As one of my friends recently exclaimed as he threw up his hands in great frustration “plastic is everywhere!”.  He is so right. Much of the clothing I wear is made of polyester (which is plastic), until recently, my toothbrush was plastic, my comforter blanket is filled with “down alternative”, so it is plastic filled. Although I am working to convert my kitchen to no plastic, there are still some plastic items. I was recently in the hospital (I’m OK!) and can we even begin to talk about the amount of plastic that is used and disposed of at every moment? 

 More information is coming out every day about the dangers of plastic waste.  How have we gotten to this place where plastic is endangering our lives, polluting our lands and waterways, and entering our bodies as microplastics? Tackling this issue is a daunting challenge. Let’s step back and gain some perspective and understanding of how we got hereby sharing with you some of the highlights of the history of plastic.

 The Revolution

 In the 1800s, products made from animals, such as ivory for musical instruments and billiard balls, were on the decline. Inventor Alexander Parkes (1813 –1890) created the first man-made plastic called Parkesine.  It could be used as a cheap substitute for ivory or tortoiseshell.

 In 1907, Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland created a revolution in the plastic industry by inventing the first entirely synthetic plastic which he called Bakelite. It could be made into many different consumer-friendly products and could be mass produced in different designs.

 The Evolution

 In the early 1900s, petroleum and chemical industries, still in the industry today, formed relationships including Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil and DuPont.

 Imperial Chemical Industries accidently discovered polyethylene in 1932. It was first used in the defense industry, but came to be used in the consumer market.  Remember Tupperware? 

 Jump nearly 100 years to now! Polyethylene is the most used plastic in the world today with estimates in the 10s of millions of tons produced in the world each year. It’s astounding.

What can you do?

• Read this article to learn more about the history of plastic. https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/chemistry/age-plastic-parkesine-pollution

•  Read here for more information on why we should understand the history of plastic. https://www.plaineproducts.com/why-we-need-to-understand-the-history-of-plastic-before-we-can-tackle-the-problem/

• Change the trajectory of plastic production and pollution by refusing, reducing, reusing, repurposing your plastic waste.

The Destruction

 The plastic industry has walked hand in hand with the “disposable” culture that has developed worldwide.  The single-use plastic food and water containers and other products made from polyethylene are overwhelming our landfills and polluting our lands and waterways.

 We now have a crisis of plastic pollution. The US is second only to China in single-use plastic waste. We have learned that recycling does not work. It takes hundreds of years for plastic to decompose. Some formulations of polyethylene can be recycled a few times, low-density polyethylene used for things like grocery bags, sandwich bags, and cling wrap can only be recycled one time, if at all, and only used to make things like carpets and single-use products like trash can liners. Polystyrene which is Styrofoam, can only be recycled once. There are many plastic products that cannot be recycled at all. As a result, literally all that plastic invented by Alexander Parkes and Leo Baekeland and all the Polyethylene used for the last 100 years is still with us.

 A recent personal experience impressed on me the failure of recycling.  Trying to be a responsible environmental citizen, I purchased some outdoor mats for my deck made from recycled single-use plastic bottles. After a couple of years, the mats started pulling apart, became a tripping hazard so reluctantly we decided we had to remove them.  When we pulled them up, thousands of tiny pieces of plastic flew off and went everywhere in our yard. It was disgusting and disheartening to see my beautiful organic garden polluted with plastic. I feel like my experiment with using recycled products was a failure. This is just one experience that led me to believe that recycling is the big plastic lie!!  It doesn’t work.

Going Forward

It is estimated that currently there are more than 12,000 plastic manufacturing plants in the United States, including many of the world's largest plastic manufacturers. In the United States alone, production of polyethylene will increase by more than 40 percent by 2028.  In 2019, ExxonMobil and Dow had already built and had plans to build more than 17 new U.S. polyethylene plants, mostly on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana.