Thanaisawan Hill is a Pre-Engineering Major working towards his Associates of Liberal Arts and Sciences at NorthWest Arkansas Community College (NWACC). Born in Thailand and raised in the United States, he was homeschooled by his parents until he started taking NWACC courses at age 13. He can often be found doing service-learning activities with the Honors Program at NWACC. After finishing college, he hopes to move back to Thailand and create sustainable and eco-friendly technologies.
Plastic is everywhere. If you look around your environment, you’ll find that many of the products you use are at least partially made of plastic. If I look around my room, I can see that my computer mouse, my backpack and even my polyester clothes are all partially made of plastic. In fact, it’s a struggle for me to find many products in my house that aren’t at least partially made from plastic. Unfortunately, plastic is harmful to people, wildlife, and the environment from the moment it’s made till the end of its use.
The story of plastic begins with the extraction of fossil fuels from the Earth. Extracting fossil fuels causes environmental problems such as releasing the greenhouse gas methane. Plastics are made from fossil fuels including oil or natural gas, and turning these into plastics creates environmental pollution. Plastic production facilities contribute to greenhouse gas emissions by releasing gases such as methane, ethylene, chloroprene, and many other toxic gases. It’s estimated that plastics will produce 56 million metric tons of greenhouse gases by 2050. Not only does producing plastic harm the environment through greenhouse gases, but it harms local communities. In LaPlace, Louisiana, there is a neoprene production facility that produces emissions such as benzene, toluene, xylene, and trimethylbenzene within a one-mile radius of public places like schools and churches. According to a study done by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The people who live near the neoprene production facility are 47 times more likely to get cancer than those who live in other parts of the country. As a result of the high risk of getting cancer in the area, it’s been named “Cancer Alley”. The creation of plastic is a nasty and harmful process all round.
One of the biggest problems associated with plastic is where it ends up after being used. After fossil fuels are made into plastics and distributed as products to consumers, 32% ends up in the environment, 40% in landfills, and 14% is incinerated. The production of single use and non- recyclable plastic contributes to so much plastic being thrown away into the environment. Microplastics in the ocean are expected to increase by 18 million metric tons in the next 20 years, killing and damaging marine life. Landfill plastics release toxic substances into the surrounding area negatively affecting nearby ecosystems. Incinerating plastics releases toxic smoke and deadly gases into the air contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
What about the other 14% of plastics I didn’t mention? These plastics are recycled. However, only 9% of plastics put towards recycling by consumers (such as recycling bins) are actually recycled because most plastics are too expensive to recycle. Most recycled plastics are only recycled once before ending up in the environment, landfills, or incinerators.
What are solutions to the plastic problem? To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and damage to the environment and communities, we need to stop producing plastics and start effectively dealing with the plastics we have now. Using alternatives to plastic such as metal, paper, glass, or cloth bags are good ways to cut down plastic waste. The solutions that will have the most impact, however, is by holding plastic corporations accountable for their harm on the environment and having them move towards more sustainable methods. Corporations producing plant-based plastics instead of fossil fuel-based plastics would be very beneficial towards the environment. Effectively recycling or reusing plastic products are also solutions to the plastic problem. Cutting down on single use plastics such as packaging, help prevent so much plastic going to waste in the environment. In fact, 40% of plastic produced in the world is single use plastic packaging. We don’t need everything to be covered in single use plastic packaging that damages the environment.
Plastics are damaging towards the Earth and its inhabitants, from the moment its materials are extracted from the Earth, to when it ends up in the environment or landfills. This Bioethics forum has made me realize how plastics are a much larger and more depressing problem than I had previously thought and how much we need to stop producing plastic. This forum has also made me realize to have faith that we as a society can work towards solutions, that we can solve the plastic problem.