The Egregious Life Cycle of Single-Use Plastics
It’s a hot summer day in the middle of July, and you just finished taking your dog for a walk around the park. You are dying of thirst but, unfortunately, in your haste to get out the door, you forget to bring your reusable water bottle with you. And then you spot it: a vending machine filled with ice-cold bottles of water. Without hesitation, you walk over to the machine, insert a couple dollars, and out pops a refreshing beverage packaged in single-use plastic. Within minutes, the water is gone, and all that remains is the plastic bottle. You throw the bottle in the nearest trash can, then head home. Thank goodness that water was available in that convenient, disposable packaging.
Or maybe you find yourself at the grocery store. After locating all of the items on your list, you head to the checkout. Unfortunately, you forgot to bring your reusable shopping bags that your mom got you for your birthday. So, instead of making dozens of trips to carry all the groceries out to your car, you decide to use the plastic bags provided at the checkout. The groceries are carried to your car, into your home, and then the plastic bags are thrown away. Single-use plastics save the day once again.
A final likely scenario is ordering take-out. It’s a Friday night, and you don’t feel like going out, let alone cooking yourself something. Naturally, you use your favorite food delivery app to order some dumplings from that new Chinese place that all your friends have been raving about. Without ever leaving the comfort of your own home, the food shows up on your doorstep. And what’s even better is that it is all conveniently packaged in single-use plastic. Just eat the food, throw the container away, and then back to binging reruns of Storage Wars. Even the silverware was plastic, so there’s no dishes to clean!
After reading this, you may be thinking to yourself, “Gee, single-use plastics are the best thing since sliced bread!” After all, they’re convenient, versatile, cheap, and you can get rid of them as soon as you’re finished with them. What more could you ask for? Unfortunately, the life of single-use plastics does not end as soon as you throw them away. In fact, their life is just beginning.
It’s astonishing to think that something created to be used for a matter of minutes can end up lasting for decades, and maybe even centuries. According to the World Wildlife Fund, a plastic bag can take up to 20 years to decompose, plastic straws take around 200 years, and plastic water bottles can take a staggering 450 years to decompose (The lifecycle of plastics)! What’s more, a large majority of single-use plastics don’t even end up in landfills. They make their way into our forests, our city streets, and our oceans, where they wreak even more havoc.
It is estimated that there is already 165 million tons of plastic in the ocean, and some studies suggest that plastic could even outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050 (McCallum, 2020). Couple this with the fact that, of the seven billion tons of plastic waste generated globally so far, less than 10% has been recycled (Visual feature: Beat plastic pollution). Unless we change our habits quickly and drastically, the repercussions will be severe.
So I encourage you to think about the big picture the next time you reach for your favorite single-use plastic. Think about what a small convenience that item is providing you and what a massive detriment it is to marine life, those in developing countries who have to live with our waste, and the planet as a whole. I realize that carrying a reusable water bottle and plastic bags and cooking your own meals may not be the easiest option and will probably take some getting used to, but the future of our planet is at stake. Sea turtles everywhere will thank you, and I promise you that Storage Wars will still be there when you get back from preparing your meal.
By Joey Kurincak
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