The False Promise of Plastic

A glittery pink block with small orange buttons. Looking at it now, it was a very cheaply made toy phone. Lazily designed knockoff cartoon characters waved on the small black screen; cheap stickers on the buttons that peeled off with the slightest touch. My parents believed that my toddler mind would not have the capacity to appreciate anything more glamorous, and they weren’t wrong. I thought it was the most beautiful object; I spent countless afternoons with it, sprawled on the floor, making fake phone calls to goblins and fairies and vampires.

That was my first introduction to the wonders of plastic. Back then, the implications of plastic use were the furthest thing from my mind. To me, it was disposable and pointless, but a fun and simple way to occupy time. Even now, plastic still proves to serve a similar function. Restaurants serve us food from plastic plates; authors write stories for us with plastic pens; tailors make us fashionable fabrics from polyester threads. It feels as though the world did not exist before the creation of plastic. What did people eat from? What did people wear? A wonderfully flexible and beautiful material, bending to our every will and desire, filling the mold for every occasion. A beautifully simple miracle product. Yet, the consequences of plastic use are devastating.

It has been estimated that each plastic bag is used for an average of only 12 minutes before it is discarded (Smith-Llera 49), where they spend hundreds of years fragmenting in oceans. These microplastics circulate around the ocean and seep into the natural food chain, making its way into the diets of fishes, birds, turtles, and even our own. This is not just speculation - there are 5.25 trillion macro and microplastics in the open ocean as you read this sentence. (Eriksen et al.) Although the damage of these microplastics might seem distant from the comfort of your home, each of these 5.25 trillion pieces make their ways back into our lives, with an estimated 250g of microplastics being consumed on average annually by every individual.

But we have heard this all before. The mantra preventing environmental degradation has become a constant humming to our ears. Numbers and figures that used to surprise us now only feel like a gentle prod amidst a thousand other worries. As a society, we have already made valiant and admirable efforts in response to these issues. The importance of recycling has grown to be deeply embedded into our education, almost synonymous with environmental protection. Companies produce new fabrics from plastic bottles, allowing customers to passively experience a sense of accomplishment from buying these new clothes. It feels like every facet of society has been playing its part in solving the issue. Yet it feels like we are as far away from the solution as ever- so what are we doing wrong?

These gimmicky new plastic fabrics get broken down back into microplastics by the friction of washing machines, then all ending in the ocean; these products act as a gimmick more than a solution.

But the bigger issue is how our education has made us view recycling. Although it is framed as the endgame to resolving issues of plastic waste, only ~20% of plastics are recycled due to contamination or the inappropriate categorization of plastics. (Ritchie) There are huge fundamental issues with recycling regarding poor management and treatment, but because of how it is made to seem, we have grown to become reliant on it - without it, it feels as though there is no direction to follow. What can we do now?

The answer is to reduce plastic use.

If you want to take action and be a part of an active force in solving this environmental problem, there are some very simple adjustments you can make to your life. Aside from widespread well-known things like bringing your own grocery bag to the supermarket and bringing your own tumbler to the coffee shop, there are some other things you can do that you might not have thought about. When going out to buy takeout, bring your own reusable box and ask the workers if they can fill that box instead of those single use bowls we so often use. Often, they will gladly oblige- they have no reason not to.

In addition to this, another thing you can do is shop from zero-waste shops. Specifically, even in just Hong Kong there are many places you can visit: LiveZero, Edgar and even Lush. There is a shifting demand in the market for items with less packaging and environmentally friendly products from informed customers like you and me; living zero-waste shouldn’t just be a temporary gimmick, so supporting these shops will allow this movement to continue on. With a change in demand, there will be a change in supply, so changing our consumer patterns will indicate to businesses that there is a market for selling environmentally friendly products.

Everyone’s journey to becoming more environmentally aware is different, and everyone has different limitations on how much you can do based on your personal situation. But regardless of who you are or where you are, one thing you can always do is start a conversation about it and spread awareness. As I have mentioned before, the promotion of being environmentally friendly has almost become redundant to our ears, but having a serious discussion about it with a friend or a family member will help them gain a new perspective on it.

Your contribution to this movement depends on you, and how much you care to change depends on you. The fate of the world rests in our hands, and what you decide to do now with all this information depends on you.

Citations

Smith-Llera, Danielle. You Are Eating Plastic Every Day. Capstone Global Library Limited, 2019.

Eriksen, Marcus, et al. “Plastic Pollution in the World’s Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea.” PLoS ONE, edited by Hans G. Dam, vol. 9, no. 12, 2014, p. e111913. Crossref, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111913.

Zhao, Siyuan “Yum! People Eat 250g of Plastic a Year - World - Chinadaily.Com.Cn.” China Daily [China], 13 June 2019, www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201906/13/WS5d018f65a310176577230db1.html.

Ritchie, Hannah. “FAQs on Plastics.” Our World in Data, 2 Sept. 2018, ourworldindata.org/faq-on-plastics.