Abdullah

Khalid Abdullah

Eng 1101

Professor Spiegel

Aug 1

Seconds vs. Centuries

improvements every year it has become more durable, flexible and versatile in its purpose and

uses. Plastic being the perfect example of innovation to create materials that make life easier.

Also how innovation can come with drawbacks. Since the 1940s plastic has been known to cause

damage to ecosystems and bodies of water. The United States contributes to producing almost ⅓

of all plastic used globally. This being mostly from the production of single-use plastic. Studies

show the amount of plastic being produced is directly tied to the overflow of waste in landfills,

pollution of water bodies, pollution in our ecosystems, various cancers and birth defects. The

same innovation to create plastic has to be used to fix the problem it has created itself. It is

imperative that corrective action is taken against the use of single-use plastic in countries like the

United States or the problem will persist and worsen.

Resin plastic production in the United States is a lucrative industry. Resin is created by

heating hydrocarbons and aligning them into chains called polymers. The pellets resin are in can

then be melted down and molded into any plastic item. Growing exponentially over the past

decade it has made a huge impact on the U.S. economy with its sale domestically and exports

overseas. In 2014 the estimated market value of the plastic compound was around 81.2
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U.S. billion dollars(Statista). In the upcoming 2022 market estimates around 93.4 U.S.​ ​billion

dollars in revenue yearly from these same compounds due to demand(Statista). In 2018 the U.S.

total resin production was around 120,000 million pounds(A.C.C). The estimated increase in

demand for these compounds will increase the amount of resin production to 125,000-150,000

million pounds in the near future(A.C.C.). The issues we have seen in our land and marine

environments are not going to change if the root of the problem persists. Too much plastic is

being produced for waste management systems to handle.

Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, are used only once before they are thrown

away or recycled. These items are things like plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, soda bottles,

water bottles, and food packaging. Of all plastics used only 10% will ever be recycled. The other

90% is sent to waste management facilities to be processed before entering landfills. So of the

120,000 million pounds of resin plastic produced in 2018 most will see a landfill instead of being

recycled. This will increase as the production of plastic rises to cause more overflow of waste in

landfills across the United States. This directly has drastic effects on the environment around

these areas and the people who live there. In the U.S. the final resting places of unwanted waste

is collected and put into the 2,000 active landfills we have across the country. The U.S. alone

creates 254 million tons of waste per year, and unless we start dramatically decreasing that

amount we may very well run out of landfill space(Romero). Some solutions to issue all are

proved to be effective methods for either slowing the amount of plastic going into landfills or

repurposing the substance. ​Using waste as a resource is the key to becoming more
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resource-efficient. At the end of their service life, plastics are still too valuable to be simply

thrown away. They can be recycled back into new products or chemical raw materials or, where

this is not possible or sustainable, used for energy recovery as a substitute for virgin fossil

fuels(​Europe, Plastic​). In the foreseeable future, most countries apart from the EU (European

Union) are stricter on environmental legislation then countries such as the U.S. The latest annual

monitoring of plastics waste, recycling and recovery performed on behalf of PlasticsEurope and

the European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery Organisations (EPRO) revealed

the following key facts for EU-28 countries plus Norway and Switzerland for the year 2016.

From making the corrective efforts to decrease single-use plastics we see huge benefits in these

EU countries such as plastic recovery reaching 72.7%, Plastics packaging having the highest

recycling and recovery rates, and astonishingly for the first time more plastics waste was

recycled than landfilled(​Europe, Plastic)​. These simple steps towards pushing legislation to

regulate these aspects of waste management are proven to have success. The United States has a

great example to follow for how to develop a better waste management system. In this urgent

time, it must be considered, the effects of plastic pollution can be irreversible if no action is

taken towards them.

In all the plastic we use daily the chemical makeup of the material makes it not edible or

able to metabolized in our bodies; thus making plastic pollution toxic to us as humans and most

other lifeforms with our same composition. BPA(bisphenol A​)​ is an industrial chemical that has

been used to make certain plastics and resins since the 1960s. In 2010 the FDA reversed its
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opinion on BPA, saying it does now have concerns about health risks. The agency stopped short

of issuing any regulations, citing an outdated regulatory framework but recommended that

people reduce their exposure to BPA(​Hand​). With regulations on chemicals such as these being

ignored by the FDA and other environmental agencies, we see a large increase in cancers and

birth defects. Professor of environmental and occupational epidemiology at the Harvard School

of Public Health and the newly appointed Frederick Lee Hisaw Professor of Reproductive

Physiology said, “It’s not like there’s a single-point source. With bisphenol A, we have literally

hundreds of different sources of exposure. If you avoid the water cooler, you probably get it from

other sources —food from a can, soda from a can, dental composites(Hand).” Having so many

ways to get BPA in your bloodstream from exposure was common before the government began

to crack down on chemicals like this in the consumer plastic we use every day, but with the

chemical being used for almost 60 years its safe to say it has caused health exposures to millions

of individuals. With the large production of single-use plastic, these BPA could be in thousands

of products we use every day. These same plastics left in landfills creates a toxic chemical

mixture with water called leachates. This alone can poison groundwater and cause runoff into

nearby lakes and rivers. Furthering the exposure of dangerous chemicals to our food sources and

livestock. Hundreds of animal studies point to potential health dangers from exposure in the

uterus before birth. These include abnormal development of the brain, breast, and prostate. Many

animal studies link the chemical to reproductive disorders, including infertility, feminizing of

male organs in fetuses, and early puberty in females. A synthetic hormone, BPA mimics

estrogen(Hand). From health exposures to visual pollution in

in our country how much more evidence is needed to begin regulations on single-use plastic?

The system of regulations we have in the U.S. causes backlogging and slowing of legislation

when it is urgent. Directly affecting all the people who work to keep paying tax dollars to keep

the government running. The factual support, testing, and studies show the problem and possible

solution still, no attempt is made to correct what is broken.

With livestock already being affected by single-use plastics chemicals, BPA’s can be

found in meat and milk produced by these animals. Tainted food sources are the easiest way for

harmful substances to be digested into the body. In the marine environment, the runoff created

by livestock is a toxic mix of plastic pollution, fertilizers and even dumped chemical compounds.

When plastic finds its way into bodies of water it begins to break down into tiny plastic pieces

called microplastics, thus easing consumption by the species in that ecosystem food web. These

are the same food sources humans rely on. We poison ourselves through polluting environments.

Although plastic will not biodegrade (decompose into a natural substance like soil) it will

degrade (break down) into tiny particles after many years. It releases toxic chemicals called

Phthalates (Plastic softeners), BPA substitutes (Bisphenol-A), and PVC (Polyvinyl chloride)

(How to Avoid Toxic Chemicals in Plastics). All marine environments are sensitive systems of

coral coast, river deposits, and even water reservoirs. Microplastic in these areas pollutes our

only sources of freshwater. ​The amount of freshwater we are available to on earth is about 3%,

so to allow plastics to create havoc in ecosystems such as these are asinine.

Efforts have been made to begin mass cleanups of marine beaches and lakefronts to stop

the millions of tons of debris that enter these waters annually. From simple events such as this,

the communities are visually seeing the impact they make on where they live. The conversation

begins on how to regulate the process to better help the environment. The ​Marine Environmental

Protection and Cleanup Foundation is an NGO group founded to propagate healthily

environmental stewardship and lifestyles that reverse climate change(Marine). Groups such as

these are making huge steps towards creating volunteering communities that want change in their

areas. Partnering together with the Ocean Conservancy and international coastal cleanup groups

in 2017, nearly 800,000 volunteers collectively removed more than 20 million pieces of trash

from beaches and waterways around the world(Marine Cleanup). The single-use plastic collected

in these efforts is a large percentage of the total debris collected Being around 1,739,743 food

wrappers, 1,569,135 plastic beverage bottles, 1,091,107 plastic bottle caps, 1,503,734 Plastic

bags, and 643,562 straws(Merran). This small amount collected in 2018 cleanup efforts shows

the mere volume of plastics never making it to a landfill. Proving more efforts by our

government are needed in regulating the production of single-use plastic to stop the amount

being sent to landfills and the large quantities making it into or near bodies of water.

Single-use plastic creates a dangerous environment for animals and people. It is quick to

produce and fast to throw away. Products such as these are used to make them cheap and

relatively easy to mass produce. With government regulations being guided by companies
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lobbying instead of the people’s well being we see dysfunction. The overflow of non-recyclables

in landfills, health problems from constant exposure to BPA and other chemical cocktails, and

lastly the astonishing amount of plastic debris found in and around our bodies of water. The hope

we see in cleanup efforts around the world show people have the power and means to face this

challenge and successfully find ways to not only improve our current ecosystems, but to improve

how humans coexist with the animals and plants we need for sustenance. Stopping the

production of single-use plastic will create a better, more prosperous future for the united states

and be the leading steps to making our country truly environmentally friendly.
 Works Cited

American Chemistry Council. "Total Resin Production in The United States from 2008 to 2018

(in Million Pounds)*." ​Statista​, Statista Inc., 4 Apr 2019,

https://www.statista.com/statistics/203398/total-us-resin-production-from-2008/

Europe, Plastic. “Zero Plastics to Landfill.” ​PlasticsEurope,​ 2017,

www.plasticseurope.org/en/focus-areas/circular-economy/zero-plastics-landfill.

Hand, Larry. “Plastics: Danger Where We Least Expect It.” ​News,​ 19 Feb. 2014,

www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/winter10plastics/.

“How to Avoid Toxic Chemicals in Plastics.” ​Made Safe,​ 5 May 2017,

www.madesafe.org/avoid-toxic-chemicals-plastics/.

https://www.madesafe.org/avoid-toxic-chemicals-plastics/

Merran, Jordana. “Cleanup Reports.” ​Ocean Conservancy,​ 2018,

oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas/international-coastal-cleanup/annual-data-release/.

Romero, Melissa. “A Map of America's Landfills... All of them.” ​Californians Against Waste,​

Californians Against Waste, 6 Jan. 2017,

www.cawrecycles.org/recycling-news/7fefbkt4fje5f23h5k8c58xdt68e9r.

Statista. "Forecast Market Value of Plastic Compounds in The United States from 2019 to 2025

by Product (in Billion U.S. Dollars)." ​Statista,​ Statista Inc., 31 May 2019,

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1012024/us-market-value-plastic-compounds-by-prod
uct/
“Welcome to Marine Cleanup.org. Thank You for Visiting!” ​Marine Clean Up​, 2018,

www.marinecleanup.org/.