THE FAITHFUL CONSUMER January 07

…connecting faith and the environment

By Sarah Streed

Here’s a brand new topic for a brand new year: Plastic. I have never written about this before, feeling that I would concentrate on our most urgent problems—global warming, air and water pollution, etc. Then a friend dropped off an article from a men’s magazine that she had gotten from her brother-in-law. Titled “Our Oceans are Turning into Plastic,” the article told of Charles Moore who accidentally stumbled upon “a stew of plastic crap” while sailing. This stew turned out to be one of five Garbage Patches in oceans, where due to high pressure zones, plastic trash gathers. Together these zones cover 40% of the sea. Moore is now on a mission. Nine years ago, he left his 25 year business to start Algalita Marine Research Foundation to spread the word about the spread of plastics.

He certainly has his work cut out for him. Plastic pollution is not just ugly, it’s making its way into the food chain. More than a million seabirds, 100,000 marine mammals and countless fish die in the North Pacific alone each year from eating plastic or being ensnared in it and drowning. By weight, in a Garbage Patch, the sea water contains three times as much plastic as plankton.

If you think about plastic, you’ll immediately identify the problem for the planet: It never really goes away. Unless you burn it (don’t—it creates poison fumes) it breaks down no further than nurdles—little pellets. Even a single molecule is too tough for biodegradation. No one knows how long it takes plastic to biodegrade because it was only invented 144 years ago and—except for the tiny fraction that has been incinerated—it’s all still here. Each year about 60 billion tons more is made. Scientists’ best guess is that it will take several more centuries for it to biodegrade.

We humans are ingesting these plastic toxins constantly and it’s disrupting our gene activity. Scientists are just beginning to study how the chemicals used to make plastic interact with our bodies. One of these toxins is Phthalates, used to make plastic soft and bendable. A billion pounds of these are let loose on the planet each year, mostly in the form of packaged food, cosmetics, varnishes, the coatings of timed-release drugs, etc. They leach into our blood, urine, saliva, seminal fluid, breast milk and amniotic fluid. California recently listed phthalates as toxic to our reproductive systems.

OK, so this is totally depressing—where’s the glimmer of hope? It’s in movements like that of green architect and designer William McDonough who works with Fortune 500 CEOs designing cities for the future. McDonough talks of “cradle to cradle” in which all manufactured things must be reusable, poison-free, and beneficial over the long haul. (What a novel idea!) To make his point, McDonough held up a child’s bath rubber ducky, made out of phthalate-laden PVC, and asked, “What kind of people are we that we would design like this?” What kind indeed?

January’s tip: Immediately stop buying plastic. Then go through your house and get rid of everything plastic. When I did this, I threw out my Rubbermaid containers for food and replaced them with a set of glass bowls (albeit with plastic covers) to use. I also threw out all the microwave popcorn. I realize it’s impossible to get rid of plastic completely, but give it a try.

Sarah Streed is a board member of the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate & Energy Campaign (WICEC) and runs Write Stuff Works (www.writestuffworks.com ) a writing business. She lives in Stoughton, Wisconsin with her husband and children. Email smstreed@sbcglobal.net

 

All rights reserved by Sarah Streed.

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