Day 6: Plastic Lifecycle

Today you will learn from expert guest Megan Wolff about the plastic lifecycle, why it exists, and how we might positively influence this system to solve climate change.

Summary

Guest: Megan Wolff

Megan J. Wolff, Ph.D., MPH, is the Health Policy Director at Beyond Plastics. She is a public health historian with an eye to using history to inform policy. After receiving her masters and doctorate in public health from Columbia University, she spent over a decade at Weill Cornell Medical College, where she developed a mental health policy initiative within the Department of Psychiatry. She believes that climate change is the greatest threat to health and well-being in contemporary life, and that overproduction of plastics touches on every phase of the climate fight. She lives with her family in New Paltz, New York.

Follow Megan:

• LinkedIn
• Website

Explain succinctly what the plastic lifecycle is from first principles.

The plastic lifecycle:

• Plastic derives from fossil fuels: oil gas coal. So first, you got to get that out of the ground.
• Processing: refining of the fuels to use carbon bonds and make a really strong backbone of very durable material.
• Additives: to gain the malleable properties of plastic, 30 to 50% of chemical additives must be included in the process.
• Leaching: additives don't bond to carbon and through every moment of it's life, plastic will be shedding those chemical additives.
• Landfill & waste: Only 9% of plastic is recyclable. Most ends up in landfills, incinerators, oceans, and other areas leaching chemicals.
• Microplastics: plastic does not biodegrade, instead it breaks down into microscopic particles that seep into every corner of the ecosystem.

Why does plastic exist? What role does this system play in our lives?

When plastic was first created, it was considered a miracle material. It filled niches that no other materials could without or having to  kill a lot of animals. So billiard balls and piano keys and combs and buttons, things that used to be manufactured out of shell and bone and tusks, you could use plastic for those things.

World War II was a turning point for plastics that had been in development, but hadn't had a lot of applications. In World War II, suddenly plastic becomes used as nylon parachutes, plexiglass, airplanes, an water resistant materials, like polyethylene.

Now there are applications for plastic all over that are legitimately extremely beneficial.  You have a lot of  plastics in medicine for example.

How does the plastic lifecycle interact with the problem of climate change?

Because plastic is derived from fossil carbons, it has the same impacts on climate change that fuels do. If plastic were a country, it would be the 5th largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world.

Half of all plastic ever produced, was made in the last 20 years and that's happening because the petrochemical industry is recognizing that the market for fuels for fossil fuels is going down as people recognize the impacts of climate change and as renewables become more accessible. So they've pivoted to a new use for the same materials, which is plastic.

How might we positively influence this system to help solve climate change?

This is a structural problem that was brought to us through overproduction, mass manufacture, and a lot of very savvy advertising.

As individuals, our voices are enormously loud. They're far louder than our dollars. Those voices can use to push for regulation.

At Beyond Plastics, we are looking for a reduction of plastic manufacturing by 50% over 10 years, which will only take us back to about 2013. We need to reduce plastics in that sense. We also need to push for regulation that brings some of the toxic chemicals out of plastics. So effectively what we're pressing for is what we call extended producer responsibility. I like to say you make it, you take it. If you're making the plastic, you have to have an end game for it. And we as individuals can push for that at every stage, from government to pressing corporations to even just talking about each other and making each other understand better what's going on.

‍

Additional Resources

• Plastic, A Toxic Love Story by Susan Frankel - It came out in 2011 but it walks you through the origins of what historians will say is the present crisis.
• A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies by Matt Simon
• Sicker, Fatter, Poorer: The Urgent Threat of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals to Our Health and Future and What We Can Do About It by Leonardo Trasande
• The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health

‍

Top Skills To Learn

Our guest recommends learning the following skills:

• Public speaking: knowing your talking points. Young people are like kryptonite to legislators. No legislator can look a young person in the eye and say, no, you are less important than this plastic cup. It is important and knowing your talking points and sticking to your guns and being able to say your piece.
• Researching: Know your numbers. Know your facts. You know, don't don't let them steamroll you. Let them know you have the data.
• Writing: just be loud in every way you can including social media

‍

Activity

Activity: Recycling Infrastructure Research

Research the recycling facilities available in your area and the types of plastic they accept. Investigate the challenges faced by recycling systems, such as contamination and limited market demand for recycled materials. Reflect on the importance of proper waste management and explore ways to support recycling efforts.

‍

Skill Lesson Mastered

Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.