If the future could be summed up in the 1967 movie “The Graduate” in just one word — “Plastics” — it might be summed up today in one question: What do we do with all this blasted plastic?
Weary and wary of the grocery bags, water bottles, carry-out containers, disposable cutlery, drinking straws and ear swabs that litter our parks, beaches and oceans, the nations of the world are rousing themselves to eliminate this blight.
Modest efforts have been underway for at least a decade. Since 2009, fees or outright bans on plastic bags in Washington, D.C., and a few smaller U.S. cities have spread and picked up steam. But the era of sweeping regulation is upon us. The European Union voted in March to ban many single-use plastics by 2021. Canada followed suit in early June.
Experts warn, though, that this is a complex problem, both economically and environmentally.
From an environmental perspective, which materials use the fewest resources? Which create the smallest long-term consequences? How much depends on changeable human behavior?
Plastic bags — perhaps the most visible litter out there — actually use fewer resources to produce than paper bags, but they don’t break down for decades, possibly centuries. Paper products are biodegradable but because we know this, we aren’t as diligent in recycling them.
Plastics of all kinds create massive floating islands in our oceans. Those that disintegrate end up in our seafood. Scientists still don’t know how this effects human health. Are ear swabs with wooden sticks, bamboo utensils and paper straws going to make much difference?
Beyond the science, the politics of addressing these concerns are fraught. At the international level, it is the developing nations that have the weakest waste management infrastructure and dump the most waste into our oceans. Curtailing pollution and encouraging better systems is the hard work of diplomacy.
Domestically, plastic bag manufacturers lobby to protect their industry, and legislators are sensitive to the possible loss of jobs. In 2017, such lobbying actually spurred Pennsylvania’s Legislature to pass a ban on plastic bag bans.
Such a multi-faceted problem has no easy solution. Since Americans are more leery of overbearing government than citizens of other developed nations, we can pursue approaches that stop short of outright bans. It makes sense to impose fees on materials that raise our recycling costs: We are free to choose poorly, but if we do, we should pay.
We can keep reusable grocery bags in our vehicles and reusable drink bottles at our desks. We can ask our favorite restaurants to switch to biodegradable carry-out containers. Water for the kiddie soccer team weighs just as much in a couple of big thermoses as it does in 12 plastic bottles with plastic lids and a thick plastic yoke.
Our abundant material blessings should make us mindful, not careless.
First Published: June 23, 2019, 10:00 a.m.