{"id":1871,"date":"2020-06-05T00:04:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T00:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2020-06-05T00:06:30","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T00:06:30","slug":"ftv-more-about-plastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=1871","title":{"rendered":"FTV: More About Plastics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Previously in this column, we covered some of the history of plastics and how pervasive this material has become in all of our lives.\u00a0 As I delved deeper into Susan Freinkel\u2019s book \u201cPlastic: A Toxic Love Story\u201d (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2001), the more alarmed I became.\u00a0 In the previous article (<\/span>FTV:\u00a0 Waste Not, Want Not<\/span><\/i> 8-8-17), we examined the path industry traveled to make plastics the manufacturing material of choice for items like combs, chairs, medical equipment, and toys like the Frisbee and Hula Hoop.\u00a0 One of Freinkel\u2019s main concerns with these items is the health and welfare of the workers who churn out millions of these cheap, plastic based products every year. \u00a0 In the later chapters, she spends more time on broader health concerns for the public at large and not just those working in the industry.\u00a0 She simply asks, \u201cIs it possible to enter into a relationship with these materials that is safer for us and more sustainable for our offspring?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To get a handle on what she terms \u201cgreen plastic\u201d, she looked into Henry Ford\u2019s claim that \u201cit would be possible to grow most of an automobile.\u201d\u00a0 Ford was searching for a way to industrialize\u00a0 surplus crops and he threw his lot in with soybeans.\u00a0 He retrofitted one of his River Rouge, Michigan plants to produce soy-based plastic to supply the ten to fifteen pounds of plastic that would be found in the 1936 Ford cars.\u00a0 He expanded the concept further in 1940 by making\u00a0 a demo car that he said was \u201cfarm grown\u201d.\u00a0 He demonstrated the durability of the plastic fenders by smacking one with an ax.\u00a0 <\/span>Time <\/span><\/i>magazine reported, \u201cThe fenders of the Buck Rogers material\u2026 withdraw from collision…like unhurried rubber balls.\u201d\u00a0 This was the only proto-type soy-plastic car he was able to build due to the outbreak of World War II.\u00a0 After the war, use of oil based plastics resumed as they were still more waterproof and versatile than soy based plastics.\u00a0 The days of cheap oil put the brakes on Ford\u2019s interest in \u201cfarm grown\u201d cars.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With the higher cost and the all too real worries about the world\u2019s finite supply (of oil) these days, plant-based plastics are being reexamined:\u00a0 \u201cCarbon is carbon\u201d according to one bioplastics executive.\u00a0 \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if it was sequestered in an oilfield 100 million years ago or six months ago in an Iowa cornfield.\u201d\u00a0 Ford may not have been able to mass manufacture a plastic car in the 1940s, but at least his company has now used soy-based polyurethane cushions and padding in more than 1.5 million vehicles.\u00a0 Plans to make all of their plastic car parts from compostable, plant-based plastics are on the drawing board, but as of this writing, are just that:\u00a0 plans for the future.\u00a0 Only time will tell if the emerging electric car trend will see car manufacturers embrace\u00a0 synthetic plastic parts in their models.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So where do we stand now nearly twenty years after Susan Freinkel issued her alarming book in 2001?\u00a0 Let us take a quick tour around the state of plastics and the recycling of these materials to see if the world has made any progress in the last two decades.\u00a0 As much as I whine about how much time people seem to waste on social media, the internet is at least helping raise the alarm.\u00a0 A simple Google search about plastic pollution will provide one with a shocking tableau of photos and multiple web sites that should shake all to the core.\u00a0 The picture of a dead sperm whale that washed up on an Indonesian beach in November of 2018 was a graphic reminder of the 700 ocean species impacted by plastic pollution.\u00a0 This deceased mammal had 13.2 pounds (six kilograms) of plastic in its stomach that included 115 plastic cups, 4 plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, a nylon sack, two flip-flops, and more than 1,000 other pieces of plastic.\u00a0 Plastic bags are especially lethal for turtles who ingest them regularly because they resemble the jellyfish they normally consume.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0According to the journal <\/span>Science<\/span><\/i>, eight million tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans from terrestrial sources each year.\u00a0 Another two million tons are added from ships, particularly fishing vessels.\u00a0 One of the most damaging items contributed by the fishing industry are the so-called \u201cghost nets\u201d that are lost (or intentionally left) to drift free for months at a time.\u00a0 They not only add to the oceanic garbage stream, they also continue capturing and killing fish that are never harvested.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Science Advances<\/span><\/i> reported that between 1950 and 2015, 8.3 billion tons of plastic were produced, 6.3 billion tons of which became garbage.\u00a0 Only 9 percent of this material was recycled and because most is not very biodegradable, it has accumulated at ever increasing rates.\u00a0 Mirjam Kopp of the environmental group Greenpeace notes that the problem has grown too large to be handled by recycling alone.\u00a0 \u201cWe cannot continue this business as usual, we need to change the throw-away culture we have developed,\u201d Kopp said.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to tackle the problem at the source.\u00a0 Industries are putting the blame on the consumers, saying they should recycle more, but we don\u2019t think it will help.\u00a0 They are responsible for the single-use plastics they put on the market.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The movement away from single-use plastics has been slow, but the movement has gained momentum.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The European Union wants to ban certain single-use plastics by the end of 2021.\u00a0 This single act could reduced the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean by 30 to 40 percent.\u00a0 In the United States, many states are now considering bans on fast food plastic straws.\u00a0 States like Oregon have long banned the use of cheap, one use only plastic bags in big box and grocery stores.\u00a0 Bringing multi-use shopping bags (or paying a fee for more recyclable paper bags used in the place of the plastic \u2018tee shirt\u2019 bags) is less of an inconvenience than those opposing the ban whined it would be.\u00a0 Making this new normal a \u2018habit\u2019 takes much less time and money than the projected costs of cleaning up accumulating mountains (or islands) of waste plastic.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Personally, I have a great dislike of the \u2018t-shirt\u2019 plastic bags.\u00a0 When local outlets began using them, some discouraged those asking for paper bags by saying, \u201cWe may have to start charging a nickle per paper bag because they are so expensive to use.\u201d\u00a0 My standard reply was, \u201cMake it a dime and dump the plastic bags completely.\u00a0 That would be great!\u201d\u00a0 My acquaintances and colleagues were somewhat skeptical when I passed around Michigan United Conservation Club (MUCC) petitions to get the bottle deposit bill on the ballot in the late 1970s.\u00a0 Again, I had a stock answer when they asked why I was doing it:\u00a0 \u201cI went to Oregon to visit a couple of friends right after I graduated from NMU.\u00a0 Oregon has a bottle bill and there isn\u2019t a can or bottle to be seen on their streets and highways.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t Michigan look a lot better without all the crap people toss out their car windows?\u201d\u00a0 People were wrong when they said that the bottle bill would not pass and that it would be a great burdon for everyone.\u00a0 I hope we can muster the same magic with regards to single use shopping bags and non-carbonated beverage containers.\u00a0 The shopping bags have been banned in Oregon for quite some time with no great suffering to the public at large.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 2017, the UN-Environmental agency launched the CleanSeas campaign.\u00a0 While 60 countries have already joined the effort to ban non-reusable plastics, the project\u2019s manager, Petter Malvik said, \u201cAlthough bans alone won\u2019t solve the problem, they are definitely more than just a drop in the bucket.\u201d Singer Jack Johnson has pledged to support the reduction in single-use plastics by promoting the documentary <\/span>The Smog of the Sea<\/span><\/i> among his fan base.\u00a0 Johnson says, \u201cI support the CleanSeas campaign because I believe there are better alternatives to single-use, disposable plastics, and that we as consumers can encourage innovation and ask businesses to take responsibility for the environmental impact of the products they produce.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Peter Thomson, the President of the UN General Assembly, added, \u201cI urge all [nations] to join the CleanSeas campaign and make an ambitious pledge to reduce single-use plastic.\u00a0 Be it a tax on plastic bags, or a ban on microbeads in cosmetics, each country needs to do their bit to maintain the integrity of life in the Ocean.\u201d\u00a0 Dell Computers has announced it is joining the fight.\u00a0 Dell has pledged to use recycled plastics removed from the sea as packaging for their products.\u00a0 Shoe manufacturer Addidas\u2019 plans have been documented in a post entitled, \u201c<\/span>Your Next Pair of Running Shoes can be made of Recycled Ocean Plastics.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Ocean Cleanup Foundation has proposed cleaning up the \u2018Great Pacific Garbage Patch\u2019 by building a massive floating clean-up device.\u00a0 Picture a kind of ocean going \u2018Roomba\u2019.\u00a0 OCF\u2019s lofty aim is to clean up half of the Pacific\u2019s huge deposit (that has formed a huge floating island of plastic waste) over the next five years.\u00a0 The \u2018GPGP\u2019 has been gathered together by marine turbulence and now covers an area three times larger than France.\u00a0 It contains some 80,000 tons of floating material and while scientists are sceptical that OCF\u2019s collector will work, it is a start.\u00a0 George Leonard, the chief scientist at the Ocean Conservancy, points out that, \u201cIf you want to clean up the ocean, the surface is not the place to start.\u00a0 [Experts say] What floats on the surface – particles of micro-plastics and other objects – is nothing compared to what ends up on the ocean floor.\u00a0 We are in a moment in time where we are starting to stare the problem in the face, and we\u2019re quite optimistic and hopeful that we can solve it.\u201d\u00a0 Surveys have even found plastic refuse on the sea floor of the Arctic Ocean, far removed from the heavily travelled sea transport lanes.\u00a0 Once the oceans have been so widely contaminated, it doesn\u2019t take much imagination to see that plastic pollution is also working up through the global food chain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Leonard and other environmental experts feel that increased public exposure to the problem will lead to more focused attention on how to work the problem.\u00a0 When the detrimental effects that fluorocarbons were having on the Earth\u2019s protective ozone layer became common knowledge, consumer alarm led to widespread changes in how aerosol products were produced.\u00a0 \u2018Our products won\u2019t harm the Ozone layer\u2019 actually became a common marketing strategy.\u00a0 Consumers can force industrial changes that can make a world of difference and it is time for the same concerted effort in the plastics industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Beyond efforts to clean up past damage and banning single-use plastic products, there are other ways to put a dent in the plastic waste problem.\u00a0 Researcher Grancois Galgani of the French institute Iremer points to, \u201cDegradation\u201d as a possible solution.\u00a0 Producing biodegradable plastic packaging has been in the works for a while now, but even some of these proposed products may take \u201chundreds of years\u201d to break down.\u00a0 With more than 5 billion plastic bags being used every year (more than 100 billion since Susan Freinkel\u2019s book \u201cPlastic: A Toxic Love Story\u201d came out in 2001).\u00a0 An outright ban of their production and use would still be a big step forward.\u00a0 A similar ban on plastic straws and cotton swabs would be a logical next step.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are efforts underway to help stem the tide of accumulating plastics.\u00a0 Until recently, China was actually purchasing much of the United States\u2019 plastic recyclables.\u00a0 This avenue made a small dent in our accumulating plastic mountains, but trade tensions have slowed this market to a trickle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some areas in South America have begun making \u2018eco-bricks\u2019 by stuffing two liter bottles with single use bags.\u00a0 Once tightly filled and capped, these bricks can be used for a variety of things.\u00a0 When eco-bricks are placed in poured building foundations, for example, they act as filler, thus lowering the cost of the concrete needed.\u00a0 In this case, the durability of the plastic is a plus.\u00a0 Recently, a research group in Australia announced they may be able to use sulfur and soy oil to help transform plastic waste into a rubber like compound that may be used in place of petroleum based products.\u00a0 It will take a combination of recycling, research, and a change in consumer habits to manage our plastic problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0More information on the topic can be found on-line.\u00a0 Excellent posts from Blue Ocean entitled <\/span>What you can do to stop ocean plastic debris <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Sailing through the garbage bag sea and a tasty alternative <\/span><\/i>are a good start.\u00a0 They also suggest the following related posts:\u00a0 <\/span>Microfiber Pollution from THE STORY OF STUFF, The great Pacific Garbage Patch:\u00a0 Taking out the trash, If you love seafood –\u00a0 you might not want to read this, Our Plastic Ocean, <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Take the No Plastic Straw Please Pledge.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>We need to be equally concerned about plastics and the future of The Great Lakes!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Statistics show that the COVID-19 related cutbacks have reduced carbon emissions nearly twenty percent in three months.\u00a0 No, I am not suggesting that we simply shut everything down to help Mother Nature heal our damaged planet.\u00a0 What I am suggesting is that humans have the ability to limit and reverse the damage we have already inflicted through our insane use of \u2018cheap\u2019 plastics.\u00a0 \u2018Cheap\u2019 to produce and use, but \u2018toxic and costly\u2019 for all if we don\u2019t take action now!<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Jefferson Airplanes preaching plastics, 1960s style