I recently watched the documentary by Ian Connacher titled Addicted To Plastics. This was a three year journey around the world documenting the current status of plastic from production, use, trash, pollution, recycling and health. I recommend this movie to anyone who really wants to understand our current situation with plastics.

The world is addicted to plastics! We couldn’t get away from them even if we wanted to and the reality is that plastics are a better solution that the alternatives. Look around from where you are reading this blog post and I can guarantee that you are surrounded by plastics. They are used in our phones, computers, furniture, cars, airplanes, misc items all around our daily lives and to top it off our clothing. The problem is so bad that our oceans are clogging up with bits of plastics killing off wildlife and getting into our food supply. We are literally beginning to drown in our own creation of plastics.

What about recycling? Well, that sounds really good on paper and makes since if we do it right but the reality is that over 84% of recycled plastics in the US are shipped to China and what they do with that material really is not recycling. Most of that recycled material is ending up being incinerated or is downcycled into products that have little chance of being recycled again. Why? Because our recycling infrastructure is mostly focused on what makes money and that right now is #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) type of plastic resins usually from beverage type bottles only. Most recyclable plastic falls outside of this category including the #1 (PET) bottles used for other packaging. To make matters worse, there are very few recycling programs that would be successful if not for legislation (bottle bills) and the government subsides. There are a few recyclers out there who really do make a difference and they are taking any and every type of plastic. They work hard at developing markets for the various types of plastics that the majority of recyclers won’t even look at. I commend these recyclers and wish there were more like them.

If we are going to make a difference with our planet and improve things for our children and grand-children we need to start looking at the big picture and incorporate the way we humans use things. Plastics are not necessarily bad but we should look at how we are making them, how we use them and how we dispose of them. Moving towards plastics which are renewable and that don’t infringe on food resources is the right thing to do for both the environment and our health. Being smarter about the way we use plastics will help us generate less garbage and how we handle that garbage is key to a cleaner future. We need to close the loop on plastics, lets recycle them into second and third life products which can be used again and again. All plastics and materials should be biodegradable so that when they reach the end of their useful life we have a way to create a useful products from the waste, such as methane gas which is a source of clean inexpensive energy.

We can all make a difference, it isn’t too late and is actually easy to do. We simply need to make better choices of the products we are purchasing. Simply look for, and purchase products from companies who are packaging their products in earth friendly biodegradable packaging, this will make the market and companies accountable for what they produce.