Are Single-Use Plastics Really That Bad?

Single-use plastics are plastics made to be thrown away after one use. Learn why they're so damaging and how we can do better in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain
Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. In early January of China joined
the growing movement of more than a hundred and twenty
countries pledging to ban single use plastics. The country of
one point four billion citizens is the number one producer
of plastic waste in the world. It topped sixty million

(00:24):
tons in but China announced that it plans to outlaw
the production and sale of nondegradable bags by the end
of twenty in major cities and everywhere by two, as
well as single use straws by late market selling produce
will have until five to follow suit. The push to
ban plastic took center stage in with massive promotions like

(00:46):
the hashtag stop Sucking campaign, which featured stars like NFL
quarterback Tom Brady pledging to give up single use plastic
straws now. Countries and companies are saying no to plastics
by the dozens, and consumers are following along with them,
and they're serious. In Kenya, for example, any citizen caught
using plastic bags for trash or groceries can face four

(01:09):
years of imprisonment and finds of up to thirty eight
thousand dollars. As the plastic span movement hits major milestones,
such as China's latest announcement, we decided to take a
moment to unpack the bottles, bags and straws that are
causing this global stir. So what is single use plastic?

(01:30):
True to its name, a single use plastic is disposable
plastic that's designed to be used once and then tossed
or recycled. This includes everything from plastic water bottles and
produced bags to disposable plastic razors and plastic ribbons. Really,
any plastic item you use and then immediately discard. While
these items can be recyclable, that's hardly the norm. We

(01:53):
spoke via email with Megan Weldon of the blog and
waste prevention shop Zero Waste Nerd. She said, in reality,
very few plastic items can be processed into new materials
and products. Unlike glass and aluminum, plastic isn't processed into
the same item it was when it was collected by
a recycling center. The quality of plastic is downgraded, so

(02:15):
eventually and inevitably that plastic will still end up in
a landfill. Take a plastic water bottle. Most bottles say
they can be recycled and based solely on their easily
recyclable p et composition, they could be, but nearly seven
out of ten bottles end up in landfills or tossed
as litter. This problem increased when China decided to stop

(02:37):
accepting and recycling plastic in for municipalities. That meant recycling
became significantly pricier, and according to The Atlantic, many are
now simply opting for the budget friendly landfill over recycling
pair This landfill first approach. With the world's ever growing
plastic consumption, humans produce almost twenty thousand plastic bottles her

(03:00):
second according to The Guardian, and America's waste grew by
four point five percent from It's no wonder the world
is overflowing with plastic waste, and I think banning all
of this plastic is overkilled. There are some very solid
reasons why it makes sense. First, the plastic and landfills
doesn't just go away. According to Weldon, a plastic bag

(03:23):
takes ten to twenty years to degrade, while a plastic
bottle takes almost five hundred years, and even when it's gone,
it's remnants remain. We also spoke by email with Katherine Kellogg,
author and founder of the waste reduction website Going Zero Waste.
She explained plastic never breaks down or goes away. It
only breaks into smaller and smaller pieces until there's so

(03:46):
microscopic that they can be found in our air and
our drinking water. Some grocery stores have switched to biodegradable
plastic shopping bags as a way to meet consumers in
the middle, but research shows that this is hardly a
savvy solution. One study from researchers at the University of
Plymouth in England analyzed eighty single use plastic grocery store

(04:06):
bags made of biodegradable plastic over the course of three years,
their goal to determine just how biodegradable these bags really were.
Their findings were published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
They found that soil and seawater didn't lead to bag degradation. Instead,
after those three years, three of the four types of

(04:28):
biodegradable bags were still sturdy enough to hold up to
five pounds of groceries that's about two point two kilos,
and the non biodegradable bags performed the same. The biodegradable
bags exposed to sun did break down, but that's not
necessarily a positive either. The small particles from that degradation
can quickly spread throughout the environment. Think air, ocean, or

(04:49):
the belly of hungry animals who mistake plastic fragments for food.
Another reason many countries are prohibiting single use plastics is
because they shouldn't be reused, despite our best and engines.
As many municipalities for go recycling, it's tempting to take
matters into your own hands by reusing plastic bottles and containers.
And sure, this may work for bags, but experts say

(05:12):
to take caution when it comes to plastic bottles or
food containers. One study in Environmental Health Perspectives showed that
all plastics used in food containers and plastic bottles could
release harmful chemicals if used repeatedly. This includes those said
to be free of b p A, a controversial chemical
that's been linked to hormone disruption. While researchers are still

(05:33):
analyzing the safety of repeated plastic reuse, experts recommend glass
or metal to avoid potentially harmful chemicals, and according to Weldon,
it's time we adopt a reuse mindset. Be at cotton
produce bags, stainless steel, straws, or full on zero waste.
She said, the worst thing about any single use item
is that we devalue something to the point that we

(05:55):
intend to throw it away. The convenience culture has normalized
destructive behavior, and as a result, we produce millions of
tons of it every single year. If we change our
mindset on what we consume, will be more aware of
the single use plastic we use and how we can
avoid it. Today's episode was written by Stephanie Vermillion and

(06:19):
produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of
I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more on this
and lots of other multi use topics, visit our home planet,
how stuff Works dot com. And for more podcasts from
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