The Harmful Effects of

Plastics on the
Environment
EVR 4930
Ciara Young

You hear the word plastic and what do you think? You may think of the
Starbucks cup you had your coffee in this morning, or the stockpile of grocery
bags under your kitchen sink. More than half of all the plastic products on the
market are not made to last; these products were created to be used only once
and then thrown away. This consumption wheel will keep turning because most
people dont think about where the plastic is coming from, what harmful effects its
disposal has on the environment, and that there are other options in daily life
besides feeding consumerism. In the paragraphs to follow this paper will explore
those topics in detail.

Plastics

have

become

progressively

dominant

in

the

consumer

marketplace since their development in the 1930s and 1940s. Global plastic resin
production reached 288 million metric tons in 2012, a 620% increase since 1975.
The largest market for plastic is packaging. More specifically, materials designed
for immediate disposal. In 1960, plastics made up less than 1% of municipal solid
waste by mass in the United States. However, by 2000 this statistic increased
dramatically. By 2005, plastic made up at least 10% of solid waste in 58% of
countries with available data (3). Last year over 50 billion plastic water bottles
were consumed in the United States. However, the United States recycling rate
for plastic is only 23 percent, which means 38 billion water bottles, more than 1
billion dollars worth of plastic, are wasted each year. (6).

The total energy

required to produce 33 billion liters of water to be bottled is equal to 32-54 million

barrels of oil (6). However, not all the energy used comes from oil and this
number does not account for the oil required to transport the water bottles. The
energy used to produce bottled water accounts for about one-third of one percent
of total US energy consumption (5). These statistics are alarming, and they only
tell the story of the plastic water bottle. Enough plastic is thrown away each year
to circle the earth four times (5).

Every time a person goes to a grocery store they are faced with a
decision- paper or plastic? More times than not the average person will choose
the plastic bag. Most people wouldnt know that it takes 12 million barrels of oil
to produce the amount of plastic bags that Americans uses in just one year (5).
And all of those bags are inevitably destined to be stored under the sink or in a
closet never to see the light of day again, until theyre being thrown in the trash.
The plastic that makes up these bags does not biodegrade, but instead photodegrades. This process reduces them down into tiny toxic polymer products that
can be eaten by small fish and travel up the food chain. (5). Plastic is traveling
from land to the ocean at a startling rate. Jenna Jambeck, an assistant professor
of environmental engineering at UGA found that out of the 5.3 to 14 million tons
of plastic going into the ocean between 7,000 and 270,000 million tons were
found floating on the oceans surface. This gives scientists insight into just how
much plastic is sitting on the bottom of the ocean and on beaches worldwide.
She predicts that the plastic found entering the oceans and on beaches will equal
171 million tons by 2025 (2).

The documentation of plastic debris in marine environments is hugely

documented. However, knowing the exact amount of plastic debris floating and
sinking in the ocean is impossible. This is because the plastic trash is always
moving and that makes it hard to quantify. It is easy to see that there is an over
use of single use plastics, but what is not so obvious is the harmful effects they
have on the environment. Micro plastics that have been photo degraded have
been found at the very beginning of the food chain in organisms such as
zooplankton. The Goiana Estuary in Brazil was studied in a report regarding
micro plastics and their relation to zooplankton.

It was found that a total of

14,724 items of micro plastic with an average size of 2.231.65 mm were

recorded from the 216 samples taken during a 12-month period (1). Of these
small plastics included paint chips, which were found to have sunk to the bottom
of the estuary, and contaminated benthic environments (1). As with other micro
plastics they have the capacity to absorb persistent organic pollutants (POP),
which create a huge threat to coastal environments, increasing the level of
biocides, and trace metals found in their formulation (1). This evidence causes a
risk to humans because this zooplankton that is being contaminated are being
eaten by fish, then eaten by a bigger fish, which then anyone can go buy at a
local grocery store. For the first time ever scientists have reported micro plastic
ingestion by scleractinian corals, and have discovered the presence of micro
plastics in coral reef waters on Australias Great Barrier Reef (4). Experimental
feeding trials revealed that corals mistake micro plastics for prey and can

consume up to ~50 g plastic, rates similar to their consumption of plankton.

Ingested micro plastics were found wrapped in mesenterial tissue within the
corals gut cavity, this suggests that ingestion of high concentrations of micro
plastic debris could potentially impair the health of corals (4). The mussel Mytilus
edulis, a filter feeder, ingests micro plastics and other small grains. It has been
shown in these mussels that the ingestion of those micro plastics causes an
inflammatory cellular response.

The shore crab Carcinus maenas then eats

these mussels, and thus you have a small example of how these micro plastics
can travel up the food chain (7). Even higher up the food chain you see micro
plastics endangering land birds such as the turkey vulture. In an experiment to
determine what the turkey vulture consumed most, scientists found that in an
examination of all pellets (droppings) 78% of pellets collected on the coast and
83% of pellets collected in-land contained plastic material (8). A whopping 88%
of the plastic found was from plastic bags (8). These figures are disturbing.

From the most basic of sea life to land birds, plastic has played a large
and damaging role in these creatures diets. Micro plastics can find their way into
just about anything. Helping to stop the contribution to this plastic contamination
should be of serious importance to people. There are many simple changes that
can be made to every day life to insure you dont pollute. Simple changes such
as bringing a travel coffee mug to the oh-so beloved Starbucks, or ditching
plastic sandwich bags for a sandwich container. Most importantly not buying

plastic water bottles or water jugs. The average American saves $1,400 a year
by not buying water bottles (6). The solutions are small, but can make a huge
difference.

Its about the changing of a life style, from consumer based to

environmentally friendly.

If more people were educated on this issue,

undoubtedly more people would make the small changes necessary. It only
takes one person to start a revolution.

Works Cited
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water? Retrieved from http://phys.org/news156506896.html
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(6). Ban the Bottle. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.banthebottle.net/bottledwater-facts/
(7). Oceans of Plastic Waste. (n.d.). Retrieved from
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(8). Plastic Material in the Diet of the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) in the
Atacama Desert, Chile. (n.d.). Retrieved from
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