Ten spooky facts about plastics

Halloween- a festive, autumnal time of year when our imaginations are animated with emaciated ghouls lurking in haunted houses and witches stirring trouble behind crooked trees, of pumpkins and magic potions, and nostalgic imaginings heralding back to our childhoods when the world was enlivened by our worst nightmares. The images often employed in these horror-filled visions are of fictitious characters that live on as symbols of what is scary in the world.

As an adult, I have come to associate those haunting symbols with frightening, real-life equivalents. One of them is something that seems mundane but has become ubiquitous in our lives: plastic. 

Here are ten truly spooky facts about plastic that keep me up at night:

1. Americans use and waste a shocking amount of plastic.

In the United States, we create enough plastic waste to fill Cowboys Stadium– the largest professional football stadium in the country– every 16 hours.

2. Plastic production is projected to triple by 2060. 

Plastic production is exponentially growing. Globally, we produce twice as much plastic annually as we did just 20 years ago.

3. Fossil fuel companies are driving the growth in plastic across the world.

Plastic is produced from fossil fuels, and it is estimated that by 2050 nearly half of the demand for fossil fuels will come from the plastic industry. As many economies are already saturated with plastic, the plastic industry is pushing into  emerging economies to drive the growth.   

4. About half of the plastic produced is made for a single use. 

Nothing that we use for just a few minutes should be allowed to pollute our environment for hundreds of years.  

5. It’s raining microplastic.

Microplastic is being found everywhere, from the deepest place on Earth (the Mariana Trench) and the highest place on earth (Mount Everest), and increasingly it is showing up in our water cycle, including in rain. A study from Colorado found that 90% of the samples taken during a study of rain samples across the state contained microplastic. Another study showed that Hurricane Larry released 100,000 microplastics per square meter of land, per day. Our environment is increasingly becoming plasticized.

6. Our bodies are being invaded by plastic.

An unsettling amount of microplastics are showing up throughout our bodies, including in our blood, in our arteries and in the tissues of our vital organs, such as our hearts, livers, and brains.  

7. Plastics are toxic chemical cocktails.

There are over 10,000 additives and chemicals used in plastic production. The European Union has identified over 2,400 of them as potentially concerning due to their persistence, bioaccumulation and/ or toxicity. 

8. Banned additives are being found in recycled plastic products.

There are no clear international labeling laws that strictly prohibit plastics that contain banned chemicals from being recycled into new products. As a result, a new study found that previously-banned fire retardants used in electronic products are being found in black plastic cooking ware and food trays. DecaBDE was banned by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2021, and is considered a possible carcinogen by the EPA and is associated with other health issues such as, endocrine and thyroid issues, reproductive and immune system toxicity, and fetal and child development and neurobehavioral function. 

9. Chemical recycling is just another plastic industry trick.

The oil, gas and plastics industries created this misleading term to make the incineration of plastics seem environmentally friendly. Energy-intensive “chemical recycling” plants release hazardous chemicals into the air, ground, and water. Many of them are known to cause cancer, birth defects or other serious health conditions. This process is not only less efficient and effective than traditional recycling, but it can be 10 to 100 times worse for the environment than virgin plastic production.

10. Recycling plastic is more of a wishful dream than a reality. 

Only about 5-9% of plastic is recycled in the United States. Only 60% of Americans have access to recycle #1 and #2 plastics, even less have access to the more difficult to recycle plastics. We need to reduce the amount of plastic we produce and use instead of trying to recycle our way out of this problem.  

While plastic pollution can be very scary, there’s a lot we can do to push decision makers and major companies to do all they can to reduce plastic pollution. 

Don’t let companies hide behind claims of recyclability.