Take a look around you right now: It's almost inevitable that you'll lay eyes on something made out of plastic.
Plastic has become nearly as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. Most plastics are made from climate-harming fossil fuels and break down into microplastics – tiny particles that infiltrate the air and water, threatening the health of people and ecosystems. Plastic manufacturing, disposal, and degradation each bring disproportionate harm to low-income people and people of color.
The United Nations Environmental Programme estimates that more than 400 million metric tons of plastic are thrown away across the globe each year. In North Carolina alone, we discard enough plastic bottles in a year to cover the length of Interstate 40 in our state 715 times. That's around 300,000 miles!
Though some plastic waste is mitigated by recycling, there is more plastic in this world than our recycling systems can handle. Unless we reduce plastic production, the problem will only grow.
Microplastics – plastic fragments less than five millimeters in length – are a particular concern for many reasons. The average person ingests 100,000 pieces of microplastic per year, and double that amount if they drink commercially bottled water. These tiny pieces have been found in our blood and organs, and can be toxic, carcinogenic, and disrupt our endocrine function, immune systems, and even pregnancy.
These particles pose similar risks to wildlife. Plastics have been found in the bodies of creatures of all sizes on land and at sea, though marine animals are particularly at risk; in 2016, a study in Science journal estimated 11 percent of global plastic waste (19 to 23 million metric tons) entered waterways. Plastics can block digestive tracts of marine animals, leach into their bloodstreams, inhibit growth, alter behavior, and more. Tiny zooplankton, in particular, frequently ingest microplastics, which are then passed up the food chain and can eventually make their way right back to fish-eating humans.
What can we do to mitigate these issues? Policy change is critical. In June, Canada announced a ban on the manufacture and import of single-use plastics, such as grocery bags, straws, cutlery, and bottles. The ban goes into effect in December 2022, and by December 2023 will expand to prohibit single-use plastic sales.
The United States - one of the top global producers of plastic waste - would do well to follow Canada’s lead. In 2021, the Department of Energy announced up to $14.5 million for research on how to cut plastic waste and reduce the energy required to recycle plastics. The funding will also support projects to design biodegradable plastic replacements and improve the recycling process. More recently, the U.S. Department of Interior has planned to phase out the sale of single-use plastics in national parks and on public lands by 2032.
More federal action is needed, but hasn't happened. In 2020 and again in 2021, the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act was introduced in the U.S. Congress. This bill sought to ban certain non-recyclable single-use plastic products, protect state and local governments with more stringent plastic standards, ban and impose fees for carryout bags, ban waste exports to developing countries, and more. The bill never advanced beyond a committee referral.
State and local governments can act - and some have done so. Eight states have banned plastic bags: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Vermont, New York and Hawaii. In addition, Vermont restricted single-use straws, drink stirrers, and plastic foam, and Maine has banned plastic foam containers.
Maryland doesn't have a statewide bag ban, but has also banned plastic foam containers. Ten states, spurred by action in Oregon, have container deposit legislation that mandates a refundable deposit on certain kinds of recyclable bottles.
California recently passed a law requiring all packaging to be compostable or recyclable by 2032. This will require 65 percent of all single-use plastic packaging to be recycled in the next 10 years. The legislation also within that time span will raise $5 billion from the plastics industry to support disadvantaged communities impacted by plastic waste.
In 2021, former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam instituted an executive order directing executive branch state agencies to give up single-use plastics by 2025. However, his successor, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, this year issued a replacement order that outlines an “improved” recycling plan for state agencies that eliminates the ban on plastics.
Here in North Carolina, our extensive coastlines and waterways make it particularly important that we reduce and eliminate plastic waste. We've taken some impressive steps: State legislation passed in 2009 created a bag ban in the Outer Banks, making it one of the first places in the country - and first in North Carolina - to ban single-use plastic bags. The ban was quite popular locally, but it was repealed in 2017 thanks to heavy lobbying by the Retail Merchants Association, which represents large retailers like grocery stores.
In 2021, legislators sponsored two more bills that would have outlawed single-use bags statewide, but neither made it to a vote. That same year, the state House passed a bill that would have required the state to study ending the use of single-use plastics, but the measure died in the Senate.
In North Carolina, local efforts to enact plastic bag fees, such as one proposed last year for the City of Durham, could be threatened by state legislators. We don't currently have a state law that preempts local plastic bag bans or fee programs, but the General Assembly has the authority to do so, as it has for other local governance issues.
Where legislators have dragged their feet, businesses have stepped up. Several grocery stores have stopped using plastic bags both nationally and in North Carolina. Whole Foods became the first national grocer to ban single-use plastic bags in 2008 and in 2019 became the first grocer to eliminate plastic straws. Wegmans eliminated single-use plastic bags at its four North Carolina stores starting in July 2022 and also charges a fee for paper bags; the goal is encourage consumers to supply their own reusable bags.
Reducing plastic manufacture, use and waste must be a shared - and determined - effort involving people, policy-makers and businesses. The damage to our environment is visible to anyone who has seen bottles, bags or other waste scattered across the landscape. Though less obvious, we are well aware of the more insidious damage to humans and other living species that ingest plastic waste, and to our climate from the manufacture of these fossil-fuel derivatives.
There are practical, safe alternatives for most of the single-use plastics we use every day. For our planet and everything that lives on it, we must make the change now.