Soft plastic packaging and single use carrier bags have become so insidious, so normalized, that most consumers in developed nations don’t pay any attention to soft plastic anymore. But soft plastic is truly everywhere. Soft plastic wrapping covers your toilet paper, your six pack of Coca-Cola, your vitamin tops, your pasta, potato chips, frozen vegetables and rice, this is in addition to the estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion single use carrier plastic bags consumed each year. More than 1 million soft plastic bags a minute are consumed around the globe. Less than 1% of all soft plastic bags consumed are actually recycled.
Of the nearly 200 billion pounds of plastic that the world produces each year, about 10% (an estimated 20 billion pounds) ends up in the oceans.
Environmental Costs
Soft plastics, like all plastics, are made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource. When soft plastics are thrown into the landfill or water, they don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits, contaminating soil and waterways. Animals often accidentally ingest soft plastic and choke or starve to death. In landfills, plastic bags take an estimated 1000 years to break down. Of the nearly 200 billion pounds of plastic that the world produces each year, about 10% (an estimated 20 billion pounds) ends up in the oceans according to Greenpeace International.
Even though many wealthy nations have recycling infrastructures in place, soft plastic is still overlooked during the recycling process and the vast majority still ends up in landfills. In fact, global plastic recycling rates continue to lag far behind other common recyclable materials, such as paper, aluminum and glass. The majority of soft plastic consumption continues to end up in the landfill or in waterways. Unfortunately, the creation of new plastic products takes 95% more energy than recycling old plastics — recycling plastics minimizes unnecessary consumption of fossil fuels, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and avoids creating air pollution.
Eliminate Soft Plastic
An average family of four produces at least 1-2 kitchen sized garbage bags of soft plastic recycling each month. Many individuals have noticed when they eliminate soft plastics from their waste stream that their monthly garbage consumption is almost non-existent. However, most cities around the world do not offer soft plastic recycling and often the methods of disposal/recycling may be questionable, actually producing significantly more carbon emissions through the incineration process. Currently the best option seems to be to minimize or eliminate plastic use.
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