plastics
Properties
The name plastic(s) is derived from ‘plasticity’ a term in engineering used to describe a material that is able to deform without fracturing4 so plastic has almost endless shaping capabilities as well as being cheap, light-weight and durable.2 It can also be formed non-pourous; creating vacuum when sealed, becoming an unrivalled, lightweight packaging option for extending lifespan of food exponentially.3 Ultimately those highly desirable properties unrivalled by most other materials paired with very few restrictions on it’s use has resulted in companies using it at will for decades.
Synthesising
Plastics are also called a polymers and are usually manfucactured to mimic naturally occurring counterparts like that of cellulose which is abundant on earth in plants and algae or commercially in paper or cellophane wrap.4 Unlike the natural polymers or bio-polymers plastics are largely synthesised from chemicals found in oil, natural gas or coal (fossil fuels), most plastics are based on the carbon atom which link togther to form chemical bonds. If the atoms form long chains like pearls on a string then these polymers are classed as thermoplastics which make up 92% of plastic produced worldwide,5 one of the main properties of which is they are meltable. These groups of atoms are used to make unit cells called monomers which are combined to form polymers or plastics, when the connection of the atoms forms two or three-dimensional networks instead of one-dimensional these are called thermoset plastics. The formation of monomers begins with the separation of hydrocarbons from fossil fuels in to pure streams of chemicals, a “cracking process” is then undertaken and with a catalyst the raw materials are then formed in to the monomers ethylene, propylene and butene and through the further mechanisms of polymerisation and polycondensation are used to form the base of most plastics called resins7 or resin granules, with additives included during the process to create or remove unwanted properties.4
The six most common types of resins or plastics are often marked with a code8 and all outside those marked as other if at all.9 The codes serves as a way to distinguish them as a safety point but to also aid in sorting for possible recycling at end of use, but not all types can be and certainly not as a single component.
Plastic Types
Ease of Recycling
PET
Polyethylene Terephthalate
Bottles for water, soft drinks, juices cleaners etc.
HDPE
High-Density Polyethylene
Toys, milk bottles, shampoo bottles, pipes, houseware etc.
PVC
Polyvinyl chloride
Window frames, profiles, floor and wall covering, pipes, cable insulation, garden hoses, inflatable pools, etc.
LDPE
Low-Density Polyethylene
Reusable bags, trays and containers, agricultural film (PE-LD), food packaging film (PE-LLD), etc
PP
Polypropylene
Food packaging, sweet and snack wrappers, hinged caps, microwave - proof containers, pipes, automotive parts, etc.
PS
Polystyrene
Eyeglasses frames, plastic cups, egg trays (PS); packaging, building insulation (PS-E) etc.
Others
Bisphenol A & Others
Hub caps (ABS); optical fibres (PBT); eyeglasses lenses, roofing sheets (PC); Touch screens (PMMA); cable coating in telecommunications (PTFE); and many others in aerospace, medical implants, surgical devices, membranes, valves & seals, etc.
Demand
The versatility of plastics and relative low cost it’s hard to imagine any other scenario playing out other than worldwide adoption followed by what can only be described as an addictive dependancy at an accelerated rate. Since it’s inception in the 1950’s it has risen from 2.3 million tons per year to an output of 443 million tons in 2015,12 the last 15 years alone contributing 50% of all plastic ever created, and it shows no sign of slowing.13
Plastic Production Growth Per Year
Source 13
Lab to Landfill
You might be tempted to think that the vast majority of plastics would serve out it’s life in the likes of the aerospace, construction or automotive industries, but sadly not, around 40% of plastic we encounter on a daily basis is single use packaging.14 This is the plastic encasing our bought goods, wrapping our food and bottling soft drinks and in the specific case of bottled water it is at an astonishing rate of 1 million bottles per minute,15 and all majoritively destined to go to landfill after one single use.
Plastic Waste by Industry 2015
Source16
Problem
Degrade vs Decompose
Many plastic types will degrade i.e. breakdown or fragment in to ever smaller pieces as a result of photo-degradation or weathering,25 but plastics DO NOT decompose. Decomposition is the process that biological matter will undergo at some point in it’s lifetime, or bio-degradation which transforms matter in to other organic materials26 or fully in to carbon dioxide, water and inorganic molecules known which is called mineralisation.27 Plastics being man made is unaffected by this natural process as bacteria or organisms having evolved over billions of years to recognise and feed on natural or organic compounds do not recognise them as a food source.26 Plastic degrading or breaking down eventually in to granular even microscopic pieces out of human sight is often perceived as a good thing, it’s disappearing great! But this taking place in the natural environment is disastrous for and does so quickly when exposed to sunlight (UV) for long periods known as photo-oxidative degradation.29 It weakens the chemical bonds in the plastic which becomes brittle, eventually degrading to the smallest categorised size known as nano-plastics, barely undetectable to the naked eye but remaining ever present in the natural environment20, 26 basically plastic is all but indestructible.21 How long this takes is dependant on the type of plastic and the environmental factors. In the case of the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag with it’s average time of use being just 12 minutes it’s estimated that it can take up to a thousand years or millenia to degrade.28
Stages of Degredation
Macroplastics
Greater than 5 cm
General rubbish and large debris
Mesoplastics
5 mm – 5 cm
Trash and large debris that results from its fragmentation
Microplastics
100 nm–5 mm
Results from general wear-and-tear of plastic materials, including washing synthetic fabrics and abrasion of car tires; also used in diverse products
Nanoplastics
Less than 100 nm
Results from general wear-and-tear of plastic materials; increasingly used in diverse products
Source 20
Recycling should play a part when plastic reaches the end of it’s life but sadly not all types can be and of those that can the infrastructure to facilitate has simply not kept pace with the rampant oversupply. It’s estimated 7 billion tons (Bt) has been produced since the 1950s with 0.92 Bt (12%) incinerated, with only a dismal 0.7 Bt (9%) ever being recycled leaving the remaining 6 Bt (79%) to go to landfill or leak in the environment somewhere.12 To put that in to perspective that’s roughly 12.2 million olympic sized swimming pools filled with plastic, or around one ton per person alive today. Apart from infrastructure a number of other reasons are to blame for this dismal recapture of materials, poor education, slow transition to single stream recycling and very limited investment in research.24
How Plastic Enters the Environment
Original Illustration, Source: The Scientist
“Plastics enter the environment from a variety of sources such as leakage during waste collection and from landfills, littering, runoffs, and material lost from waste processing. Both micro and nano particles can be shed from larger plastic products, such as through abrasion of car tires on the pavement. Some 80% of microplastics in wastewater are synthetic fibers, many of which are shed by clothing in the washing machine. Some microplastics (and, likely, nanoplastics, though no studies have attempted to detect such particles) pass into rivers and oceans unhindered by wastewater treatment. Those particles that are captured eventually find their way onto land as part of sewage sludge.”29
Culprits
90% of all plastic leakage in to the ocean can be traced back to just 10 rivers30, 31 in some of the most impoverished regions of the world30 all dealing with the worlds waste, not just their own. MEDCs (More economically developed countries) aka the west have been using them as a dumping ground for decades. China in particular had previously been taking 56% (by weight) of all the worlds plastic waste according to a 2014 study33 something which abruptly ended in late 2017 with their “Green Sword or Fence Policy”34 which left many countries scrambling. Waste management in many countries are already overloaded with insufficient infrastructure to handle demand35 a large portion of the western governments have poorly handled the issue collecting and shipping our waste designated as recycling and it’s not being processed when reaching it’s destination.36
Polluting Rivers
High Volume
The most abundant type of plastic produced are those found in a subset of polymers called Polyolefins, made from natural gas they are able to be formed at a high quantities at very low cost, low in density and resistant; water, air, grease, cleaning solvents and sun (for periods of time).37 The two most common types that fall in to that subset is firstly Polypropylene (5:PP) and secondly Polyethylene both high (2:HDPE) and low density (4:LDPE) which is the type used general food wrapping and plastic bags which on average have a use time of around 12 minutes and can remain in existence from 20–1000 years.12
Lives of a Plastic Bag
Impacts
Once plastic finds it’s way in to the natural environment it has a plethora of negative impacts, from the widely publicised and graphic entanglement40 to the ingestion by a documented 400 animal species46 causing injury and starvation.41 The impacts to terrestrial wildlife are well documents and us; the creator of the material are not as widely so but are becoming more of an concern as realisations become apparent globally.
Physical
Terrestrial Wildlife
One of the larger land animals frequently effected by plastic are cows in India, so much so that it’s now recognised as one of the major contributing factors in premature death.46 Both cows and native buffalo forage for food scraps in landfills and discarded litter mounds, coming in to contact with plastics in the process, often ingesting. It’s estimated nearly every dead cow India will have an average of 30kg of plastic in its stomach48 and in one instance a cow had 80kg of plastic removed from its stomach.47 Another range of species that is being significantly impacted by plastic pollution is ocean-foraging birds, it’s estimated by the year 2050 almost every bird that depends on the ocean may be eating plastic.49
Research in to the impacts of plastics on the terrestrial environment has been much slower comparative to marine21 very little is known of the side effects to date but some studies have been conducted. A study in China showed that the increased levels of plastic residues in the soil biomass due to plastic being used for mulching over the past few decades resulted in lower metabolic activity and functional diversity.50 Another study by a team from the Netherlands discovered that when worms ingested plant litter tainted with micro-plastics they grew slower and died earlier,51 with a number of studies indicating that plastic can effect reproductive systems, however evidence was not found in this particular study but another similarly revealed gut inflammation.52
“If plastics are making their way through terrestrial animals and organisms then surely at some point plant life must be taken in to consideration and assessed. Micro-plastics aren't much of a threat to plant life due to their molecular size but nano plastics may be. A study conducted on tobacco plants showed that fluorescent nano beads were internally up-taken by the plants, and rapidly accumulated.”53
Marine Life
At present there is so much plastic floating in some parts of the ocean that each square kilometre of surface water holds almost 600,000 pieces,55 it’s created five large swirls known as ‘garbage patches’and much of this debris, driven by gyres and currents collects in there.56 The debris ranges in size, larger plastic material such as discarded fishing line, nets or bags will often entangle or ensnare animals restricting their movements and unable to hunt or feed, they die.39 Sometimes it causes gruesome injures or suffocation and if they are lucky enough to survive but remain ensnared they may develop growth defects.57
As plastic debris breaks down further, it starts being ingested by smaller and smaller animals and organisms becoming ever more invasicve and entering the food chain at earlier stages.42 The longer it remains in the ocean environment the more algae and chemicals inadvertently collects disguising itself further, often mistaken as food.39 After being injected it can obstruct air-ways or digestive tracts, cause internal taring or ruptures, leading to infection or false fullness58 starving the victim; leading to death. It’s widely known that a turtle can ingest a plastic bag mistaking it for a jelly fish59 but somtimes a turtle after becoming entangled in nets or debris on the surface can be struck by a boat resulting in “Bubble Butt” syndrome.60
This is where air gets trapped in the top of the shell, creating an uncontrollable buoyancy effect that results in the turtle being unable to dive and so feed, also becoming easy prey or increasing the chances of being struck again61 or killed.
Source: YouTube Filmed by Christine Figgener, marine biologist at Texas A&M University.
Source: YouTube By Verity White, Five Films
Coral & Reefs
A far reaching worldwide study in to coral reefs has also shed light on the impact it that plastic may have, discovering that from examining corals spread across 159 reefs off the coasts of Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Australia between 2011 and 2014 plastic was found snared on a third of all specimens.62 Plastic acted as a vector for diseases such as skeletal eroding band disease, white syndromes and black band disease63 increasing their chances of infections by carrying bacteria and pollutants and infecting coral when coming in to contact with the reef habitats.
An empty, plastic rice bag is nestled between corals. Source: Kathryn Berry/James Cook University
Chemical
Us (Humans) & Wildlife
This is by far the more terrifying and potentially catastrophic impact of plastics, the physical lifespan of plastics isn’t the only concern, depending on the type it can be manufactured using an array of chemicals to remove or create properties, many of which are toxic and leach in to the environment as the material degrades. The problem is compounded when material is left circulating in the natural habitat, a study has shown63 that plastic not only leaches chemicals but absorbs them like a sponge, becoming more and more toxic, poisoning animals and potentially us as it continues to circulate in the environment.
Source: Orb Media - How Dangerous
“Chemicals from plastics are a constant part of our daily diet. We generally assume the water bottle holding that pure spring water, the microwave-safe plastic bowl we prepare our meals in, or the styrofoam cup holding a hot drink is there protecting our food and drinks. Rather than acting as a completely inert barrier, these plastics are breaking down and leaching chemicals, including endocrine-disrupting plasticizers like BPA or phthalates, flame retardants, and even toxic heavy metals that are all absorbed into our diets and bodies.”18
PLASTICS TYPES & their TOXINS
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)
PET is the ubiquitous. durable
plastic used to bottle water, juice,
soda - and for polyester fiber
clothes. It's one of the safest
plastics used for food storage, and is easily recycled.
Studies have shown that PET can leach the toxic mineral antimony in amounts that exceed U.S. safety guidelines when exposed to high temperatures - say your car in summertime, or an outdoor market during the scorching equatorial summer. This process is accelerated when PET products are heated in a microwave. Health effects of antimony when exposure exceeds government limits: nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
This packaging workhorse is used
for milk, juice, water, cleaning supplies, and shampoos.
Like most plastic products, HDPE has been shown to leach estrogenic chemicals - man-made compounds that imitate the hormone estrogen - when exposed to heat, boiling water, and sunlight. Estrogenic chemicals are linked to breast cancer, endometriosis, altered sex ratios, testicular cancer, poor semen quality, early puberty, and malformations of the reproductive tract. (US Environmental
Protection Agency)
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
PVC wraps meat and sandwiches,
floats in the tub in the form of bath
toys, makes for stylish jackets and
inexpensive household plumbing.
Plasticized PVC leaches toxic chemicals when in contact with water. Four chemical softeners used with PVC, known as phthalates, were recently added to the European Chemicals Agency's list of “substances of Very High Concern" for their role as "endocrine disruptors" - chemicals that interfere with the body's production of hormones. Phthalates are linked to improper development of reproductive organs in fetuses and other health issues.
Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)
LDPE Is used in shrink wrap, milk
cartons, take-out coffee cups and
to package sliced bread, newspapers, and dry cleaning.
LDPE Is considered a "low
hazard plastic.”
Polypropylene (PP)
Polypropylene is used to make
containe rs for yogurt, takeout
lunches, medicine, and syrups.
Polypropylene fibers are woven
into cold-weather clothing, and
it is found in automotive components, carpet fibers, lab equipment,
and even paper currency.
It's considered a fairly
safe plastic.
Polystyrene (PS)
Expanded Polystyrene Foam is widely
used for takeout food and in the
fishing industry. Polystyrene is found
in takeout coffee lids, juice bottles,
cutlery and other containers
Styrene, which U.S. government scientists say is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen,” can leach from polystyrene in contact with hot beverages. Polystyrene is widely used for coffee cups and their lids. "Considering the toxic characteristic of styrene and leaching in water and other products, [polystyrene ) material should be avoided for food packaging," a 2007 study recommended. "Especially [polystyrene) rigid and foam cups should not be used for hot drinks."
Other
This designation is for plastic resins
different from numbers one to six,
or made from a combination of
resins. Three and five-gallon bottles
of drinking water, some orangejuice
containers, and other kinds of
packaging all fall into this category.
What many of these plastics have in common is their use of the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenolA (BPA) BPA has been linked to hormonal changes, reproductive problems, asthma and obesity. This includes polycarbonate plastic, which is still used to manufacture baby bottles in many countries.
Source: OrbMedia.org
Carbon Emissions
If the devastating physical and chemical effects on the environment weren’t enough around 4% of world oil production is used as a feedstock to make plastics,63 and a similar amount is consumed as energy in the process, so nearly 10% of the worlds carbon emisions come from plastics. There is also a new study that suggests that plastic in the environment is directly emitting greenhouse gases as they degrade.66
Solutions
(Potential)
Like it or not plastic is a very useful material and banning it from the face of the earth overnight is firstly not going to happen and secondly would be a disaster for emissions as some materials needed to replace plastics would be a lot heavier. Imagine going to the supermarket and everything being replaced with glass, metal, paper or wood, loading up your heavy shopping trolly crawling home in your very unsafe wooden car interior car. It’s going to take time to engineer alternative materials and innovate solutions to deal with the plethora of material and even when we do it’s unlikely to be a silver bullet soluton it’s going to depend on a variety of solutions, so what are the possibilities?
Reduce Reuse Recycle 2.0
This has long been a mantra ingrained in the human psyche for the last few decades and for anyone wanting to live an environmentally conscious existence and a solid approach for not just plastic but all consumable materials. Firstly a reduction in demand will ultimately slow manufacture, however plastic is so ubiquitous in all facets of society it’s difficult to curb that use with this alone. Reuse is great but only goes as far as the design or material quality allows and plastics such as sweet wrappers are obviously not easily re-usable so then recycling must play it’s roll. Recycling has got better since the adoption of single stream recycling 67 in to many developed countries, but as previously mentioned not all types can be and those that can are often subject to something called downcycling68 where the material from products or packaging can only be used to manufacture a lower quality product. For example the material from a plastic bottle (PET) can be turned in to a pillow or carpet fibres,69 and second time around it’s made in to plastic lumber, so with each recycle and lifecycle the material degrades.
Ultimately without restrictions or tariffs on the use of plastic particularly virgin types in designs or manufacturing all three are going to be less effective, the reduction wont be prioritised, re-use won’t be facilitated and the price of the recycled material vs virgin plastic will cheaper.
Lobbying & Legislation
Governments need to enforce regulation and for all plastic materials to be taxed to take in to the irreparable damage to us and the environment. Taxations are never popular but the fundamental and underlying reason for tax is to encourage consumers in to choosing a better alternative by financial dis-incentive. If applied to a large consumable like plastics it’s going to have a financial impact for companies but it could also mean a reduction in other taxes like income taxes forming part of the wider ‘carbon tax’ initiative.70
"Well one of the important things to keep in mind is that if you have a carbon tax, you can turn around and cut other taxes in response. For example, the payroll tax. So this is a tax shift, rather than a tax hike."
Gregory Mankiw - A Harvard professor and one of the most influential economists in the world - Before the Flood.71
The general concept of a ‘carbon tax’ to tax greenhouse gas emitters and encourage companies to curb their ecologically unsound and potentially destructive sides of their businesses and protect the environment.72 Society as whole needs to change their fundamental philosophy on use, disposal and reuse of materials and esentially adopt a closed loop or cradle to cradle approach but that’s not going to happen without a push in the right direction.
Circular economy 73
Material value is lost when it goes to to landfill the ‘Circular economy’ reinforces the base ideals of ‘Reuse, reuse, recycle’ but with bigger emphasis on maintaining the purity of the material and penalising the biggest polluters, using the money to fund research to alternatives and green initiatives. It aims to create a smooth and constant flow of limited material used and value retained then reused, resulting in economic benefits and less loss to landfill waste.
Closing of the loop and retaining the material value is vital, only 2% of plastic is retained and remade in to similar product and it’s estimated that $80–120 Billion USD worth of plastic packaging material is lost annually.74 If the circular economy could be perfected for it would have considerable benefits to society.
Plastics to Energy
As explained above, not all plastics can be recycled so this still leaves a large percentage as waste, however a new process is being developed to transform the plastic near to it’s original form; oil, this seems unbelievable but it’s not and being undertaken by Licella.75 They can take a range of plastics and through the use of a hydrothermal reactor change it in to a bio-crude petroleum substitute.76 This has it’s drawbacks, the process itself requires energy and of course fossil fuels release further carbon when burnt or process, further increasing the already large carbon footprint of plastics.
Biological Engineering
Plastic is not naturally found in the earths ecosystems and in turn as mentioned in the previous plastics section, it cannot decompose but there is a few rare instances that scientists and researchers have discovered where mother nature has adapted to feed on our waste:
Polystyrene eating Mealworms. 77
Polyurethane eating Fungi. 78
Polyethylene eating Waxworms. 79
Polyethylene Terephthalate. 80
It’s unlikely to be a scalable solution to tackle the global plastic waste problem, its likely that the organisms will need to be genetically engineered to be more efficient in their plastic consuming abilities or the enzymes or chemicals used in the digestion process will be synthesised and reproduced at a large scale.
Material Engineering
All the above solutions in part or full focus on providing a solution at the end of the life of plastics but another opton is to instead focus on making changes at the source material rather than continuing with current resins one that has the ability to decompose naturally in the environment without human intervention. There has been attempts at bio-degradable or oxo-degradable plastics in the past but unfortunately they need to be placed in an industrial compositor sometimes at a consistent temperature 50 degrees if not they can inflict as much damage as other plastics when entering the natural environment.4 There a study that also indicated that introduction of industrial composting on a global scale is just simply not economically viable due to the sorting and separation process of bio-degradable from non prior to composting.82 This has resulted in the UN issuing a statement denouncing it as a viable solution with the concern that people lay false hope in technical solutions rather than making a behavioural change.81
There is however some newer and more promising materials being engineered as an alternatives for plastics in both packaging and products, here is some of them:
Plastic bags from shrimp shells.83, 84
Myseclium (mushroom root) alternative packaging.85
Bolt Heads Microsilk alternative to polyester in clothing.86
Alternative plastics from Red Seaweed.87, 88
What Can You Do?
Say NO to disposable plastic straws, Cutlery and Bottles…
Switch to Carier Durable Bags
160,000 bags are used every second, which is around 700 a year for every person92 with each one taking 1000 years to biodegrade if at all thats a really tragic amount of waste. Nealy any kind of alternative bag will be better than disposing.
Brush Your Tusks Guilt Free
It’s estimated 3.5 billion toothbrushes are sold each year that largely go to landfill with no garuntee they are recylced,93 swap it for a bambu or biodegradable alternative.
Give up Those Bad Hang-ups
It’s estimated in the UK alone that millions of hangers go to landfill instead of each year with 540 million surplus hangers, weighing 17,000 tonnes and 100 million thrown away.94 Swap to a durable metal or even better a pressed cardboard alternative.
Lessen the impacts of your phone
Initiatives
The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization, developing advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.
4ocean is a global movement actively removing trash from the ocean and coastlines while inspiring individuals to work together for a cleaner ocean, one pound at a time.
We are pro-business and work collaboratively with all stakeholders - industry, retailers, packaging suppliers, schools, media, NGOs, Government and the UN to accelerate the pace of essential change.
Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef is the world’s first collaborative movement for the Reef – a unique, data-driven and united approach to Reef conservation.
Simply, Take 3 pieces of rubbish with you when you leave the beach, waterway or…anywhere, and you have made a difference.
Rigorous reporting – grounded in original science and advanced data analytics – on issues that impact billions of people around the world, revealing how our interdependent world works.
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