Text and Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
Plastic bags come in different colors, sizes, forms, and weight.
Bags are not the only ones made from plastics these days. Name it, plastic is in it: chairs, tables, filing cabinets, tubes, baskets, plates, forks, spoons, glasses, bottles, caps, and a lot more.
Indeed, a lot of people have followed what some people told Dustin Hoffman when he asked for some advice on career direction in the award-winning 1967 movie, The Graduate. “Plastics, my boy. Plastics,” they suggested to him.
“For more than 50 years, global production of plastic has continued to rise. Some 299 million tons of plastics were produced in 2013, representing a 4 percent increase over 2012,” writes Gaelle Gourmelon, communications and marketing manager of the Washington, D.C.-based Worldwatch Institute.
“Worldwide plastic production has been growing as the durable, primarily petroleum-based material gradually replaces materials like glass and metal,” the institute said in a press statement. “Today, an average person living in Western Europe or North America consumes 100 kilograms of plastic each year, mostly in the form of packaging.”
In Asia, one person uses just 20 kilograms. “But this figure is expected to grow rapidly as the region’s economies expand,” the institute pointed out.
The word plastic is derived from the Greek plastikos, which means “capable of being shaped or molded.” It refers to their malleability or plasticity during manufacture, which allows them to be cast, pressed, or extruded into a variety of shapes.
Perhaps plastic bags are the most ubiquitous consumer item that man has ever invented. “Their light weight, low cost, and water resistance make them so convenient for carrying groceries, clothing, or any other routine purchase that it is hard to imagine life without them,” wrote Brian Halweil in a Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World report.
“Since they were introduced in the 1970s, plastic bags have infiltrated our lives,” wrote Caroline Williams in New Scientist. “Globally, we carry home between 500 billion and a trillion every year – about 150 bags for every person on earth, or, to put it another way, a million every minute and rising.”
As trash, officials from the plastics industry say plastic bags take up less space in a landfill. That’s one side of the coin. The other side: Given the proper conditions, however, the paper sack would decompose rapidly, while the plastic bag would not. In reality, many plastic bags do not find their way to landfills.
The Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reported that an estimated 22-43% of the plastic used worldwide is disposed of in landfills, where the material takes up valuable space and it blights communities.
“Recovering plastic from the waste stream for recycling or for combustion for energy generation has the potential to minimize these problems,” Gourmelon wrote. “However, much of the plastic collected for recycling in Europe, the United States, Japan, and other industrialized countries, is shipped to countries with lower recycling standards. And burning plastic for energy requires air emissions controls and produces hazardous ash, all while being relatively inefficient.”
Unlike the heavier plastics, those mischievous plastic bags do not find their way to landfills. Instead, they go airborne after they are discarded. A survey conducted by the EcoWaste Coalition and Greenpeace Philippines in 2006 discovered plastic bags and other synthetic packaging materials to comprise 76 percent of garbage retrieved from Manila Bay. In Laguna de Bay, plastic bags make up 25 percent of the solid waste that is polluting the lake.
Because they are usually buoyant, plastic bags are widely distributed by ocean currents and wind. In a study, “Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean,” published in the journal Science, about 275 million tons of plastic wastes were generated in 192 coastal countries worldwide in 2010. Of that figure, some 4.8-12.7 million metric tons of plastic debris entered the world’s ocean.
“The Philippines is the third top contributor with around 0.28-0.75 million metric tons of plastic marine waste annually, next only to China and Indonesia,” said Senator Loren Legarda.
The floating debris in the oceans result in an estimated US$13 billion a year in losses from damage to marine ecosystems, including financial losses to fisheries and tourism as well as time spent cleaning beaches.
The World Wildlife Fund for Nature claimed that nearly 200 different marine species die due to ingestion and choking from plastic bags.
“Animals such as seabirds, whales, and dolphins can become entangled in plastic matter, and floating plastic items — such as discarded nets, docks, and boats — can transport microbes, algae, invertebrates, and fish into non-native regions, affecting local ecosystems,” the Worldwatch Institute said.
Turtles, whales, and other marine mammals have also died after eating plastic sheeting. In the United States, plastic gears, six-pack yokes, sandwich bags and Styrofoam cups are so abundant in the ocean that they kill up to one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals each year.
According to Worldwatch Institute, about 4% of the petroleum consumed worldwide each year is used to make plastic, and another 4% is used to power plastic manufacturing processes.
“Many of the chemicals used in the production and processing of plastic are highly toxic, resulting in hazardous wastes, toxic air emissions and discharges of toxic effluents into waterways,” said a report which appeared in Environmental Action.
The report further stated: “People don’t think plastic products are toxic because by the time they get to supermarket shelves, they’re not. But ingredients in plastic production have dangerous properties for those who work with them or live near plastic factories.”
Environmentalists caution against burning those plastics to get rid of them completely. Scientists say that chlorine-based plastics, when incinerated, contribute to the formation of dioxins, a poisonous waste that forms when chlorine is exposed to extreme heat.
Across the world, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore and Taiwan are among the countries that ban the use of plastic. These countries have enacted local legislations to intensify their national law that prohibits plastic use.
“Along with reducing unnecessary plastic consumption,” the Worldwatch Institute suggested, “finding more environmentally friendly packaging alternatives, and improving product and packaging design to use less plastic, many challenges associated with plastics could be addressed by improving management of the material across its life cycle.”
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