The BBQ was a complete success. Everyone loved the food, and the weather held up despite the few passing clouds. Now for the less enjoyable part: cleaning up.
With a sigh, Anna started to gather up the plates, cutlery, bowls, and various condiments. As she removed the plate from where Alan sat, she saw a big splash of tomato sauce. “It was always Alan, wasn’t it?”, she thought with an amused smile.
She returned with cleaning wipes and a bin bag for the rubbish. When she had finished, she looked at the collection of waste in the bag: cling film, napkins, cleaning wipes, plastic cutlery the children used… Next to the bag stood the empty plastic bottles from the soft drinks.
Like so many times before, Anna wondered about the environmental impact of single-use plastics. Still thinking about it she carried everything back to the house.
This edition of Eco HomeLife Explains answers Anna’s question. It does so in an easy-to-understand and brief way, as always.
Why Single-Use Plastics Are So Harmful To Our Planet
The impact is huge, because there are several reasons why single-use items made of plastic are so harmful to our environment, according to the University of Colorado Boulder.
- The vast majority of plastic is made of fossil fuels
- Single-use plastics are a major contributor to plastic waste
- Plastic isn’t biodegradable, so persists in our environment
- As it breaks down, it releases microplastics and toxic chemicals
- Single-use plastics contribute to plastic pollution
- Most of it can’t be recycled
- They harm and even kill wildlife
- Contribute to greenhouse gas emissions
Let’s look at each of these in more detail to fully understand the impact single-use items made from plastic have.
Plastic Production From Fossil Fuels
According to a report by the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL), over 99% of plastic is made from fossil fuels. That’s an issue for our environment because:
- The use of fossil fuels isn’t sustainable, as there is only a certain amount of it
- The extraction of gas and oil accounted for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions according to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), and the future trend is upwards
- The continued extraction of fossil fuels contributes to climate change and needs to stop if we want to meet the 1.5 degree target (Rayner 2020)
- Plastic production is responsible for high greenhouse gas emissions and is predicted to account for 26% to 31% of the global carbon budget by 2050 (Karali et al., 2024)
Single-Use Plastic = Plastic Waste
Although some single-use items can be recycled, most end up in landfill or are incinerated, according to Greenpeace.
- Despite many single-use plastic items being recyclable, most of it isn’t, as globally only around 9% of plastic is recycled
- Single-use means an item is disposed of after only one use, which increases the amount of plastic waste we produce
- So many single-use items made from plastic aren’t recyclable, such as wipes, plastic cutlery, plastic straws, disposable coffee cups, sweet wrappers, glitter, plastic ribbons, and balloons
- Single-use items might be convenient, but they drive the production of more single-use items, increasing the amount of plastic we produce, use, and dispose of
Most Plastics Aren’t Readily Biodegradable
One big advantage of plastic is that it’s durable and robust. But this also means it won’t break down easily and persist in our environment for years, which is a huge contributor of the environmental impact of single-use plastics, according to a scientific study by the South China Agricultural University. (Cai et al., 2023).
So what does this mean for the environment?
- Plastic can take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to break down. (Chamas et al., 2020) Let that sink in: the first plastic item that was ever thrown away in the 1950/60s is still in our environment
- Our plastic waste fills up our landfills, which means we need to create new ones
- As it breaks down slowly, plastic releases toxic chemicals and microplastics (Wojnowska-Baryla et al., 2022)
- As plastic breaks down, it also emits greenhouse gases, including methane, (Royer et al., 2018) fueling global warming and climate change
Single-Use Plastic Fuels Plastic Pollution
Having a huge amount of single-use plastic in landfills all over the world is bad enough, as we have seen. According to the Natural History Museum, 52 million tonnes of plastic get into our environment each year.
- The most commonly littered items are cigarette filters, which are single-use plastics (Green et al., 2022)
- Around 70% of all littered items are food packaging and wrappers, according to Business Waste – again, single-use plastic items
- It’s estimated that 20 million metric tonnes of plastic is littered into our environment every year – most of it will be single-use plastics
- Most plastic waste in our waterways are single-use items, with 11 million tonnes of plastic finding its way into our oceans every year
Single-Use Plastics Harm Wildlife
While all of the reasons and statistics we have mentioned so far harm wildlife, this is mostly due to fueling climate change. But the single-use items themselves can harm or even kill life on land and in our waterways.
- Microplastics have been found in a wide range of different species, inclduing us humans (Baalkhuyur et al., 2018, Hernandez-Gonzales et al., 2018, Provencher et al., 2020, Liu et al., 2024, Zhang et al., 2024, Massardo et al., 2024, Saha et al., 2024)
- These tiny particles have even been found in plants, some of which we eat (Zantis et al. from 2022)
- Some scientist are so worried about the impact of plastic that they call for this material to be classed as hazardous so it’s disposed of more safely (Rochman et al., 2013)
- Animals get entangled in plastic waste, ingest it, or get trapped in it, which can lead to the death of the animals (Petry et al., 2021, Blettler and Mitchell, 2021, Kolenda et al., 2022)
- The chemicals that leak from many plastic single-use items, such as cigarette filtres or plastic bottles, are toxic to terrestrial and marine life (Webler et Jakubowski, 2022, Li et al., 2016)
- Plants in the marine environment are also impacted by the toxic chemicals plastic is releasing (Gao et al., 2024)
The Environmental Impact Of Single-Use Plastics Is Too Big To Ignore
No doubt, with all this information Anna will be determined to make a difference. Probably right now she is looking for ways to reduce her use of single-use plastics. There is a good chance, she will try some of these:
- Reduce plastic packaging – when you go grocery shopping, buy fruit and vegetables loose whenerver possible to reduce the amount of plastic packaging, by buying shampoo bars and soap instead of liquid personal care products
- Switch to reusable itmes – look for reusable shopping bags, drinks bottles, coffe cups, cleaning cloths, makeup removal pads, silicone lids, straws, lunch boxes, food wraps, etc.
- Stop using single-use plastic items that can’t be replaced – such as balloons, glitter, fireworks, cigarettes, etc.
- Don’t litter – when out and about, take your rubbish with you and dispose of it
It’s a huge problem, but together we can tackle it. Yes, it means sacrificing some convenience, but the difference it makes, will be more than worth it. Let’s do this!
Looking for plastic-free swaps for your home, check out our guide about the best 10 plastic-free swaps to get you started.
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