Plastic Free July: Why Is Plastic So Bad?

An illustration of my roommate's cat checking out my plastic-free farmers market haul

(Read all Plastic Free July posts here.)

As you may have noticed, there is a lot going on in the world right now. We as humans can only keep up with a couple things at a time, and it may seem a bit weird to try to care about plastic pollution at this particular moment. 

But I wanted to do a quick run-down of the reasons that I'm doing #plasticfreeJuly, and why I believe that plastic matters, especially now.

1. Plastic factories are harmful to people. In the U.S., plastic is manufactured in incredibly polluting factories, negatively affecting the communities around them with respiratory issues and cancer. See this article and this one for more about "Cancer Alley" in Louisiana. Factories are overwhelmingly placed in communities of color, so plastic is a racial issue. And speaking of racism…

2. Our plastic trash harms people in other countries. The U.S. sends a huge amount of plastic waste (supposedly for recycling) to other countries, where it creates huge health and safety hazards and often isn't recycled at all. Read more about that process here.

3. Plastic harms wildlife. Plastic never decomposes, but it does degrade, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces. These, along with microplastics (threads of polyester, microbeads from cosmetic products, etc.), wash into waterways and are eaten by fish and small creatures, sometimes starving them because their bodies can't process it.

Although plastic has improved our lives in countless ways, especially in the medical field and for accessibility (and I'm particularly grateful for plastic technology in backpacking gear, too), the vast majority of plastic goods— polyester and flatware, microbeads and bottles— could be scaled back significantly. If we only used plastic where it was really important, the waste would be easier to deal with and the need for factories would go down. We can be part of making that happen.

What motivates you to reduce your plastic waste?

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