SAY NO TO PLASTIC
How Plastics Harm Human Health & the Planet
Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials used in a huge and growing range of products in our everyday lives, from disposable water bottles and packaging to toys, textiles and hundreds of other common items.
Although plastics have become ubiquitous, they are a threat to human and health and the environment. Plastics are made of chemicals sourced from fossil fuels, including natural gas and crude oil. Worldwide, more than 300 million tons of plastic is produced every year, and half of this is single-use plastics (e.g. water and soda bottles, plastic grocery bags, product packaging, straws, coffee cups, and more). Producing these plastics emits vast amounts of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change and toxic chemicals that threaten our health.
From production to disposal, plastics wreak havoc on human, plant, and animal health and cause immense amounts of waste in our ecosystems, clogging our land, air, and waterways. Plastic pollution in particular poses a serious threat to all life on earth because of the toxic nature of the chemicals used and created during the production process and throughout the life cycle. Recent research reveals plastics are able to enter into the human bloodstream, permanently residing in our bodies until the day we die. (Earth Day, 2023)
Here’s how plastic wreaks havoc on humans and the environment.
POLLUTES OUR ENVIRONMENT. Plastics don’t break down, but they do break up, creating small plastic pieces (called microplastics or nanoplastics) that remain a permanent pollutant in the environment. Macro and microplastics impact out health and threaten oceans and wildlife. Every piece of plastic ever created remains a pollution problem – in the oceans and waterway, in landfills, and throughout the environment. Plastics that are burned create highly toxic air pollution and hazardous solid wastes that remain a toxic disposal problem.
About 500 billion plastic disposable cups are used every year globally. An estimated 1.3 billion plastic bottles are used each day across the world – that’s about 1 million per minute. We use 5 trillion plastic bags per year – that’s 160,000 a second! And based on extrapolated figures, there are 437 million to 8.3 billion plastic straws on the world’s coastlines.
Single-use plastics like the ones noted above are manufactured to last forever, yet are often used for only a few minutes, before being thrown away – creating long-term pollution. For example, it takes up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to break down. On average, a plastic shopping bag is used for just 12 minutes. Those 12 minutes of use results in 1,000 years of pollution!
Since 1950, over 8 billion tons of plastic has been produced. Only about 30% of this plastic is still in use – 12% has been incinerated, 9% has been recycled, and 79% has ended up in landfills and the environment. It is estimated that 75 to 199 million tons of plastic are currently in our oceans.
TOXIC & HARMFUL. Scientists have compiled a list of over 16,000 chemicals used in or associated with plastics production, use, and disposal and found that more than 4,000 of these are known to be hazardous to human health and the environment.
Plastic products and materials are made of polymers and chemical additives which are not bound to the plastics and may leach during use and disposal. Also, other toxic or potentially toxic substances, such as monomers, can also leach from plastics (for example, styrene, a known carcinogen, can leach from polystyrene). Many of these chemicals are released at different stages of the plastics life cycle. This is true also for bio-based plastics which can be as toxic as fossil fuel based ones.
Many chemicals released throughout the plastics life cycle are hazardous and have been shown to pose threats to human health and the environment. Evidence suggests that we are already seeing serious health and environmental problems from hazardous chemical exposures from plastics. (Endocrine Society))
MANY HEALTH IMPACTS. Many of the largest and most hazardous chemical families – including heavy metals, flame retardants, phthalates, bisphenols, and fluorinated compounds – are directly associated with plastics.
Plastics represent a tremendously diverse set of compounds, from the coatings and resins used in construction and industry, to the synthetic textiles making up our clothes, to the rubber granules recycled from tyres which end up on football fields our children play on. We ingest or inhale these substances daily. Toxic chemicals such as phthalates and Bisphenol A (BPA) are present in plastic food packaging. These and many other chemicals in plastic have serious impacts on our health.
Plastic containing endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) is used extensively in packaging, construction, flooring, food production and packaging, cookware, health care, children’s toys, leisure goods, furniture, home electronics, textiles, automobiles and cosmetics. Known EDCs that leach from plastics and threaten health include BPA and related chemicals, flame retardants, phthalates, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), dioxins, UV-stabilizers, and toxic metals such as lead and cadmium. (Endocrine Society)
EDCs are chemicals that disturb the body’s hormone systems and can cause cancer, diabetes, reproductive disorders, and neurological impairments of developing fetuses and children. EDC exposure is a universal problem. Testing of human samples consistently shows nearly all people have EDCs in their bodies. (Endocrine Society)
MICROPLASTICS – A WORRYING THREAT. When plastic items break down, they shed microplastics, which are small fragments less than 5mm in diameter. And there are even smaller particles called nanoplastics (less than 1μm in diameter).
Microplastics have today infiltrated every aspect of our lives – from the air we breathe to the food we consume. They are in the environment and the human body. There are microplastics in bottled water, seafood and household dust. They have even been found in human organs and in the placentas of unborn babies.
The findings and statistics are worrying. Microplastics have been found in everything from salt and honey to apples, cucumbers, and potatoes. The average litre of bottled water contains almost a quarter of a million nanoplastic fragments. The average person could be eating up to 5 grams of plastic a week.
Microplastics pose potential health risks that include inflammation, oxidative stress, and cell damage. They have also been linked to liver damage, respiratory issues, and endocrine disruption. And recent studies have linked them to a greater risk of heart attack and stroke.
PLASTIC WASTE EXPORTS POSE HEALTH RISKS. Wealthy countries have been exporting plastic trash to developing countries in the guise of recycling. Much of the plastic being produced is single-use and of little or no recycling value. Plastic waste from developed countries – including materials deemed “recyclable” – have been shipped and dumped in developing countries like Malaysia.
It was reported that the US, Canada, and the European Union have offloaded hundreds of millions of tons of plastic wastes to other countries, where much of it may be landfilled, burned, or littered into the environment. Most developing nations do not have adequate facilities to manage the influx of plastic, forcing local workers to pile up the trash or incinerate it. This has considerable health impacts, as the waste often contains toxins that can alter neurodevelopment, endocrine, and reproductive functions.
When the waste is burned, the toxic fumes cause respiratory problems and other ailments in the neighbouring communities. Since such practices are situated around the most vulnerable communities, they suffer the most from breathing difficulties, asthma, skin problems, various kinds of cancers and other chronic illnesses.
RECYCLED PLASTICS CONTAIN HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS. Plastics are made with toxic chemicals. When plastic is recycled, these chemicals end up in the recycled material. Recycled plastics can also contain chemical contaminants from the way the original plastics are used. For example, if plastic pesticide containers are recycled, the toxic pesticides can end up in the recycled material. Also, the process of plastic recycling can create new toxic substances, adding even more chemicals to recycled plastic.
Recently published data from 13 countries, including Malaysia, identified nearly 500 chemicals in recycled plastic pellets, including pesticides, industrial chemicals, PCBs and other toxic substances. CAP was among public interest groups in 123 countries that submitted recycled plastic samples for testing in the IPEN-led test project. The tests were conducted by a group of scientists in Sweden, Germany and Denmark. The result: A total of 123 chemicals were detected in two samples of plastic pellets (i.e. recycled plastics) from Malaysia that were analysed. The pellets were acquired from plastic recycling companies in Penang.
The new data adds to the increasing evidence that plastic recycling is a vector for the spread of toxic chemicals and therefore should not be considered a useful tool in the struggle to end the health and environmental threats from plastics.
Workers in plastic recycling facilities, consumers who use recycled plastic products, waste workers who handle recycled plastics, and communities near recycling and waste operations are all at risk from exposure to toxic chemicals.
Currently, there are no international requirements to monitor chemicals in recycled plastics or make the chemical content of plastic materials and products publicly available and accessible. This means that the spread of chemicals from recycled plastics is currently untraceable and uncontrollable.
TIME TO PUT THE BRAKES ON PLASTIC PRODUCTION. Recycling is not the solution to the toxic plastic problem. We can’t recycle our way out of the plastics crisis. As the US National Resources Council says, recycling doesn’t solve the fact that plastics are made from and contain toxic chemicals and non-renewable source material, as well as shedding microplastics. (https://www.nrdc.org/…/what-you-need-know-about-plastic…) Studies by IPEN and others (https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/reports/forever-toxic/) have found that recycling of plastics containing hazardous chemicals creates a toxic loop that reintroduces harmful legacy chemicals into new products.
In 2022, countries agreed to start negotiating a Global Plastics Treaty to reduce plastic pollution to protect people and the environment. The new Plastics Treaty will be an important instrument to address toxic chemicals in plastics in many ways. Final negotiations for this legally-binding treaty are scheduled for November 2024 in Busan, South Korea. Let’s hope that this will be a truly people- and planet-oriented treaty.
CAP supports strong action on plastics to protect people’s health and preserve the planet for future generations. We hope the treaty will contain strong provisions that call for the elimination of toxic chemicals throughout the full life cycle of plastics; and that it will make information on chemicals in plastics mandatory and publicly available.
Meanwhile, the public is advised to limit plastic use as much as possible. By changing some of our habits as consumers – as well as supporting policy changes at the local and even international levels – we can all be part of the solution.