Reducing Plastic Waste
Shelley Hrdlitschka sent this wonderful reminder from a book she recently read:
“A number of times we, as a group, have asked ourselves if our individual efforts to reduce plastic or tread more lightly in general makes any difference in the big picture. In his book The Environmentalist’s Dilemma, Arno Kopecky addresses this question in the last chapter. I thought his thoughts were worth sharing with the group”
“… knowing that nothing I do will slow climate change has a profoundly paralyzing impact. If nothing I do makes a difference, why should I do anything at all? Why should I suffer the sacrifice of living a simpler life?
I submit that the chief benefit of doing whatever little things we can is personal. Becoming aware that every little thing we do has some impact, and acting accordingly gives our lives purpose. It imbues our humdrum daily routine with a little hit of meaning. To eat with intention, to reduce our consumption of material goods, to drive a little less and walk a little more, and to choose our leaders carefully - none of these things are guaranteed to change the world. But they’re likely to make us feel better.
And you never know. Sometimes, the world does change as a result of these multitudinous actions.
When the moment of transformation arrives, it often seems sudden as a shore-breaking wave, but in reality, change was gathering beneath the surface all along, swelling imperceptibly toward its breaking point, one person at a time.”
Microplastics
A microplastic is a piece of plastic debris that measures less than five millimeters in diameter. Most microplastics come from small synthetic fibers in clothing, the erosion of tires, and city dust.
What are Microplastics?
Like the name implies, microplastics are small bits of plastic. Technically speaking, a piece of plastic qualifies as “micro” if it measures less than five millimeters in diameter. For a bit of perspective, 5 millimeters is about the size of a sesame seed.
There are a variety of sources for microplastics, but they’re generally broken down into two types: primary and secondary.
1. Primary microplastics enter the environment in their original form, at the size they were intended – as miniscule particles; in essence, they were created to be small. A few examples of primary microplastics would be synthetic microfibers from clothing, plastic pellets used in the manufacturing of plastic goods, and microbeads (which the U.S. banned from personal care products in 2015).
2. Secondary microplastics started their lives as bigger, stronger pieces of plastic, but then they started to break down as they aged. That means anything from a plastic water bottle or straw to a children’s toy or tire could eventually become microplastic.
Because of its exposure to environmental factors like sun, wind, and water, plastic breaks down faster once it reaches a river or ocean. But it takes forever for a piece of plastic to completely decompose. And that’s not just an exaggeration –plastic isn’t biodegradable.
Every piece of plastic that has ever been created is still around in some form. When plastic “breaks down” in the ocean, the pieces just get smaller and smaller, eventually becoming microplastics.
How do Microplastics Enter the Environment?
While it would be easy to point the finger and say that humans are responsible for microplastics entering the environment, the answer is actually a bit more complicated than you might think.
Yes, we are the ones who demand the convenience of single-use plastics then don’t dispose of them properly. But most of the microplastics in our environment don’t come from these larger items; instead, more than 85% of them can be attributed to things you probably never thought of like small synthetic fibers that come out in the washing machine, the erosion of tires, and city dust.
While we do use an inordinate amount of plastic, it is laundry and road run off that are the main drivers of microplastics.
In addition, the sad truth is that while water treatment plants filter out most microplastics, the “sludge” collected from the facility is often used as a fertilizer replacement, which puts all those microplastics right back into the environment.
What Effect do Microplastics Have on the Environment?
At this point, we don’t know for sure what effect all those microplastics are having on humans and the environment as a whole. We can naturally assume it’s not good, but because the study of microplastics is relatively new, we don’t have much solid data to support our assumptions.
What we do know is that once microplastics reach our rivers, lakes, and oceans, they can often be mistaken by marine life for food. Then the microplastics end up in their stomachs, where they’re unable to be digested. The accumulated microplastics then damage the digestive tract, causing malnourishment and often death. If that’s what microplastics do to marine wildlife, it certainly makes you wonder what effect they’re having on the rest of us.
How can we reduce microplastics?
The good news is that you can make changes to help reduce the amount of microplastics that enter the environment. Here are a few suggestions:
Advocate for water treatment reform so filtered microplastics aren’t released back into the environment.
Take public transportation whenever possible to reduce overall tire wear.
Buy fewer clothes made with synthetic fibers; choose those made from natural materials instead.
Wash your clothes less frequently to prevent microfibers from washing down the drain.
Only wash full loads of laundry; this creates less friction, which reduces the number of microfibers released in the wash.
Wash your clothes in cold water, if possible, and for a shorter cycle to prevent the shedding of microfibers.
Use a microfiber-catching ball in the wash and/or install a microfiber filter on your washing machine.
Air dry your clothes instead of running them through the dryer.
Contact washing machine manufacturers and urge them to update designs to filter out microfibers.
Participate in local clean-ups to keep plastic out of our streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans.
And as always, reduce your use of plastic, recycle as much as possible, and purchase reusable and/or biodegradable products instead of those made from plastic.
Source: Microplastics and More, is My Trash Going to Kill Me? Repurpose, 2022
Plastics, Plastics and Less Plastics Please
Our Environmental Action Team is focusing on plastics. For the next 5-6 months, we will be researching plastics and learning together - finding ways in which we can reduce our use of plastics by exploring effective alternatives. While we will look at ideas from the personal level, we also want to explore how we can be advocates for the reduction of the use of plastics commercially in our community.
Learn more about what our Environmental Action Team is doing on their webpage HERE.
Upcoming Bans on Plastic in Canada
The Liberal government announced it will ban some single-use plastic items in an effort to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030. Read more HERE.
How bad are plastics?
Most of us know that plastics are bad for the environment. Many of us think that it is OK to use plastics as long as we recycle them. But we need to learn more . . .
Plastics are everywhere. They are convenient, durable, lightweight and relatively inexpensive to buy. But though they offer numerous benefits, about 99 per cent of plastics are made from fossil fuels and emit greenhouse gases at every step along the line.
Take a walk though your local grocery store, drug store and dollar store. You will be hard pressed to see much that isn’t made with plastics. Plastic output increased by almost 80% between 2000 and 2015 alone, and production is expected to triple by 2050.
Let’s look at the impact of plastics from production to disposal:
First: The problem starts with extraction and transportation
When people think about plastics, they really don’t tend to think about the beginning of its life cycle. And the beginning of its life cycle really begins with oil and gas development:
Oil, gas, and coal are the fossil-fuel building blocks of plastics
Extraction and transportation of these fossil fuels is a carbon-intensive activity
Land disturbance also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions associated with extraction.
second: Refining and manufacturing cranks up emissions
Plastics refining is also greenhouse-gas intensive. In 2015, emissions from manufacturing ethylene were equivalent to the carbon dioxide from as much as 45 million passenger vehicles in one year. Globally, carbon dioxide emissions from ethylene production are projected to expand by 34% between 2015 and 2030.
Third: Waste management affects community health
Globally, about 40% of plastics are used as packaging, which is typically meant for a single use. This packaging can be processed in three different ways:
Waste incineration has the largest climate impact of the three options. “Incineration is a massive environmental injustice – not just in the United States, but all over the world,” Claire Arkin said. “The people who are subjected to the pollution from these incinerators often are the ones who are least responsible for the waste in the first place and have to bear the brunt of the impacts.”
Landfilling has a much lower climate impact than incineration, but the placement of landfills can be associated with similar environmental injustices.
Recycling is a different beast with an entirely different set of problems. Research from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation suggests that only 2% of plastics are recycled into products with the same function. Another 8% are “downcycled” to something of lower quality. The rest is landfilled, leaked into the environment, or incinerated.
Leaching is another concern that affects community health. Studies have found that certain chemicals in plastic can leach out of the plastic and into the food and beverages we eat. Some of these chemicals have been linked to health problems such as metabolic disorders (including obesity) and reduced fertility. This leaching can occur even faster and to a greater degree when plastic is exposed to heat. This means you might be getting an even higher dose of potentially harmful chemicals simply by microwaving your leftovers in a plastic container.
fourth: When plastics enter the environment, they don’t stop polluting
After plastics have been used, people may dump them into the environment, sometimes purposefully and other times accidentally. Even if plastics go to a landfill, some are light enough to blow in the wind and enter waterways. We have all seen pictures of “plastic islands” in the oceans.
Plastics can break down into smaller pieces, called microplastics, through biodegradation or exposure to the sun, heat, or water. These microplastics scatter across the globe, even to the depths of the ocean. Toxic chemicals can bind to microplastics and create poison pills that aquatic animals eat. Studies are currently being undertaken about the effect of micro and nano plastics ingested by fish and seafood, and the effects this subsequently has on humans who consume them.
What is the Solution?
There are new approaches along the production end, such as:
Using bio-based feedstocks to reduce emissions in the refining stage,
Using only zero-carbon energy sources such as wind and solar in the manufacturing phase.
These may not be enough, however, to offset emissions associated with the rapid rise of plastics production.
When developing solutions, it’s important to think critically about the materials that will replace plastics. Authors of a 2011 study from the Environment Agency in the United Kingdom assessed the life cycle environmental impacts of different bags – such as paper, plastic, and cotton – used in U.K. grocery stores. Their study found that the key to reducing global warming impact is to reuse the bags as many times as possible. But the number of times the bag must be reused depends on its material. Paper bags need to be reused three times, while cotton bags need to be reused 131 times to ensure their global warming potential is lower than a typical plastic grocery bag.
What Can You Do?
Educate Yourself - Learn the story behind the plastics that you use. How are they produced? How are they recycled?
Be aware of greenwashing- a deceptive marketing practice that claims a product is environmentally friendly, without any substantiation. None or only a fraction of the product may actually be recyclable.
Do an Audit of the plastics in your home. See if there are alternatives for each item you have listed (we will be helping in the months ahead with suggestions to reduce reliance on plastics).
Recycle. Download the Recycle BC Guide to items that can be recycled through the blue bin program.
Use Your Voice – be an advocate for telling companies how you feel (more to follow on practical lobbying suggestions).
Refuse – make it your personal goal to reduce the number of plastics that come into your home. Start by saying “no” to single use plastics.
Attend our up-coming Spirit Zones to exchange ideas and learn more about eliminating the use of plastics in our lives.
Metro Vancouver Unitarian Zero Waste Group.
This winter our church (NSUC) was approached by Mary Bennett of the Vancouver Unitarian Church. Mary had the creative idea of getting the four lower Mainland Unitarian churches together to work on ways in which we could learn from each other and explore how we might involve our congregations in waste reduction. We now have members from the Beacon, South Fraser, Vancouver and North Shore churches. Barb Kroon and Shelley Hrdlitschka, members of our Environmental Action Team, agreed to represent our congregation. We meet monthly on the 4th Sunday of each month at 4:30 pm (via Zoom). Anyone is welcome to attend.