The Plastic Problem: Single-Use Waste's Environmental Impact

Single-use plastics are a huge problem. Since the 1950s, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced, choking our oceans, lakes and rivers and piling up on land. It's estimated that 95% of single-use plastic is never recycled, with much of it ending up in landfills or incinerated. Single-use plastics are particularly hard to recycle because they are small and fall into the crevices of recycling machinery.

Single-use plastics are difficult to recycle

Single-use plastics are designed to be used once or for a short period of time before being discarded. Even biodegradable alternatives like bioplastics are resource-intensive to produce and don't biodegrade rapidly under natural conditions.

Chemical recycling is one method that has been attempted, but it is still a few years away from being commercially viable.

The problem with single-use plastics is that they don't really break down, they just break up. Over time, wear and tear, washing, sun and heat can turn them into microplastics, which are hard to detect and are everywhere.

The impact of single-use plastics is huge, with billions of items of plastic waste choking our oceans, lakes and rivers, and piling up on land. This plastic pollution harms wildlife and ocean life, and emissions from fossil fuel production harm human health.

Plastic waste is burned more than it's recycled

The OECD found that 91% of plastic isn't recycled at all. Some of it (about 19%) is incinerated, but the vast majority ends up in landfills or in the environment. Single-use plastics in particular—especially small items like straws, bags, and cutlery—aren’t easy to recycle because they fall into the crevices of recycling machinery. Many recycling centres won’t even accept them.

The costs of recycling include many trucks and drivers to collect the widely dispersed waste, labour and equipment to sort the waste, and processing facilities to clean and convert the material. As a result, burning plastic waste is one of the most expensive forms of energy generation in the US.

The solution to the gargantuan volume of plastic waste is not bag/straw bans. Instead, we need to address the root causes of plastic pollution and reduce our plastic consumption.

Plastic pollution is harmful to plants and wildlife

Plastic pollution is persistent and may take between 100 to 1,000 years or more to decompose, depending on environmental conditions. Once in the environment, plastic pollution can fragment into smaller pieces of plastic, known as microplastics. These are plastic particles ranging in size from five millimeters to one nanometer; nanoplastics are plastic particles smaller than one micrometer. Both are found in every ecosystem on the planet, from the Antarctic tundra to tropical coral reefs.

Microplastics can enter ecosystems through a variety of ways, with sewage being a key factor in their distribution. In fact, 80 to 90 percent of the plastic particles contained in sewage persist in the sludge. These concentrated microplastics release additives like phthalates and Bisphenol A (widely known as BPA), which can result in the disruption of the hormone system of vertebrates and invertebrates alike. When in higher climates, plastics can leach different chemicals such as fire retardants, parabens, artificial dyes, and much more into soil and water systems.

Single-use plastics in particular—especially small items like straws, bags, and cutlery—aren’t easy to recycle because they fall into the crevices of recycling machinery. Many recycling centers won’t even accept them. Left alone, plastics don’t really break down; they just break up. Wear and tear and washing, as well as sun and heat, can slowly turn plastics into smaller and smaller pieces until they eventually become microplastics.

Plastic waste is piling up on land

Single-use plastics don't break down; they break up. Wear and tear, washing, sun, and heat can slowly turn plastics into smaller and smaller pieces until they become microplastics. These microscopic plastic fragments, no more than 5mm long, are hard to detect and are just about everywhere.

In the US, six times more plastic waste is burned than is recycled. Incineration of plastic has been proven to be ineffective and hazardous to human health. It is also one of the most expensive forms of energy generation.

Overall, 79% of plastic that has ever been made still sits in landfills or the natural environment.

Plastic doesn't break down, it breaks up

Single-use plastics are a huge problem. Since the 1950s, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced, and 79% of it still sits in landfills or the natural environment.

The vast majority of plastic isn't recycled. Some of it is incinerated, but most ends up in landfills or in the environment. Single-use plastics in particular are difficult to recycle because they are small and fall into the crevices of recycling machinery. Many recycling centres won't accept them.

Plastics don't break down, they break up. Wear and tear, washing, sun and heat can slowly turn plastics into smaller and smaller pieces, known as microplastics. These microplastics are everywhere, even at the bottom of the deepest part of our oceans. It can take 400 years for plastic to break up into microplastics, and some studies suggest it could take over 1000 years.

Microplastics are less than 5mm long and are hard to detect. We consume 50,000 microplastics every year, and they are killing everything from seabirds to whales.

Landfills are like time machines. Some are compacted, wrapped in concrete, then buried. Nothing, especially not plastic, breaks down or decomposes in a landfill. Even a landfill piled up and left in the open tends to compact in on itself and preserve things that would otherwise have broken down in weeks.

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