Picture 1 – A hill beside a village, with a person collecting trash and an excavator, full of garbage in South Tangerang, Indonesia. Source: Tom Fisk/Pexels

Introduction

Off the southern coast of Thailand in 2018, rescuers found a dying whale because it was consuming too much plastic. It eventually caused the whale to have a hard time eating other food, the rescuers tried to help the whale, but nothing could be done. Before the whale died, it started choking on the plastic and eventually passed away. After it was revealed that the whale had eaten 80 plastic bags, plastic does not only cause the whale to choke, it also has poisonous effects (Shelby).

If plastic is not cleaned up in the oceans, it will continue and get worse. This is not only a big threat to the environment, but it also brings harm to humans. Even though plastic might seem like a useful material, it brings serious harm to the environment and all animals. Plastic pollution is also tightly connected to many of the goals in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. All goals including goal 13, climate actions, goal 14, life underwater, goal 15, life on land, and goal 3, good health are related to plastic pollution.

Humans should start taking action in cleaning up the plastic produced because it is causing plastic pollution which is bringing danger to the environment.

Picture 2 – A picture full of different items made from plastic. There are plastic bottles, plastic bags, and yogurt boxes. Source: Magda Ehlers/Pexels

Why is there plastic pollution?

Plastic is a part of peoples’ daily life, it can be seen everywhere. It is used for wrappers, plastic bags, and other parts of things that are regularly used. Humans are relying on plastic too much which is causing environmental problems and taking up too much space. Even though plastic pollution might seem to have only one cause, which is the amount of plastic, there are more. Other main reasons include the production process of plastic, the amount of plastic littered, and the process of plastic decomposing.

Picture 3 – A picture of plastic pollution that just finished filling water in the factory. Source: Jonathan Chng/Unsplash

Plastic seems like a useful tool to be used for our everyday life, and in some way it is, but plastic pollutes our environment from the beginning of the process, production. There are three main steps to producing plastic, extraction, refinement, and lastly processing and manufacturing (This Is Plastic). The first step is extraction, which is digging the natural materials out so they can be used for producing plastic. The impacts of extraction are, that it damages the soil and land around where they dig because they must go far into Earth which also makes the place more prone to natural disasters. Also, most extraction companies will dump the extra rock and soil into waterways nearby which affects the ecosystem and the marine animals. Throughout extraction, a dangerous drilling process called fracking is used. This is effective because the process of fracking leaves behind huge amounts of containing radioactive materials, heavy metals, and other toxins. The next step is refinement and cracking, which is breaking the bonds and taking the chemicals out of the fossil fuels. Fossil fuels contain two chemical compounds called ethane and propane, these chemicals will go through a process called “cracking” which then breaks them down to even smaller and more functional compounds known as ethylene and propylene. This process is highly hazardous because it releases many toxic chemicals into the air that has negative effects on the climate and our health. Lastly, it is processing and manufacturing. The process of this release very toxic substances into the air, which causes climate problems and leads to heavy health problems. Plus, many small plastic particles also called “nurdles”, escape and end up being in the oceans and other waterways (Synorackis).

Picture 4 – A picture of different colors of straws and them breaking down into small particles. Source: Unsplash

Plastic is not something bad, it is useful and convenient, the real problem is that humans are using too much plastic for unnecessary things. Plastic bags, plastic bottles and caps, cigarette butts, cotton bud sticks, plastic cutlery and straws, and period products are a few of the most used plastic products in our daily life (Most Polluting Single-use). There are about 300,000 tons of plastic littered every year and only nine percent of them are fully recycled (Courtney), the other is thrown into the ocean or on land. Even though the amount littered is a huge problem to the environment, the bigger problem is that these are mostly all single-use plastic. Single-use plastic cannot be recycled, it must be thrown somewhere after usage. The overwhelming fact is that up to 40 percent of the plastic is thrown away are single-use plastic. Comparing the amount of single-use plastic produced each year, it will be near as equivalent to the weight of the entire human population (Courtney).

Everyone knows that plastic is hard to decompose, and most never actually decompose like paper. The particles in plastic will just go into smaller and smaller particles until the particles are tiny. The plastic that decomposes into very small particles will forever stay in the environment including in soil, water, and the air (Plastic Breakdown). These small particles do not only go into animals, but it goes into our bodies as well. These particles can be everywhere, even in the soil where food is produced. The plastic particles can decompose until nano plastics are small enough to go into our blood vessels and flow into our organs and brains. From a new study from Environment Science and Technology, a test came out to be saying that humans are possibly eating 39,000 to 52,000 plastic particles a year. But this test result only counts the number of plastic particles eaten, including the amount inhaled, humans might have about 74,000 plastic particles inside them (Gibbens). Studies have found that microplastic in human bodies will cause damage to the cells and have allergic reactions and cause death to cells (Parker).

 

Why is plastic pollution a problem?

There are many causes of plastic pollution, but the main problem of plastic pollution is its effects on the environment and humans.

The effects plastic pollution brings are as harmful as any other pollution seen in the world. It harms every part of the environment, it harms animals in the water, then animals on land, slowly to plants, and lastly humans. Effecting life on land and in water is not the only problem plastic pollution brings, plastic pollution is also causing other environmental problems like climate change.

Picture 6 – A bid that got stuck in plastic and on a wasted tire in Spain. Source: National Geographic

Millions of animals are killed by plastic every year, including all birds, fishes, and other marine organisms. Around 700 species of animals are affected by plastic, eating them, getting tangled in them, and more (Parker). Oceans and other waterways are where most plastic goes, the amount of plastic going into the ocean does not only bring harm to marine animals; it also brings harm to the water. As mentioned before, most plastic only decomposes into tiny particles and flows around in nature. It is the same in water, these particles then will go into animals in water and other living plants and organisms underwater. Animals like fish, turtles, whales, and others will mistake plastic for food and eat it. After the plastic has been eaten, the animals can not digest them which causes them to not be able to digest anything else as well. After days of not digesting, the animal will die due to the overloading amount of plastic in its stomach. Some plastic wastes will also sink to the sea floor and break down until the particles go into the sand. The death of marine animals will start causing problems in our food chain and causing unwanted results.

Plastic exists almost everywhere on the planet, no matter on beaches, in forests, and in desserts. In 2021, a scientist from Reykjavik University, the University of Gothenburg, and the Icelandic Meteorological Office stated that they found microplastic in a remote area of Vatnajokull glacier in Iceland, Europe’s largest ice cap. They say that these microplastics might cause melting and other unwanted behaviors of glaciers which will future cause the rise of sea levels (Reykjavik University).

Picture 7 – Three plastic boxes with blueberries in them. Source: Katherine Mihailova/Pexels

The plastic itself is a major problem as well, it contains many toxic materials which affect humans greatly. Three main chemicals in plastic are toxic to humans, phthalates, Bisphenol-A, also called BPA, and Polyvinyl chloride, in other words, PVC. The first one, phthalates, is a plastic softener to make the plastic not as fragile. But because the chemicals in phthalates do not connect well with plastic so they often move from the plastic onto our bodies. This chemical is tightly linked with hormone disruption and reproductive harm to baby boys. The second material is BPA, one of the most well-known toxic chemicals in plastic. BPA causes hormone disruption and other serious health problems. The government banned the usage of BPA in baby bottles and supplies, but this chemical is still seen in many other plastic products. The last one is PVC, also known as the most dangerous chemical to our health and the environment. In the process of producing PVC, it releases many toxic chemicals including dioxin, phthalates, vinyl chloride, ethylene dichloride, lead, cadmium, and others. It also leeches the chemicals into the water or food being contained by PVC, which later goes into peoples’ bodies unnoticed (Avoid Toxic Chemicals).

 

How can plastic pollution be solved?

Because plastic pollution is causing all these environmental problems, actions should be started to stop plastic pollution.

Even though plastic pollution is not something that can be easily solved due to various reasons but there are ways to start preventing plastic pollution. If everyone starts picking up garbage and reducing the production and usage of plastic, this problem will slowly turn toward the positive side.

There is no way to stop plastic pollution straight away, only if plastic is not used at all, which is not possible, but the first move that must be done is to clean up the plastic thrown all over the planet. One reason causing plastic pollution is the amount of plastic left on the planet. It is an overwhelming amount that cannot be handled. Even though nothing can be done to all the single-use plastic that has already been thrown into the wild but gathering them up and picking up the ones scrambled around will bring many improvements. It will help fewer animals die or get in touch with plastic, and it will purify the waters and lands. Many organizations started cleanup actions around the world. Supporting them financially by donating money and becoming a helper are both actions that can be done.

Picture 8 – This picture includes a glass jar containing spaghetti, two cloth bags with pistachio and spaghetti, and multiple other cloth bags. Source: Sarah Chai/Pexels