A Plastic World

A Plastic World Written & Illustrated by Malhar Siddiki

A Plastic World Written & Illustrated by Malhar Siddiki

Copyright © 2021 Malhar Siddiki All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is dedicated to my mom who has always been there to support me.

Table of Contents Chapter 1: What are Plastics? 6 The Science Behind Plastics 8 Types of Plastics 10 The History of Plastic 14

Chapter 2: Microplastics 16 What are Microplastics? 18 Lifespans of Plastic Items 20 Microplastic Pollution 22

Chapter 3: Harmful Effects on The Environment

24

Garbage Patches 26 Air Pollution 31

Chapter 4: Harmful Effects on Animals

32

Entanglement 34 Ingestion 37

Chapter 5: Harmful Effects on Human Health

40

Harmful Chemicals 42 How to Avoid Exposure 43

Chapter 6: Recycling and Reducing

44

Recycling 46 Reducing Your Use of Plastic 51

References 54

Chapter 1:

What are Plastics?

When thinking of plastic, most people think of plastic straws, plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic packaging, plastic cutlery, plastic containers, plastic toys, food wrappers, and many more things.

The list may be endless. There are many reasons why so many things are made with plastic and why it’s an extremely popular material to be used for the creation of consumer items.

A world dominated by plastics raises a few questions in our curious minds that make us wonder, what are the origins of this material? This chapter explains what plastics are, the science behind how they’re created, and how they came about into this world.

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Chapter 1: What are Plastics?

The Science Behind Plastics What are Plastics?

Plastics are extremely flexible synthetic materials that can be molded into any shape when they’re soft and when they harden up, they retain that shape. Plastics are extremely strong and durable materials. Due to their low-density, plastics are also extremely lightweight. Some plastics can be clear and some can be made into many different colors.

The possibilities are endless. Due to these qualities, plastic is extremely popular with manufacturers.

However, despite the many advantages, plastic also comes with many dangerous problems to the environment, human health, and wildlife.

How are Plastics Formed?

Plastics originate from fossil fuels and natural materials, such as cellulose, natural gas, coal, and crude oil. Chemists heat up these materials, causing them to break down into monomers. We all know that everything is made from atoms, which connect with each other to make molecules. A monomer is a

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very small molecule that easily links together with others of its kind. Think of this as linking together paper clips to create a chain.

Chemists then take these monomers and link them together to form polymers. Once a minimum of at least 1,000 monomers link together, they form chains called polymers, which are the large molecules that form plastic. This process is known as polymerizing. Essentially, a polymer is a chain made of many connected monomers, which are the individual building blocks of the chain.

The polymers created by this method are synthetic polymers, which means plastic is a man-made material, not occurring naturally in our world. There are also naturally occurring polymers in our world.

Examples of some naturally occurring polymers include shellac, tar, cellulose, and amber. Plastics fall into the synthetic category of polymers.

H

Hydrogen atom

C

Carbon atom

H

H

H

H

H

H

H

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

H

H

H

H

H

H

H

The image on the left is an ethylene monomer, which is made with two connecting carbon atoms, that are each connected with two hydrogen atoms. The image on the right is a polymer (multiple ethylene monomers linking together). This polymer is a certain type of plastic, known as polyethylene.

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Chapter 1: What are Plastics?

Types of Plastics Despite being talked about as a single material, plastics come in many different types. Different combinations of monomers form different types of plastics. They each have different uses, advantages, and qualities. When creating products made from plastic, manufacturers consider what plastic would be best to use for the type of item they are creating. Some plastics are reusable, whereas some are not. And some plastics are recyclable, while other types are not. Some plastics are also more dangerous than others.

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET or PETE)

Plastics can be grouped into two main polymer families, known as thermoplastics and thermosets.

Thermoplastics soften when they are reheated and harden again when they are cooled down. This makes them more recyclable because they can be formed into completely new shapes. Thermosets, on the other hand, can never soften again if reheated once they have already been molded.

PET plastics cannot be exposed to high temperatures otherwise they can leach toxic chemicals such as acetaldehyde, antimony, and phthalates. This type of plastic is typically created for single-use items.

Thermoplastics and thermosets are further grouped into more categories. These plastics are created using different types of monomers, constituents, and materials.

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Polyethylene Terephthalate is one of the most used plastics. This type of plastic is very lightweight, smooth, transparent, and usually thin. It’s also able to prevent oxygen from getting inside. It’s commonly used in food packaging and cosmetics.

Some examples of items containing polyethylene terephthalate plastics are plastic water bottles, soft drink bottles, food packaging, as well as fabrics such as polyester clothing.

KETCHUP

High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)

Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC or Vinyl)

High-density polyethylene is another extremely common plastic which is categorized into three types. The three types of HDPE plastics are high-density, low-density, and linear low-density.

HDPE plastics are heat resistant and are made from petroleum. HDPE is also very resistant to a lot of harmful chemicals such as phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA), although long exposure to sunlight may pose some health risks. Some examples of items made from HDPE plastics are milk cartons, detergent bottles, toys, playground equipment, and rigid pipes.

Polyvinyl chloride is another widely used plastic and has many advantages and uses. This plastic comes in a rigid form and a flexible form. Its rigid form is usually used for building and construction applications. Its rigidness and durability make it very resistant to chemicals and weathering.

Polyvinyl chloride can be made into a more flexible form by mixing it with other substances. Since this form doesn’t conduct electricity, it’s usually used for wires and cables. Polyvinyl chloride is also easily disinfected, therefore its often used in the creation of medical appliances.

On the other side of the coin, polyvinyl chloride is one of the most toxic plastics. PVC leaches dangerous toxins. Some of the harmful toxins it leaches include lead, dioxins, vinyl chloride, BPA, and phthalates.

LAUNDRY DETERGENT

SHAMPOO

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Chapter 1: What are Plastics?

Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE)

Polypropylene (PP)

Low-density polyethylene is one of the three types of HDPE plastics. It’s the more flexible and softer version of HDPE. This type of plastic is the easiest and cheapest to produce, due it having the simplest structure compared to the other plastics. It’s usually used as a liner inside beverage cartons and in corrosion-resistant work surfaces. Examples of items made from this type of plastic are six-pack ring packaging, plastic wrap, grocery bags, garbage bags, beverage cups, bubble wrap, and various containers.

Polypropylene is one of the strongest plastics and is very resistant to heat. This plastic is often used for food packaging and food containers that are made to hold hot food items because of its ability to withstand heat. Examples of items made from polypropylene are hot food containers, straws, bottle caps, prescription bottles, car parts, and disposable diapers.

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Polystyrene (PS)

Other Types

Polystyrene is very rigid and insulates very well.

It can also be made into both a solid and a foam form. It’s commonly used for items such as food containers, beverage cups, disposable cutlery, and egg cartons. It’s also widely used in packaging materials, such as foam packaging peanuts, food take-out containers, and packaging blocks used for protecting electronics and appliances in shipment.

Some plastics do not identify with the other six categories and may be made with uncommon polymers or created with a combination of types.

Polycarbonates (PC) are an example of certain types of polymers that fall into this category. These plastics are usually used for eyewear. They are used to create lenses for sunglasses and for sport and safety goggles. They’re also often used in the creation of CDs and mobile phone parts.

Polystyrene is one of the most dangerous plastics to animals and human health. Like PVC, polystyrene leaches dangerous toxins such as styrene, which is a neurotoxin. This plastic comes with risks of being ingested by humans, as it easily leaches and absorbs into food.

The plastics that fall into this category leach BPA and many other toxic chemicals very easily when exposed to high temperatures.

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Chapter 1: What are Plastics?

The History of Plastics The First Plastics Ever Created In 1869, an American inventor known as John Wesley Hyatt created the first plastic. He created this plastic from cellulose, which is the chemical that forms the structure of plants. Thus, he decided to call this plastic celluloid. His motivation to create the plastic came from an offer of $10,000 from a New York firm that needed someone to create an alternative for ivory. During this time, billiards was becoming increasingly popular, and this put a strain on the supply of natural ivory because that was what was used to create billiard balls. Hyatt’s discovery could be molded into any shape and provided an alternative for natural materials, such as ivory, tortoiseshell, linen, and horn.

This was a very ground-breaking creation since it was the very first synthetic polymer ever created.

This was considered the first time when human manufacturing was not limited by only what nature had to offer. There were only so many natural resources nature could provide until it ran out, for example, wood, metal, ivory, stone, and bones.

This development also helped save elephants and tortoises from being slaughtered because there is now a substitute for ivory and tortoiseshell.

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Leo Baekeland, an American chemist, created the first plastic made from synthetic material in 1907. He named this plastic Bakelite and it did not contain any molecules that were found in nature.

Baekeland created this plastic to be used as a substitute for shellac, which is a natural electric insulator, in order to keep up with the growing US electricity industry. Aside from being a good insulator, Bakelite was also very durable and heat resistant. It was ideal for mass production too, which celluloid was not. It was a revolutionary invention due to its extreme versatility. Bakelite could be shaped into almost anything.

Plastic Expansion The plastic industry in the US had a massive expansion during World War II. There was a need to preserve scarce natural resources as much as possible by using synthetics as an alternative.

This is where plastics came in handy. In 1935, Wallace Carothers invented nylon to be used as a synthetic silk. This was used for equipment such as parachutes, body armor, ropes, and helmet liners.

Plastic production increased by 300% during the World War II period. Even after the war ended, plastic production continued to grow. After the

Great Depression and World War II ended, Americans were ready to spend their money again and many of the items they bought were made of plastic. Plastics continued to take the place of natural resources and traditional materials. There was now a replacement for steel in cars, paper and glass for packaging, and wood in furniture.

For many people, the many possibilities of plastic presented a utopian view of the future where there is plenty of material wealth. All this was due to a low-cost, sanitary, and safe material that could be molded into nearly any shape imaginable.

Rising Concerns

The reputation of plastic gradually started to go downhill, as plastic also became a word that people would use to describe something cheap or fake. In the 1970s and 1980s, people became more and more concerned about the dangers of plastic waste during this time. They began to realize that while plastic may be incredibly handy, it lasts forever in the environment causing a wide range of damage to the ecosystem. During this time, the plastic industry started to propose recycling as a solution. It was during the 1980s, when the plastic industry ran an influential drive to encourage cities to collect recyclable materials.

Although there was a lot of optimism for plastic, that perception did not last. In the postwar times, there was a change in people’s perceptions and plastics were no longer seen as positive for the future. In the 1960s, plastic debris was found in the ocean for the first time. During this decade, people were becoming progressively aware of environmental issues. Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, discussed the dangers of plastic pesticides. In 1969, there was an oil spill near the California coast. Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught on fire as well. These events raised many concerns about the use of plastics and people became aware of environmental issues. The dangers of plastic waste started to concern many people.

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Chapter 2:

Microplastics Imagine all the plastic items you have ever used in your entire life since you were a young child until now. Imagine every plastic bottle you have drank from, every plastic fork and spoon you have used, and every plastic grocery bag you brought home with you from grocery shopping. There is probably way more than you can even fathom to count. Now imagine that all this plastic still exists today. The thought seems absurd but shockingly, this is the reality.

Plastics stay in our world forever and over time break into over a million tiny pieces, making them impossible to clean from our planet. This chapter explains the process of how plastics form into microplastics, how this causes permanent pollution, and the shocking lifespans of common plastic items.

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Chapter 2: Microplastics

What Are Microplastics?

A great advantage of plastic is its durability and its ability to last in the environment. Although this is a great thing for manufacturers and their consumer products, it’s extremely destructive to our planet and all the life that exists on it. Due to its extreme durability, nearly all the plastic that has ever been created still exists in some form today, causing immeasurable amounts of pollution and wreaking havoc on our planet. Most plastics also take hundreds of years to break down and only 12% get incinerated. We have reached the point of no return to our previous world before plastic pollution. Our world is drowning in plastic and it’s only getting worse as the plastic industry continues to manufacture more plastic.

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Plastics are not biodegradable materials and take hundreds of years to break down. Even when they break down, they do not fully decompose. Instead, they break into a million tiny pieces until they no longer can be seen by the naked eye. These tiny plastic particles are known as microplastics. These particles are collectively increasing and never fully disappear. They are literally everywhere in our world, including our water, soil, and air.

Microplastics are between 0.3 and 5 millimeters (0.01 to 0.20 inches) thick, and they are less than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) in diameter. Microplastics that have broken down into sizes even smaller than this are called nanoplastics, which usually cannot be seen with even microscopes.

How are Microplastics Formed?

Microplastics are divided into two categories, which are called primary microplastics and secondary microplastics. Primary microplastics are created for commercial use. Some examples for commercial products that use primary microplastics are cosmetics, microfibers from clothing and fabrics, and fishing nets. Microbeads are types of microplastics that are small pieces of polyethylene plastic. These are used as exfoliants which are added to numerous cosmetic products. When one washes these cosmetic products off their skin, the tiny microbead particles pass through filtration systems and make their way into oceans and lakes.

Secondary microplastics come from the natural breakdown of larger plastic items, such as plastic bags, plastic water bottles, bottle caps, and plastic straws. The breakdown of these large plastic items is caused by natural environmental factors, such as exposure to the sun’s radiation. The sun breaks the plastics down into smaller and smaller pieces.

This process is known as photodegradation.

Photodegradation also causes colorants and harmful chemicals to leach, such as BPA.

This image shows the process of how secondary microplastics are formed. The sun is causing the natural breakdown of the plastic water bottle.

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Chapter 2: Microplastics

Lifespans of Plastic Items The process of the sun breaking down plastic into smaller pieces often takes years. What’s even more shocking is that some very common plastic items take decades and centuries to break down. It’s shocking to think that a plastic toothbrush you used as a kid still exists in the environment today.

Plastic Bag

Plastic Cup

20 Years

450 Years

Six-Pack Ring 400 Years

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Listed on these pages are some common plastic items and how long it takes each of them to break down from photodegradation. This may make you think twice before using these items and to buy yourself some safer alternatives instead.

Plastic Straw 200 Years

Plastic Water Bottle

Disposable Diaper

450 Years

500 Years

Plastic Toothbrush 500 Years

Fishing Line 600 Years

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Chapter 2: Microplastics

Microplastic Pollution What Causes Microplastics to Pollute the World?

Most of this environmental pollution is the result of plastic being carried through water runoff, storms, and wind. Single-use disposable plastic items, such as plastic bags, plastic water bottles, and plastic straws, are the main source of secondary microplastics in the environment.

Microplastics are extremely lightweight, allowing them to be easily transported through long distances. It was discovered in 2014 that the polar ice caps are full of microplastics. This means that as microplastics were carried through ocean currents, some get transported to the polar ice caps as well. In addition, microplastics are easily blown by the wind, which also carries them across long distances. Microplastics also condensate in clouds, meaning that it rains microplastics, even in very isolated parts of the world. Microplastics have been found in the deepest ocean trenches and on top of the tallest mountains as well.

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Facing Reality Unfortunately, with the alarmingly inestimable amount of microplastics in our world today and the damage that has already been done, we must come to terms with the fact that it is too late and microplastics can no longer be removed from the world. This would not be an issue if they were harmless, but every day oceanographers, environmentalists, and health experts are seeing indications of the harm this does to animals, humans, and our environment. Even though permanent damage has already been done to our environment, the damage is only going to get increasingly worse in the coming decades if people don’t act now to reduce our plastic footprint as much as we can and find alternatives.

We eat, drink, and breathe microplastics on a daily basis, which poses a big risk to our health.

Animals are ingesting them, causing them to starve and have various health issues. Microplastics are frequently found in all kinds of aquatic animals, whether its small creatures like plankton or large animals like whales. This means that it’s also present in the food we eat and the water we drink.

Chapter 3:

Harmful Effects on The Environment There are numerous ways plastics have negatively changed our environment. The first and obvious reason being that plastic stays forever in our environment and breaks into tiny pieces that are impossible to clean up. As the last chapter discussed, these tiny pieces are on the land, in the air, and in our water, permanently polluting the planet.

This pollution also causes plastics to accumulate into incredibly massive piles in our ocean, which poses harm to wildlife and pollutes ocean water. Additionally, plastics are a cause of global warming and release hazardous chemicals into our atmosphere when produced and incinerated.

This chapter discusses the accumulation of plastic waste into piles in our ocean, as well as the effects of plastic waste on our planet’s atmosphere.

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Chapter 3: Harmful Effects on The Environment

Garbage Patches What are Garbage Patches?

How Does Trash End Up here?

Garbage patches are very massive collections of marine debris that have piled up in large areas in the ocean. Marine debris is litter and waste that makes its way into the ocean and other bodies of water. The waste and debris in garbage patches constantly accumulates due to plastic not being biodegradable.

Garbage patches are bounded by gyres which are systems of swirling, rotating currents. A garbage patch is basically an enormous whirlpool of swirling ocean currents with a vortex that’s made up of plastic waste and debris that have broken into smaller pieces. The center of the gyre is calm and steady. The circular motions of the currents pull the plastic waste and debris into the center. Because the center of the gyre is stable and calm, while the areas around the center are strong, swirling ocean currents, the waste and debris get trapped into the stable center and are unable to get out.

What most people imagine when thinking of a garbage patch is a huge pile of trash and rubbish floating on the ocean. Contrary to popular belief, this is not what a garbage patch looks like.

Garbage patches are almost completely made up of tiny microplastics due to plastic not biodegrading and rather breaking down into tiny particles. Since microplastics are so tiny and a lot of them cannot be seen by the naked eye, they make the water of the patch look like one big cloudy soup mixed with larger pieces of waste, such as plastic bags, plastic bottles, fishing gear, and other rubbish.

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Chapter 3: Harmful Effects on The Environment

Five Garbage Patches

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

There are currently five gyres in the ocean. There is one in the Indian Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean, and two in the Pacific Ocean. In each gyre lies a garbage patch. The biggest and most famous garbage patch is the North Pacific Gyre, which contains the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, consisting of two large gyres in the Pacific Ocean.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch extends from the West Coast of North America all the way to Japan.

This patch contains both the Western Garbage Patch, which is near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, which is located between Hawaii and California. These two patches are connected by the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, an area where warm water from the South Pacific meets with the cool water from the Arctic.

This zone transports debris from one patch to the other.

This is a map of the five garbage patches in our world.

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is bounded by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. It’s bounded by four currents that rotate in a clockwise direction around an area of 20 million square kilometers,

which form the Northern Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

The four currents are the California current, the North Equatorial current, the Kuroshio Current, and the North Pacific current.

North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone

This is a map of the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone and its currents.

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Chapter 3: Harmful Effects on The Environment

Can They be Cleaned Up? Garbage patches are way too large for scientists to investigate. It is unknown how much waste and debris are in each of the garbage patches.

Furthermore, not all the waste and debris float on the surface. The ocean floor beneath each garbage patch is believed to be an enormous underwater mass of trash and waste. Denser debris can sink beneath the ocean surface, and this makes the vortex region impossible to measure.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is extremely far from any country’s coastline and cleaning it up would be extremely expensive. Because of these reasons, no nation will provide the funding to clean it. Cleaning up marine debris is a very difficult job.

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The Marine Debris Program of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration calculated that it would take 67 ships in one year to clean less than one percent of the North Pacific Ocean. Nets designed to catch trash would not work because of how massive the ocean is, making this job incredibly time-consuming.

Although it is impossible for anyone to take on the job to clean up the garbage patches, it will only get worse into the future as more plastic is manufactured, wasted, and discarded. One major way we can all contribute to stopping the growth of these patches is for everyone to limit or eliminate their use of plastics, especially single-use plastics, and to use biodegradable or reusable materials.

Air Pollution Incineration is the burning of waste, which is a substitute for landfills. Although this seems like a better idea than to let waste pile up in a landfill and pollute the planet, there are some rising concerns about harmful chemicals being released during the procedure.

The plastic incineration process releases dioxins, furans, and polychlorinated biphenyls into the environment. There is also a lot of air pollution that comes from the fumes themselves that are released into the atmosphere from incinerating plastic. Incineration releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This traps heat into our planet and prevents it from escaping the earth’s atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

The process of creating plastic also contributes to global warming. Plastics are made with fossil fuels, which means that the process to extract the fuels and manufacture them into plastics releases heavy amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

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Chapter 4:

Harmful Effects on Animals Animals get critically harmed or killed because of plastic. Plastic pollution harms all kinds of animals, from terrestrial creatures, to bird species, to aquatic animals. Since plastic almost always makes its way into the ocean and other bodies of water, marine and aquatic animals are the most at risk for being harmed. These animals are the most negatively affected by plastic and continue to be threatened by it.

Plastic pollution causes animals to get tangled and stuck in the plastic waste. This causes injuries, drowning, and several other dangers. Animals also mistakenly eat plastic, thinking that its food, which causes them harm and kills them. This chapter discusses these risks in detail and the many different ways that plastic waste harms animals.

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Chapter 4: Harmful Effects on Animals

Entanglement What is Entanglement?

Dangers Caused by Entanglement

Entanglment is when animals accidentally become stuck in plastic waste, and this is a global issue that causes the deaths of hundreds of thousands of animals a year. This includes sea turtles, dolphins, whales, seals, sea lions, and many more. Many whale species in particular are significantly affected by plastic entanglement, especially humpback whales, gray whales, and right whales.

There are horrible effects on animals that get stuck in plastic. Some of these effects are reduced mobility, starvation, drowning, strangulation, suffocation, injuries, and an inability to move freely.

When small marine mammals, such as dolphins, smaller whales, sea turtles, and seals, get entangled in heavy amounts of plastic, the heavy weight of the litter makes them unable to surface, causing them to drown. Larger whales are usually able to pull the litter up with them when they surface and are less likely to drown, but this can still cause exhaustion from carrying the heavy weight and can cause infection if the waste is sharp and cuts into their flesh. Entanglement also makes them more likely to be injured from vessel strikes because they’re too exhausted by the restrictive and heavy plastic to be able to dodge them.

Why Do Animals Get Entangled in Litter?

Entanglement occurs by accident most times when litter gets caught on an animal or when an animal accidentally gets stuck in it without knowing. Some animals such as dolphins and sea turtles tend to be very curious and swim up to plastic litter to see what it is and play with it. These creatures do not know that these items are extremely harmful and dangerous to them.

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Entangled animals become less capable of finding food and can have trouble eating due to them being restricted by the waste. Because of their weakened and injured condition, as well as their reduced mobility, entangled animals also become an easier target for predators and it’s much harder for them to escape.

Fishing Gear

Balloons

Discarded fishing gear such as plastic fishing nets are common items that marine animals get stuck in. These fishing nets can be very sharp and cut into their flesh and can cause physical trauma and lethal infections. This can cause dolphins, whales, and fish to lose fins or tails and can cause other animals to lose limbs. This can also cause animals to become sick, disabled, and have a hard time swimming and escaping predators.

Another particularly dangerous plastic pollutant are balloons. Even though releasing balloons is a very fun and festive way to celebrate special events, it’s also a very dangerous risk to birds and other animals who can accidentally get caught in the balloon’s remnants. Birds are often falling victim to getting entangled in the plastic from balloons.

It can accidentally twist around their legs or head, causing them to get stuck. Animals also get tangled in the plastic balloon ribbons.

There are more than 340 species of animals that are victims of fishing gear entanglement.

Some examples of these species are sea turtles, humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins, Hawaiian monk seals, brown pelicans, and many bird species. Many of these species are also endangered. It was discovered that every year, at least 136,000 whales, seals, sea lions, and other animals die from discarded and abandoned fishing gear.

Keep in mind that what goes up eventually comes down. Balloon remnants are often found on beaches, where they tend to collect on the land.

Many environmental organizations have been leading movements that aim to discourage and ban the practice of releasing of balloons.

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Chapter 4: Harmful Effects on Animals

Six-Pack Rings Six-pack rings have received tons of backlash lately after seeing devastating sights of sea turtles and other animals stuck in them. Six-pack rings are a type of packaging manufacturers use to hold together packs of multiple beverages (usually soda cans or bottles). Avoid buying anything that comes in six-pack rings, but if you absolutely must, then make sure that you cut each of the rings before recycling or discarding them, so that animals can easily escaped from them if they get stuck.

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Ingestion What is Plastic Ingestion?

Why do Animals Ingest Plastic?

Plastic ingestion is when an animal accidentally eats plastic waste and debris. With the oceans and lands being full of plastic litter and microplastics, this happens all too often, harming and killing animals at an alarming rate.

Unlike humans, wild animals do not have the ability to distinguish between what’s food and what’s not.

To an animal, if a piece of litter looks, smells, tastes, or behaves like food, they assume that it must be food. Sometimes plastic waste can confuse animals by looking exactly like food to them. For example, plastic litter pieces that are red, pink, or brown can resemble shrimp. Species that eat jellyfish, such as ocean sunfish and sea turtles, often eat plastic bags and balloon ribbons, mistaking them to be jellyfish.

Food?

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Yay! Food!

There are many animals that eat fish eggs, such as jellyfish, various fish species, and filter feeders.

These animals try to eat tiny floating plastic beads and pieces, thinking that they’re fish eggs.

Sometimes while hunting for food, these plastic pieces end up mixing with their actual food and can look completely indistinguishable to animals.

The animals end up also accidentally eating the plastic pieces along with their food.

Another great example of this are seabirds that skim and fly right over the ocean surface with their beaks open to catch floating food. With the ocean being full of plastic debris floating around, these birds also end up accidentally eating tons of plastic. And because they cannot distinguish between what’s litter and what’s food, they do not realize that they have eaten something inedible and dangerous.

Plastic can also leach chemicals that smell like food and plastic debris can be covered with food, which can attract hungry animals who accidentally ingest the plastic, along with the food. Grazing animals on land, for example, cows, seagulls, and dogs, often fall victim to this.

How Does Ingesting Plastic Kill Animals?

Ingested plastic starts to accumulate in the stomach.

This gives animals a false sense of feeling full and stops them from feeling hungry. As a result, this

causes them to stop eating and they die from starvation. Large chunks of plastic can also block their gastrointestinal tract so plastic cannot be excreted. Furthermore, plastic leaches dangerous chemicals that can cause various types of harm if consumed, such as cancer, endocrine disruption, and reproductive harm. This also results in these chemicals entering the food chain as marine animals consume plastic. Other animals (and humans) may eat some of these creatures and that can cause them harm by indirectly consuming plastic through other animals.

Other Ways Plastics Harm Animals Algae and plankton are common autotrophs, which are organisms that produce their own nutrients using carbon and sunlight. Microplastics and other waste collecting on top of the ocean’s surface blocks sunlight from reaching plankton and algae below the surface of the ocean. This threatens the algae and plankton communities which could change the entire food web.

This can cause animals that eat algae and plankton, such as turtles and certain fish, to have less food. If the populations of these animals decrease, there won’t be any food for higher predators, such as whales and sharks. This will also cause seafood to become less available for people and more expensive to buy.

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Chapter 5:

Harmful Effects on Human Health From what was discussed in the previous chapters, it’s evident that completely avoiding plastic is impossible for us because of the massive amount of tiny microplastics that now pollute our world.

It’s found everywhere from our drinking water, to storage containers, to household dust. It’s also found inside many items made from plastic, such as shampoo and conditioner bottles, cosmetics, electronics, and inside toys.

Although the research into microplastics is fairly new, scientists are getting concerned and noticing indications that they do not have a good effect on our health and pose some health risks that we should be aware of. This chapter discusses the many different concerns about how plastic can negatively affect human health and tips on how you can reduce your exposure to hazardous chemicals released from plastic.

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Chapter 5: Harmful Effects on Human Health

Harmful Chemicals We encounter microplastics every day without knowing. We ingest and breathe microplastics without realizing it. Americans consume at least 74,000 microplastics a year and five grams a week just by simply eating and breathing. It’s also worth noting that since fish constantly eat plastic, people that eat seafood are at an even higher risk. If we eat seafood, this further exposes us to the harms of plastic on our health.

Scientists believe that plastics can harm humans because of the evidence they have seen in animals of plastic harming them. They have discovered that microplastics can cross the membrane that protects the brain from foreign objects that try to get inside the bloodstream. Mothers may also pass microplastics to a developing fetus through the placenta.

Plastics have chemicals that are known to be harmful, such as BPA, phthalates, vinyl chloride, and more. Ingesting and breathing in microplastics

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can expose us to these chemicals. There are various health issues that can stem from exposure to these chemicals, including endocrine disruption, reproductive harm, organ problems, obesity, and developmental delays in children. BPA and phthalates interfere with hormones and can cause fertility issues in both men and women. Scientists have also discovered that phthalates exposure can cause lower testosterone in male offspring. Some chemicals found in plastic can also cause nervous system issues, cancer, hearing loss, a weakened immune system, and more.

Even low doses of these chemicals can have an effect once they’re inside us. Even though this subject requires further research, the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends that people try their best to reduce exposure to these chemicals to avoid any dangerous health issues.

How to Avoid Exposure Although we cannot fully avoid exposure to microplastics and the harmful chemicals they release, since they are literally everywhere in our world, we can take extra precautions to avoid as much exposure as we can. Here are some tips on how to reduce our exposure to these harmful materials: 1. Try to drink tap water instead of water that comes in plastic bottles. You can also buy yourself a refillable steel bottle to bring with you on the go. Although there are also microplastics inside tap water, plastic bottled water has double the amount.

2. Do not heat food that’s in plastic packaging or a plastic container. When most plastics are exposed to high temperatures, they leach out harmful chemicals. It’s also recommended to not put plastic into your dishwasher and to handwash it instead.

3. Eat more fresh foods instead of packaged and frozen foods. Even though fresh foods may have microplastics on them too, they are a lot safer to consume than food that’s found in plastic packaging, which is more likely to expose you to harmful chemicals.

4. Avoid buying plastic food containers that use the most hazardous plastics. If a food packaging container has a chasing arrow recycling sign with the numbers three, six, or seven, then you should avoid them because these plastics are the most dangerous and are more likely to leach dangerous chemicals.

These numbers represent polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, and the “other” categories of plastics discussed in Chapter 1. (Note: these numbers are the Resin Identification Code of the plastics, which will be discussed further in the next chapter.)

5. Make sure you are cleaning and vacuuming your house on a regular basis to minimize household dust. Microplastics have been found in household dust and it can also expose you to phthalates, flame retardants, and other harmful chemicals. The more you let it accumulate, the higher your exposure will be.

6. Try your best to reduce your overall plastic footprint. Use reusable and biodegradable materials in place of plastic. The less plastic you use, the lower your exposure to these harmful chemicals.

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Chapter 6:

Recycling and Reducing We are constantly told that we should recycle, but what exactly is recycling and what is the process? We usually toss away our plastic waste into our recycling bins without giving a second thought to where the waste goes and how it’s recycled. Recycling is a method used to prevent our waste from becoming litter and it has a very elaborate process on how it’s done. Shockingly, most plastic cannot be recycled and you may be tossing away things that are not recyclable.

This chapter discusses the recycling process and explains how to determine if the plastic packaging you’re trying to recycle is actually recyclable or not. There are also tips on how to reduce your plastic use in order to reduce your overall plastic footprint.

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Chapter 6: Recycling and Reducing

Recycling What is Recycling?

Recycling is a method that tries to halt the development of more plastics in our world and keep materials out of the landfill by taking pieces of waste, turning them back into raw materials, and using them to manufacture new products.

Why Recycle?

Recycling reduces pollution. It does this by preventing materials from going into landfills and incinerators. There are many reasons to keep materials from going into landfills. Items in landfills keep accumulating as more and more materials get thrown into them, creating a trash-filled mass of land that only keeps growing. Not only does this causes more pollution in our world, when waste materials are burned or accumulated at landfills, toxins end up finding their way into the ground, water, and atmosphere.

The manufacturing process uses less energy to produce products using recycled materials rather than virgin raw materials, which require much more energy. The general demand for virgin raw materials to make products is also reduced when recycling. There is a lower demand for these materials and this reduces the damage caused by creating them.

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Another great reason is that this creates jobs.

Recycling centers need a workforce to keep them running. This creates many opportunities for employment. Job opportunities would decrease for landfills since they would be used less often, but many more jobs would be created in the recycling industry. Recycling processing and recycling-based manufacturing creates tons of job opportunities for people. Not only do recycling centers create tons of jobs for people in the community, but recycled items also contribute to the growth of the economy.

This only leads to more and more jobs. Many middle-class jobs are created at recycling centers.

People with minimum education levels can get various jobs in this industry.

How is Recycling Done?

The first step to recycling is to collect and process items. There are many ways to do this. Most communities have curbside programs that collect residents’ recycling items on the street. A lot of these communities also give residents bins where they can discard their recyclables and put it on the street to be collected. Many areas have drop-off bins where people can stop by and drop off their recycling items too.

After plastic items are collected, they’re sorted by plastic type. The plastic waste is then cleaned and baled. To bale recyclable waste means to compress all the waste into a cube that can be easily transported or stacked. These are then sent to a plant that processes the waste back into raw materials that will be used to manufacture new items. The items are finally returned to the market where they can be purchased by customers.

Not the Ultimate Solution Recycling may be a good short-term method to prevent pollution, but it’s definitely not the final solution to solving the plastic problem long-term.

This only pushes back and delays the inevitable damage to the environment further into the future.

Recycled plastic also isn’t as good quality as newly created plastic and is more likely to leach hazardous chemicals and toxins.

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Chapter 6: Recycling and Reducing

Not All Plastic is Recyclable Most plastic packaging has a triangular chasing arrow sign with a number inside it. Most people believe this symbol to be a guarantee that the plastic packaging can and will be recycled.

Despite the common belief, not all of these plastics are recyclable.

1 Resin Identification Code These chasing arrow symbols with a number are the resin identification code of the plastic. In 1988, the Society of the Plastics Industry created the Resin Identification Code (RIC) system. Refer back to Chapter 1, where we discussed different types of plastics. This system gives each plastic type a code and helps people identify the type of plastic the item is made from. The reason this was created was to help recycling facilities sort the waste by plastic type. The Resin Identification Code system has been the worldwide standard for plastic classification. The different plastic types each fall into the seven categories. Many consumers have good intentions and would toss any plastic item that has a RIC symbol into the recycling bin, assuming that they will be recycled.

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This also makes people believe that plastic is recycled more often than it is. Shockingly, only 9% of plastic waste that has ever been produced has been recycled. And even more surprising is that only items from two of the seven RIC categories are recyclable. Tossing items that are not recyclable into the recycling bin actually slows down the sorting process, increases recycling expenses, poses a risk of contamination, and sends the waste to landfills and incinerators.

Is Your Plastic Waste Recyclable?

When recycling plastic packaging, look around on the item for a Resin Identification Code, which is represented by the seven symbols below. These symbols are a code for each of the types of plastics discussed in Chapter 1.

1 2 3

4

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET & PETE) Widely recyclable

High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Widely recyclable

Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC or vinyl) Usually not recyclable (check with your local recycling center)

Use this page as a guide as to whether your plastic waste is recyclable or not. For items that are listed as “usually not recyclable”, you may want to call your local recycling center and check with them if they accept them.

5 6 7

Polypropylene (PP) Usually not recyclable (check with your local recycling center)

Polystyrene (PS) Not recyclable

Other Not recyclable

Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) Not recyclable

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How to Reduce Plastic Use Reducing your use of plastic is the best way to prevent plastic pollution from getting worse in this world. If you do not buy or use products with plastic, you will not be contributing to the pollution of plastic waste at all. If everyone starts to do this, we can significantly slow down the rate of pollution in this world.

It may be unrealistic to completely cut it out from our lives right now since almost every consumer item in this day and age is made from plastic, but we can still try our best to control what we can, which will make a huge difference. There are many other ways you can reduce your use of plastic and sometimes it takes being creative and thinking up of your own ideas. Here are some tips on how to reduce your plastic waste:

3. Do not use plastic cutlery. When ordering at a restaurant, ask them to not provide you with plastic forks, spoons, and knives. Buy silverware instead and bring them with you when you go to restaurants.

4. Get yourself some reusable tote bags to take with you when you go shopping.

5. Use matches instead of disposable lighters.

6. 7.6 billion pounds of disposable diapers are thrown away each year which take hundreds of years to break down. Buy reusable cloth diapers to use for your baby.

1. Bring your own reusable to-go container when ordering food at a restaurant.

7. Either make juice yourself with real fruit or eat the fruit rather than buying juice from the grocery store which often comes stored in plastic containers.

2. Stop using plastic straws. When you’re at a restaurant, tell the waiter that you do not want a straw with your drink. Buy yourself some reusable stainless steel or glass straws instead.

8. When buying fruits and vegetables from the grocery store, buy whole fruits and vegetables instead of precut ones that have been placed in plastic containers.

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Chapter 6: Recycling and Reducing

9. Buy yourself a reusable stainless steel bottle so that you will not contribute to plastic water bottle waste.

10. Make your own non-toxic cleaner and put it inside a glass spray bottle to avoid buying cleaners with toxic chemicals that come in plastic bottles.

11. Use shampoo, conditioner, soap, body wash, and other cosmetic products that do not come in plastic packaging.

12. Use reusable containers and bags to pack your lunch.

13. Buy yourself a reusable razor with replaceable razor blades.

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References The 7 different types of plastic. (2021, June 7). Plastics For Change. https://www.plasticsforchange.org/ blog/different-types-of-plastic 7 things you didn’t know about plastic (and recycling). (2018, April 4). National Geographic Society Newsroom. https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-aboutplastic-and-recycling/ Animals eat plastic. (2020, May 1). Plastic Soup Foundation. https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/ plastic-problem/plastic-affect-animals/animals-eat-plastic/ Animals stuck in plastic & Endangerement. (2020, May 1). Plastic Soup Foundation. https://www. plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/plastic-problem/plastic-affect-animals/animal-stuck-plastic/ Entanglement of marine life: Risks and response. (n.d.). NOAA. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/insight/ entanglement-marine-life-risks-and-response#how-does-entanglement-harm-marine-animals Garbage patches | OR&R’s marine debris program. (n.d.). OR&R’s Marine Debris Program |. https:// marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html Great Pacific garbage patch. (n.d.). NOAA’s National Ocean Service. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ podcast/june14/mw126-garbagepatch.html guide to plastic in the ocean. (21, February 26). NOAA’s National Ocean Service. https://oceanservice. noaa.gov/hazards/marinedebris/plastics-in-the-ocean.html Guide to the great Pacific garbage patch. American Oceans. https://www.americanoceans.org/blog/ great-pacific-garbage-patch/ Hardin, T. (2021, February 23). Plastic: It’s not all the same. Plastic Oceans International. https:// plasticoceans.org/7-types-of-plastic/ 54 | A Plastic World

History and future of plastics. (2019, November 20). Science History Institute. https://www.sciencehistory.org/the-history-and-future-of-plastics How plastics are made :: PlasticsEurope. (n.d.). PlasticsEurope. https://www.plasticseurope.org/en/ about-plastics/what-are-plastics/how-plastics-are-made Is Styrofoam™ recyclable? (2021, February 26). Communities for Recycling. https://recyclingpartnership.org/communitiesforrecycling/is-styrofoam-recyclable/ McCloy, J. (2019, November 11). 33 important pros and cons of recycling. Green Coast. https:// greencoast.org/pros-and-cons-of-recycling/ Microplastics pollution in the oceans. (2020, December 3). Plastic Soup Foundation. https://www. plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/plastic-problem/plastic-environment/microplastics/ National Geographic Society. (2012, October 9). Great Pacific garbage patch. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/12th-grade/ National Geographic Society. (2019, June 28). Microplastics. https://www.nationalgeographic. org/encyclopedia/microplastics/ Okunola A, A., Kehinde I, O., Oluwaseun, A., & Olufiropo E, A. (2019). Public and environmental health effects of plastic wastes disposal: A review. Journal of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.23937/2572-4061.1510021 Petsko, E. (2020, March 11). Recycling myth of the month: Those numbered symbols on single-use plastics do not mean ‘you can recycle me’. Oceana. https://oceana.org/blog/recycling-mythmonth-those-numbered-symbols-single-use-plastics-do-not-mean-you-can-recycle-me Plastic break down and fragmentation. (2020, May 1). Plastic Soup Foundation. https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/plastic-problem/plastic-environment/break-down/

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(2021, October 5). Plastic Health Coalition. https://www.plastichealthcoalition.org The plastic problem: How does plastic pollution affect wildlife? (n.d.). Two Oceans Aquarium | Official Tickets | Cape Town South Africa. https://www.aquarium.co.za/blog/entry/the-plastic-problem-how-does-plastic-pollution-affect-wildlife Plastic waste and climate change - what’s the connection? (2021, June 30). WWF-Australia. https:// www.wwf.org.au/news/blogs/plastic-waste-and-climate-change-whats-the-connection#gs. glqe9y Science of plastics. (2019, November 20). Science History Institute. https://www.sciencehistory. org/science-of-plastics Tips to use less plastic. (n.d.). Green Education Foundation | GEF | Sustainability Education. https:// www.greeneducationfoundation.org/nationalgreenweeksub/waste-reduction-tips/tips-to-useless-plastic.html What are microplastics? (n.d.). NOAA’s National Ocean Service. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ facts/microplastics.html What is recycling and why recycle? (n.d.). Keep Montana Clean and Green…Think Before You Throw – Educating Montana about waste reduction, statewide recycling resources, and supporting community recycling efforts. https://recyclemontana.org/what-is-recycling-and-why-recycle/ Yeoman, B. (2019, June 1). A plague of plastics. National Wildlife Federation. https://www.nwf. org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2019/June-July/Conservation/Ocean-Plastic You’re literally eating microplastics. How you can cut down exposure to them. (2019, October 7).

The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/youre-literally-eating-microplastics-how-you-can-cut-down-exposure-to-them/2019/10/04/22ebdfb6-e17a-11e9-8dc8498eabc129a0_story.html

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Thank you for reading Thank you for reading this book and keeping an open mind to learn about the dangers of plastic pollution. Now that you have finished this book and are more knowledgeable on plastic pollution, you can take action to save our planet, protect wildlife, and protect your health. It’s up to each individual to take the necessary steps to reduce their plastic footprint, which will create a big difference in the world.

About The Author Malhar Siddiki is a Pakistani-American graphic designer who was born and raised in Northern Virginia. She’s completing her degree in Graphic Design with a minor in Web Design at George Mason University. She has been constantly drawing since she could first hold a pencil and being creative is a natural drive within her.

Malhar has a broad range of passions and interests. Some of the things she loves are drawing, creating digital art, interior decorating, animals, astronomy, physics, sci-fi, oceanography, listening to music, and all things vintage and retro.

Portfolio: www.malharsiddiki.com Instagram: @malhardesigns

Nearly every piece of plastic that has ever existed in this world, still exists today.

Plastic is durable and can be molded into any shape, which accounts for its popularity with manufacturers. But due to its extreme durability, plastic never biodegrades. Plastic pollution is a major problem in this world and with the current rate of mass production of more plastic products and more people contributing to plastic waste, the issue is only going to get worse.

Plastic harms animals, humans. and the Earth. It causes a vast array of issues to our ecosystem. It’s time now that we learn about the true nature of plastic and take action to reduce our plastic waste. If everyone takes their part to reduce their plastic footprint, we will help immensely with stopping the destruction of our ecosystem and the other dangerous issues that come along with plastic pollution.

Read this book to learn the science behind plastic and all the major issues it causes, the effects of recycling, as well as some easy tips on how you can reduce your plastic use.