Last Updated: 14th August 2021
I am a big believer in the power of why. I talk all of the time on my social media accounts about how I am reducing my consumption of single use plastics but it is just as important, if not more important, to talk about why. The why is important because it will help you to understand why change is necessary, and hopefully motivate you to start making some changes yourself.
I was not phased by single use plastic a few years ago. I like many others, bought items wrapped in plastic and binned the packaging when I no longer needed it, assuming it would be recycled or disposed of properly.
However, my mind began to change when I learnt some revelatory facts:
1. A huge amount of plastic is not recyclable. If you are interested, I highly recommend reading the packaging on your food to see what it says. I commend Sainsburys for stating on the packaging of all of their home brand products clearly whether it is recyclable or not. Not only is this insightful but it helps the consumer to make more informed purchases. Plastic bags such as those that salad leaves are sold in, are often not recyclable. This means that they will end up in landfill, even if you put them in your recycling bin.
2. Most recyclable plastic is not being recycled. It is estimated that only 9% of the plastic that has ever been produced has been recycled, and another 12% has been incinerated. The other 79% still exists on the planet today (source).
This is partly because a large amount of recycling is "contaminated" and therefore sent to landfill instead of being recycled. This article explains it really well but a quick summary is that if an item is contaminated by uncleanliness such as food residue or by the presence of incorrect materials, then it cannot be recycled and will be sent to landfill. This means that if you put a salad bag into the recycling, it will not be recycled. Furthermore if a load of recycling is deemed to be contaminated to the point where it is not worth sorting, th entire load may be sent to landfill. In some cities one contaminated item can deem an entire load contaminated. This means that not only are your salad bags not being recycled, but that their presence in the recycling stream is preventing other recyclable plastics from being recycled. This article goes as far as to suggest "When it doubt, throw it out."
However, our huge recycling problem is also caused simply by failure in recycling chains, and companies and countries failing to take responsibility for their waste. I recommend watching BBC: War on Plastic for information on the reality of this situation.
This article goes as far as to suggest putting plastic waste into landfill bins instead of into recycling bins where it is at least well-managed, and devoting our time and energy to climate change instead.
(Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall holding plastic bags from the UK that can be found lying in huge fields of plastic half way around the world in BBC: War on Plastic)
3. Recycling is not a sufficient answer as long as virgin plastics are still being produced. Even if we were to miraculously recycle all of the plastic that has even been used, virgin plastics are still being produced at an ever increasing rate. How do we expect to tackle the issue of dealing with all of the plastic waste we have already created when more and more is being pumped into the system everyday?
4. Single use plastics, like all other items require lots of resources to be made. So why are we wasting these resources on packaging that will only be used once before heading to landfill??
5. Plastic is polluting the oceans. "Every year at least 8m tonnes of plastics leak into the ocean – which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute. If no action is taken, this is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030 and four per minute by 2050. In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish [by weight].” (source)
Not only is this plastic harmful to the fish and wildlife who eat it, often resulting in their death, but micro-particles are also entering our own food chain when humans eat fish.
If this article has moved you, please see my list of resources on plastic pollution for my information.
p.s. I do not think the onus for change lies entirely on the consumer. This blog post solely aims to explain why the use of single use plastics is causing an issue and change needs to happen. I implore you to work towards change, but whether that means reducing your own plastic consumption or rallying for political change is up to you.
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