Plastic: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
The Trick Behind the Plastic Industry’s Vanishing Act.
Last week I watched a film called The Story of Plastic. During my viewing, I learned a term that blew my mind: multilayer plastic. Heard of it? Maybe not by name. But I can assure you, you’ve seen it. Undoubtedly, you’ve bought it. I’ve unknowingly participated in investing in the product every time I leave the grocery store.
Multilayer packaging makes up bags for our tortilla chips, candy bars, and coffee grounds. What defines it is the mixed composition of various materials. The first layer might be foil, the next LPE, the next paper. Plastic companies often boast these are made of 100% recyclable materials. True. Foil, LPE, and paper are all individually recyclable. The catch? It’s nearly impossible to separate the layers. Unless the layers are separated, the bag cannot be effectively recycled. The end product still ends up sitting in our earth’s rivers and oceans across the globe, but out of sight of Americans. Soon they could be sitting in America’s waters. Don’t believe me? I’ll continue on…
The Bigger Picture
Once upon a time that bag of chips, candy wrapper, or coffee bag would have ended up polluting China’s soil. Now it likely ends up polluting Southeast Asian soils; soon it will likely end up polluting our own. Yes, you heard that right. The world is done with America’s waste. Soon we’ll be stuck with it on our shores. Queue “Cell Block Tango” from the Chicago score because, frankly, we “had it coming.”
Since China’s import ban on plastics, America has hunted for new grounds to dispose of plastic waste. Countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines became natural candidates. These countries wanted more revenue and fuel. America promised its plastic could supply that. As did Australia, France, and Canada. Recently all these countries have received tonnes of their exported rubbish back on their shore. Some of these loads were full of non-recyclables, others were full of plastic bottles filled with maggots.
Many Western countries are eager to critique these countries for their poor management of waste. What these Western countries don’t mention is that those are the same shores they ship their waste onto.
The message Southeast Asia has sent is clear: If America doesn’t play by the rules, they won’t take the plastic. And with good reason. The plastic itself already causes enough trouble when properly sorted.
Back to Multi-layer Plastics
Multi-layered plastic, though nearly impossible to recycle, but makes up a good portion of plastic waste. Though not as recognized in America, the plastic buzzword in many other countries is sachet. These small pouches, made of multilayered wraps, hold anything from single use portions of laundry detergent to shampoo to coffee creamer. Plastic companies claim sachets were produced in an effort to bring luxury goods to lower-income communities at an affordable rate. But these one-use packages, brought into already exploited communities, ended up further polluting their environment.
Many sachets don’t make it into the trash. The packaging that does get placed in waste piles might be incinerated and dispersed into the air, or perhaps rain sweeps the package away from the dumpsite and further clogs a plastic laden river. Many Westerners critique these countries for their poor management of waste. What Western countries don’t mention (or even realize) is that those are the same shores we ship our waste onto.
It’s only a matter of time before countries say no for good.
Let’s zoom out beyond multi-layered packaging. Only 14% of plastics are recyclable. Of that small percentage, 12% are actually downcycled. This means the second product made is less durable than the material it came from. Downcycled materials are usually single-use items such as grocery bags or multilayer packaging. In its second life, the plastic is now deemed too weak for recycling. We now get to share the earth with this tattered plastic bag for the next 200 years. Its particles could even end up in your drinking water as over 90% of tap and bottled water now contains plastic particles.
[Burning plastic] pumps toxic smoke and gas into the air, which penetrates both the soils and citizens’ lungs.
Only 2% of plastics are truly recyclable (not downcycled). That means of the waste shipped to Southeast Asia, roughly 2% of it can be sustainably used. The rest is often burned. With plastic arriving from overseas by the tonnes, they must dispose of the unusable material somehow. The burned plastic can be used for smaller businesses as fuel. Unsurprisingly, this pumps toxic smoke and gas into the air, which penetrates both the soils and citizens’ lungs. This results in the same problem neighborhoods near plastic plants in Texas face: increased risk for respiratory illness and cancer.
A Wake-Up Call
China has already said no to our bad habits of consumption, and we’re standing on thin ice with the countries in Southeast Asia to which we now export our waste. It’s only a matter of time before countries say no for good. When that day comes, plastic will pile up in America’s own warehouses. Maybe the “recyclables” will even end up on our shores. Maybe those toxins will join our air supply.
Another thought troubles me more: maybe we’ll continue to pass down our problem to different countries. Maybe we’ll continue to bestow upon other populations the smoke and carcinogens.
Or maybe. Just maybe… we can learn to curb the industry in time. Before we burden someone else with the consequence or shoulder it ourselves. Maybe we could tell the industry we’re done with the myth. Because here’s the reality: recycling won’t save us.
