the sea.

But it also doesn’t just harm minority groups, such as Indigenous people and black and brown communities. It affects everyone, including those in the frontline communities that experience the most types of pollution. We chose the name because we wanted people to know that our children are also exposed to these chemicals among groups that most of us don’t think about.

Is ending plastic a practical vision, considering that plastic is used in our clothes, phones, laptops, advanced medical devices and even in our bodies?

We’re not completely crazy. We know that plastic will never disappear completely. That is why we have come up with the target of a 60% reduction by 2040. We consider this feasible because 50% of all plastic is single-use. So phasing out single-use plastics and making sure all materials are reusable means we even have to move backwards to some materials that are actually inert, like glass or aluminum, and in many cases stainless steel.

We can go ahead and immediately shut down 50% of our production. This means that we have to come up with alternatives to the plastic we put in laptops and, for example, create building materials that do not use regenerative materials. PVC pipes, a common construction material, are one of the most dangerous types of pipes available. If we can get rid of these things, it will eventually get us to that 60% reduction goal.

Is there a new technology that can replace plastics?

We’re a little hesitant to talk about it because sometimes the new technology or material turns out not to be so good for the environment or people five years from now. The ones I’ve seen are pretty cool and are things like mycelium or mushrooms to replace Styrofoam packaging. The question with this kind of thing is: is it scalable? Is it expensive? What investments do we need to make to make this happen?

Then there’s hemp, right? Hemp is an extremely versatile material that we seem to ignore.

The alternatives to fast-fashion clothing are well known, and it is an industry in which we can easily make progress in replacing them. That would be organic hemp, organic cotton and wool, all of which are regenerative. It’s just better than carrying stuff that could also power a car. It’s wild to think we carry oil.

How can ordinary people like me and my neighbors cut back on our plastic use?

Any environmentalist you speak to will tell you that you need to use more renewable and reusable materials. And that’s actually the simplest thing: use reusable water bottles, preferably made of glass, stainless steel or aluminum.

If possible, switch from Saran wrap to tin foil or tin foil. I also use cotton and beeswax to cover my food. Plastic Tupperware has established itself in every part of society in the US. Switch to glass. By heating plastic food containers in the microwave, you expose yourself to the plastic in the container and the microplastics already in your food.

Many of these big plastic-using companies, like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle, are doing everything they can to greenwash us. And yet I know they hire highly intelligent business leaders and creatives who know for certain that the products they produce are harmful to people, wildlife and the environment.

Do you ever think about who these people are, what they stand for, and how it would be much easier if they would admit what we already know about their products?

Yes, it would be much easier if they were honest. Then I wouldn’t have to work so hard to make sure at least someone is honest. Part of my job is talking to government officials and making sure they are honest about plastic use.

Businesses are a little more complicated. I understand that they all have families and living expenses. But it’s hard for me to imagine the price of someone selling their soul and the souls of 8 billion people. I understand. A CEO making $200 million a year is a lot of money. But then you go further and, for example, you’re a chemical engineer at Coca-Cola developing a new line of plastics for $80,000 a year. Is that all you needed to sell out?

Do you think this has to do with the fact that plastic is such a huge and useful part of our culture and is above our views on waste, sewage and litter? How could that change?

I think that too. Hopefully, in my lifetime, more burdens will be placed on these companies regarding the harm they cause. Plastic is cheap and fast. But then there are the underlying health costs that producers don’t have to worry about.

Plastic and its additive chemicals cost the healthcare system $250 billion per year due to the various health problems it causes. That’s only in the US. Plastic producers do not have to pay anything for these costs. We will see big plastic changes as the healthcare sector gets involved.

In the same vein, do you think those big plastic manufacturers will have to bear any legal responsibility for the health problems and pollution they cause, in the same way that the EPA is gradually going after companies that put chemicals in our food and water forever?

For a long time, I felt like the EPA wasn’t doing nearly enough, and I think it can do a lot more. However, I am happy to see that they are starting to target some of these chemical companies, which makes me think that they will eventually focus on the plastics industry. We also have the global plastics treaty, which we hope can bring more awareness and policy.

I have also seen many more EPA rules and regulations, but I fear this is all for show as the agency cannot enforce what is already on the books.

To be honest, I felt the same way. It sucks because that’s what we rely on to fight these battles. The EPA has been severely underfunded for years and still lacks the resources to file lawsuits the way petrochemical and chemical companies do. It’s tough to compete against some of the most profitable companies ever, even for the government. Then you get certain governments getting through that gut financing, which makes audits and environmental regulations much more difficult.