By Yetta Jager, Green Sanctuary Committee
We are all addicted to plastics. Plastics have lowered the cost and increased the practicality of many consumer products. Plastics used in health care (gloves, disposable needles, etc.) increase the speed of medical treatments and so, arguably, save lives. But they are not aesthetically beautiful in the way that natural materials are.
Plastics cause severe damage to the environment. First, nearly all plastics are produced from fossil fuels, with each plant emitting more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gases. The carbon emissions from plastic production are expected to exceed emissions from US coal-fired power plants by 2030. If they are buried and carbon sequestered in landfills, maybe the harm stops there.
Otherwise, the damage continues downstream. Manufacturers tout biodegradable and bio-based plastics, but biodegradable and bio-based plastics are worse for the environment than less-degradable forms. In the natural environment (e.g., the ocean), these products break down very slowly, forming smaller particles of plastic (microplastics) that are more likely to be ingested by animals. They also complicate recycling.
Microplastics are in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. Microplastics have been found everywhere that scientists have looked; in farm soils, fish farms, human blood, placentas, and reproductive organs. Scientists are just beginning to appreciate the health risks to humans and the environment. When inhaled, microplastics can enter alveoli in the lungs and impair respiratory function. Microplastics cause gut inflammation and can contribute to irritable bowel syndrome. The toxic additives – synthetic chemicals and heavy metals – released include carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds, and chemicals that disrupt hormones. One study of humans with higher and lower levels of microplastics in blood plaques found that those in the high group were almost three times more likely to experience heart attacks and stroke than those in the group with lower levels.
We can do something about our plastic addiction. The Green Sanctuary committee will be sponsoring a plastic-free week the first week of November. In preparation, here are some ideas that we hope that you, as individuals, will consider trying out for one week. We will ask members to sign up to participate and provide a list of things you might try so that we can follow up to ask about your experience.
• Food (grocery shopping, cooking, eating out): A liter of bottled water contains about 240,000 tiny pieces of plastic, with 90% of those being nanoplastics. This is also true for BPA-free bottles. Some containers release as many as 4.2 million microplastics and over 2 billion nanoplastics per square centimeter of plastic within three minutes of microwave heating. Chemical additives also migrate out of the plastic and into your food.
o Keep reusable shopping bags in your car and remember to use them.
o Avoid buying produce in plastic; instead bring and use your own net bags or recycled plastic bags. Note: you are not actually required to put produce in a container.
o Bring a container for leftovers when going to eat out and carry along bamboo-ware to use instead of single-use plastic.
o Avoid restaurants that use single-use plastics and favor those that use cardboard boxes.
o Use refillable liquid or bar soap, refillable liquid or powdered laundry detergent, plastic-free toothbrushes, razors and period products.
o Use glass/metal bottles instead of plastic ones.
o Heat foods in glass or ceramic instead of plastic containers.
• Fiber (buying and cleaning clothes): 16-35% of microfibers from the EU are from synthetic textiles. These enter the food stream when sewage sludge is used to fertilize crops. Once they enter the food chain, microfibers are more prone than other forms of microplastics to become entangled in large clots in the digestive system.
o Repair or alter one piece of clothing to avoid buying new.
o Purchase clothes made of natural fibers instead of synthetic fibers.
o Install a filter to trap microfibers on your washing machine.
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