The Age of Plastic

Five thousand years from now a geologist will chip away at a rock formation. Cracking the outer layer will reveal the various strata of sedimentation. Igneous rock formed on top of metamorphic rock which itself formed on limestone, etc. This will be expected by the geologist. However, less than an inch from the top is something unanticipated.

This curious layer is unlike any layer of rock within the earth. It is dark and multicolored, like a minute patchwork of flowers. With the specks so small, a vertical sample is put under microscope for a closer inspection. The geologist is shocked to discover a novel rock formation. Plastic.

At present, around the world's oceans there are unfathomable miles of floating debris. The typical pollution thrown overboard, shore trash, or disintegrated fish carcasses. Among this disgusting amalgam of debris are particles of plastic. Ranging in size from the microscopic to theoretically that of household appliances and beyond. Plastic floats around the oceans into gigantic currents of sea waste that most people will never encounter. (We go to the cleaner shores to vacation.) But around the planet, on shores unseen, the plastic is washing ashore. The smaller particles clumping together forming what our fictional geologist will discover in five thousand years as the newest synthetic rock sediment.

Here is some food for thought. Plastics are made from substances which have taken hundreds of millions of years to come into being. They are then strung into complex polymers which are molded under pressure and temperature variance to become an object for disposable use. One such plastic could be upwards of 300 million years in the making, yet used and thrown away in a matter of seconds.

"Thank you, come again." - Apu

Despite the pollution in the ocean, the disposable value we've placed to this finite resource, and their inherent toxicity, humanity is addicted to all things plastic. When the convenience of plastic is considered it isn't hard to imagine why. Take the t-shirt plastic bag for instance. A remarkable engineering feat in and of itself. The bag is orders of magnitude stronger than paper bags. They are cheap to manufacture and consumers appreciate their ubiquity at stores. Yet the single use bags are nearly impossible recycle, and from pictures such as the one below, you can only imagine what the slums think of them.

At some point, society has to recognize the impact of plastic on the environment and our neighbors' lives. Activists, already ahead of the game, have been pushing through plastic bans in the places you'd suspect, Oregon, California and Washington among others. Much as the Appian way was not built overnight, neither can society cold turkey this substance. Starting with measures to reduce plastic bags seems logical though.

Once a community starts implementing a fee for plastic bag usage, the overall consumption drops. People try those canvas bags, heavier plastic bags, or some other method I'm not thinking of to carry their food and products to their homes. Contrary to some thinking, this is not ecological tyranny. A government's one fundamental method to change behavior is through taxes. Such a small incentive as a $0.03 or $0.25 fee can make inroads but can it really solve anything?

There are always consequences to be considered. In some instances, when plastic bag usage decreases, paper bag usage increases. This is a particularly alarming thought, as paper bags may have more overall impact than the plastic bags. Pick your poison basically.

The geologist at the beginning will have the historical knowledge of our lives and that of the centuries in between then and now. No doubt another substance will supplant plastic as our societal Play-Doh. I hope that you can appreciate the magnitude of our current consumption as well as the lack of solutions to deal with these incredibly resilient substances in the environment and landfills. Is a bag fee the appropriate place to start?

I wonder if this is even a political issue. Perhaps at its initial conception one party or the other will decry this as some Bolshevik-style plot to roll back the citizenry's rights. But once implemented and the alternatives and the consequences of continuing down the plastic lifestyle are laid out for people, people will see a little less Leninism in the idea. Perhaps the politics will be completely removed, much like slavery is no longer a rational topic of debate. I'd know if I were that geologist. (I'll get on the whole time machine invention thing.)

Notes:

As an undergrad I designed an experiment to identify bacteria capable of biodegrading a particular type of plastic polymer. As it turns out there are microorganisms capable of the job: degrading the bonds between the polymers so that they can be more manageable to the ecosystem. The problem seems to be the scale and growth rate of the organisms. Even in perfect conditions, there simply wouldn't be enough bacteria of those species capable of the degradation to stop the onslaught of plastic.

Amazon is not a paid sponsor, but I would sure welcome them to become one.

References:

Freinkel, S. (2011). Plastic: a toxic love story. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.


Thompson, R., et al. (2005). Lost at sea: where is all the plastic?. Science, 304(5672), 838.