Polystyrene cups: way off base
Something you should think about as you enjoy your ice cold drink at the stadium.
It’s baseball season and MLB fans are flocking to the stadium to cheer on their favorite team. If you’re one of them, along with your peanuts and Cracker Jacks, you’ll probably wash down your salty snack with a lemonade or soda. The sugar content in those drinks is as absurdly high as the price, but you don’t think about it, because these are ballgame essentials.
But there is something you should think about as you enjoy your ice cold drink at the stadium: the convenient cup you’re holding it in.
It’s likely that your beverage comes in a plastic or foam cup. When you finish your drink, you’ll find the nearest trash can and toss it. But that’s not the end of this cup’s life cycle.
One of the most commonly-used plastics is polystyrene, better known as styrofoam, though that’s a brand name. It’s in cups, straws, containers and other single-use products.
According to an EPA blog post, the amount of polystyrene that Americans use would circle Earth 426 times every year. What’s more, polystyrene is not biodegradable, meaning it does not break down over time. Instead, polystyrene breaks up into smaller and smaller “microplastic” pieces. These microplastics eventually make their way into our rivers, lakes and oceans, which then endanger wildlife and human health.
Some of the chemical additives that make polystyrene flexible pose serious risks to the human body. These chemicals disrupt and harm our endocrine systems, which control hormones and affect human development, metabolism and even behavior. These endocrine disruptors can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, hormonal imbalances and other developmental disorders.
Maybe the worst aspect of polystyrenes is that they may take hundreds of years to decompose. Since polystyrene has only been around since the 1960s, this is only a best estimate based on observations in labs. Others predict that these microplastics will never disappear. Ninety percent of floating trash in our oceans is composed of polystyrene and other non-biodegradable plastics. This has created “plastic islands” — the largest one, located in the Pacific Ocean, is roughly twice the size of Texas. Other plastic particles will pollute rivers, lakes and reservoirs.
It’s eye-opening to think that the cup you drank from at your very first baseball game is still around today, living in some landfill or contaminating our oceans. It’s even more mind-boggling that the cup you come across this season will outlive you, your kids and your grandkids.
Until we begin taking plastics seriously, by pushing for bans on polystyrenes and other plastic products, this is our reality and our legacy.
