Another year, another record-breaking climate disaster. This past summer was among the worst, and hundreds of cities across the United States experienced deadly heat waves, which killed dozens of people in July alone. Temperatures climbed above 130 degrees in some areas. Before that, 2023 was the hottest summer on record, and 2021 also saw dangerous conditions across much of the US.
As natural disasters and extreme weather events worsen, the world’s plastic consumption does as well, and is expected to double by 2060, according to the EPA. Plastic production was responsible for 3.4% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, but that figure is expected to grow to 15% by 2050. Currently, over 400 million tons of plastic are produced a year.
Plastic pollution is one of the most pressing issues today. In the era of paper straws and thrift stores, most people know that plastic takes hundreds to thousands of years to degrade, and that thousands of animal species are known to ingest it. What many people don’t know, however, is that carcinogenic plastic byproducts often leach into human drinking water — the EPA reported microplastics in human livers, kidneys and placentas. Microplastics have also been found to restrict the ability of marine organisms, like plankton, to capture carbon, according to the World Economic Forum.
Overall, plastic waste is also one of the most common materials in litter, and dominates the composition of ocean-polluting items. Plastic bags, bottles, wrappers, containers, cutlery, lids and other packaging contribute 80% of all ocean garbage, according to data from the Nature Sustainability journal.
Recycling is treated as the be-all, end-all of sustainability. Surely, if everyone in America kept a recycling bin and simply sorted their garbage, we could circumvent the whole “world-ending climate disaster” thing and keep our beloved plastic Coke bottles and shopping bags. Unfortunately, things aren’t that simple.
In 2022, Greenpeace published a comprehensive survey titled “Circular Claims Fall Flat Again” detailing the abysmal failure of global plastic recycling, pointing out that only two kinds of plastic, called PET1 and HDPE2, are even classified as recyclable in the US, and even those do not meet the global standards for recyclability, which requires that at least 30% of waste in a given area is recycled. Plastic recycling itself emits carcinogenic chemicals, and plastic quickly becomes toxic after only one or two recycling processes.
Products like plastic containers, cling film, fast food cups and shopping bags aren’t recycled at all, and go straight to a dumpster to be burned or stored. Less than 5% of all plastic products in the US are recycled, and even then, a minority of products that are processed for recycling are actually made into new things. All plastic products, however, are allowed to use the universal “chasing arrows” triangle, like the symbol on recycling bins, regardless of what kind of plastic they’re made from.
For decades, oil companies have pushed recycling as the “solution” to plastic waste, always promising innovative new recycling technology just around the corner. In a 2020 investigation, NPR revealed that leaders at top plastic producers knew for decades that recycling was not viable, even as they spent millions of dollars pushing it to consumers — but they also knew that it would delay single-use plastic bans while improving their public image.
In the words of Larry Thomas, the leader of a plastic-industry lobbying group during the ‘80s and ‘90s, “If the public thinks the recycling is working, then they’re not going to be as concerned about the environment.”
The same corporations are still pretending to be on the “cutting edge” of recycling.
Chevron CEO Jim Becker told NPR, “Five, 10 years ago, the industry response was a little more combative. Today, it truly is not just PR.” As if the industry doesn’t have access to the same reports that it did five, 10 years ago, which prove that plastic recycling is not economic, cannot be efficient and has caustic byproducts itself.
The only viable way forward is to reevaluate our plastic production and usage and push for sweeping reforms to the oil industry. A survey of over 24,000 respondents from 32 different countries found that 85% of people would support a ban on single-use plastics in their country, a change that is desperately needed on a global scale. Countries like the Netherlands, China, Japan and Chile are on the forefront of a switch to renewable energy sources and, crucially, reusable products. Other measures could include large-scale incentives to reduce waste at home, banning planned obsolescence in products like phones, or funding for the creation of new sustainability technology.
Today, single-use plastics, and plastic in general, are unavoidable, especially when the majority of the population can’t afford to pick better, more sustainable options. Regardless of how much you personally avoid wasting plastic, that does not change the fact that the global plastic industry is contributing wildly to climate change. If we want to avoid more record-breaking summers, the time to act is now.
