9 - Plastic’s End

Summary

What if instead of changing the composition of plastic, we changed what happened to plastic at the end of its useful life. Chapter 9 explores end-of-life issues with plastic, focusing on efforts to keep plastic out of landfills and the environment.

As explained in the preceding chapters, the amount of plastic in our environment is a huge problem. To reiterate just a few examples of the extent of plastic pollution: 80% of the plastic in our oceans comes from land-based sources; people are unknowingly drinking microplastics; and cows and marine life are ingesting plastic. And this problem of plastic in the environment is the result of several things including ineffective policies, inadequate technologies, and widespread use. Intentional and unintentional actions by individuals and businesses have led to this plastic crisis. For example, when recyclable plastic is sent to a landfill and the landfill is not managed properly, plastic can end up in our environment. When plastic is illegally dumped or carelessly disposed of, plastic can end up in our environment. When we wash our clothes or anything that contains plastic, plastic can end up in our environment. Additionally, factors inherent to the nature of plastic itself – plastics’ lightweight and often microscopic size – have made the situation worse.

This chapter explores the collecting and recycling of plastic as well as the removal of plastic from the environment. Specifically, this chapter describes the challenges and inefficiencies inherent to recycling and highlights some novel and creative efforts to capture, collect, repurpose, and revalue used plastic.