Health Effects
Aside from the negative impacts linked to the manufacturing of plastics, there are a number of health concerns associated with being exposed to chemicals found in many plastics. Many of these chemicals have been identified as carcinogens and endocrine disruptors (endocrine disruptors can cause cancer, birth defects, immune system suppression, and developmental problems in children).
Because of the vast quantity of chemical compounds used in the production of plastics, it is difficult to get an exhaustive list of all the chemicals that cause harm to human health. To make things more difficult, there is often not enough research conducted to determine whether chemicals, some of which are used extensively by industry, are harmful or not. However, there are some prominent classes of chemicals found in plastics that have been highlighted as being particularly hazardous. These include Bisphenols (such as Bisphenol A (BPA) and more recently substitutes of BPA including Fluorene-9-bisphenol), Phthalates, and Vinyl Chlorides.
Environmental Degradation
The use of plastics has had a drastic and devastating impact on the environment at large. Environmental damage from the use of plastics primarily stems from the emissions produced during manufacturing, the waste resulting from mass global consumption, and the plastic contamination of many ecosystems including the ocean (Source).
Since the production of plastics was implemented on a broad scale in the 1950’s, humans have produced more than 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics. In 2016 alone over 335 million metric tons of plastics were produced. During the manufacturing of this massive quantity of synthetic material, environmentally toxic chemicals such as benzene, toluene, and styrene are emitted. These chemicals cause cancer, neurological damage, and birth defects. Additionally, due to the energy intensive processes involved in their manufacturing, the production of plastics results in the emission of a significant portion of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane, and hydroflourocarbons (HFCs).
While the production of plastics cause substantial pollution, perhaps more harmful is the environmental degradation that plastics cause after production. Because many plastic products are single use, the majority of them quickly find their way to waste treatment facilities, or end up in the environment as litter. According to researchers at the University of Georgia, in 2016 approximately 6.3 billion metric tons of plastics had already become waste. While there have been significant efforts to improve recycling, only about 9% of plastic waste is recycled. 12% of the remaining plastic is incinerated and 79% accumulates in landfills, or ends up littered in the natural environment (Source). Plastics that end up in landfills take up to 450 years to decompose and leach pollutants into soil and waterways through runoff. While this is where vast quantities of plastic go, the oceans and other natural environments also suffer from contamination. Scientists determined that in 2010 alone, an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastics entered marine environments.
Reports
» The New Coal: Plastics and Climate Change
By Beyond Plastics, Report
October, 2021
News
» Judge Tosses Air Permits For $9.4 Billion Louisiana Plastics Plant
The sharply worded ruling dismantled the state Department of Environmental Quality’s rationale for permits that would have allowed Formosa Plastics to emit more than 800 tons of toxic pollution a year into predominantly Black St. James Parish. “People’s lives are worth more than plastic,” says one activist.
By James Bruggers, Inside Climate News
September 15, 2022
» The Titans of Plastic
Pennsylvania becomes the newest sacrifice zone for America’s plastic addiction.
By Kristina Marusic, Environmental Health News
September 15, 2022
» ‘Incredibly promising’: the bubble barrier extracting plastic from a Dutch river
Technology applied to Oude Rijn river helps stop plastic pollution reaching sea
By Senay Boztas, The Guardian
August 5, 2022
» As alarm over plastic grows, Saudis ramp up production in the US
President Biden is in the kingdom this week to strengthen ties. Meanwhile, a U.S.-Saudi joint venture on the Texas coast is pumping out toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases.
By Mark Schapiro, Grist
July 14, 2022
» Explainer: Plastic sachets: As big brands cashed in, a waste crisis spiraled
By John Geddie and Joe Brock, Reuters
June 22, 2022
» New Type of Toxic Pollution Called ‘Plastitar’ Found on Canary Islands
By Paige Bennett, EcoWatch
June 14, 2022
» Microplastics found deep in lungs of living people for first time
Particles discovered in tissue of 11 out of 13 patients undergoing surgery, with polypropylene and PET most common
By Damian Carrington, The Guardian
April 6, 2022
» For the First Time, Nations Band Together in a Move Toward Ending Plastics Pollution
A United Nations resolution embraces a broad definition of the problem that encompasses the life-cycle of plastics, from production to disposal.
By James Bruggers, Inside Climate News
March 3, 2022
» California wants to eradicate microplastics. Will a new strategy be enough?
The 22-step plan includes preventing and intercepting plastic from entering waterways and educating about its hazards
By Katharine Gammon, The Guardian
March 3, 2022
» U.N. pact may restrict plastic production. Big Oil aims to stop it
By John Geddie, Valerie Volcovici and Joe Brock, Reuters
February 18, 2022
» A Commonsense Proposal to Deal With Plastics Pollution: Stop Making So Much Plastic
A report from leading scientists found that the U.S. is the world’s leading generator of plastic waste, at 287 pounds per capita. It’s clogging the oceans, and poisoning plankton and whales.
By James Bruggers, Inside Climate News
December 1, 2021
» US Must Tackle Marine Plastics Pollution ‘From Source to Sea’: Report
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study found that the U.S. is responsible for about a quarter of the plastics that enter the world’s oceans each year.
Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams
December 1, 2021
» Nurdles: the worst toxic waste you’ve probably never heard of
Billions of these tiny plastic pellets are floating in the ocean, causing as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardous
Karen McVeigh, The Guardian
November 29, 2021
» The Big Problem With Plastic
CR reveals where most of the plastic you throw away really ends up and explains what to do to limit its environmental harm
By Kevin Loria, Consumer Reports
September 08, 2021
» Army Corps Orders Environmental Review of Proposed Formosa Plastics Plant in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’
If built, the plastics plant would pump air pollutants into surrounding communities and contribute more to climate change than three coal power plants. Corps announcement deals significant blow to project’s backers.
By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog
August 18, 2021
» Record Levels of Harmful Particles Found in Great Lakes Fish
By Andrew Blok, Environmental Health News, in EcoWatch
August 12, 2021
» Canada Declares Plastics Toxic, Paving the Way for Restrictions
“I think the days of waiting for recycling to work are over,” notes one environmentalist.
By Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, National Observer, reproduced in Mother Jones
May 14, 2021
» Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ are contaminating plastic food containers
Harmful PFAS chemicals are being used to hold food, drink and cosmetics, with unknown consequences for human health
By Tom Perkins, The Guardian
July 9, 2021
» Waste plastic deluge could soon prove irreversible
The waste plastic deluge fouling the world’s beaches could be more than just an eyesore. It could be a toxic timebomb.
By Tim Radford, Climate News Network
July 8, 2021
» Here’s What Happens When You Eat From Plastic Containers
By Darlena Cunha, EcoWatch
July 1, 2021
» Plastic rafting: the invasive species hitching a ride on ocean litter
There is now so much ocean plastic that it has become a route for invasive species, threatening native animals with extinction
By Russell Thomas, The Guardian
June 14, 2021
» Ocean Plastic: What You Need to Know
By Audrey Nakagawa, EcoWatch
June 8, 2021
» Who’s Making — and Funding — the World’s Plastic Trash?
ExxonMobil, Dow, Barclays, and more top lists in a new report ranking the companies behind the single-use plastic crisis.
By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog
May 18, 2021
» Scientists find way to remove polluting microplastics with bacteria
Sticky property of bacteria used to create microbe nets that can capture microplastics in water to form a recyclable blob
By Sofia Quaglia, The Guardian
April 28, 2021
» This Peeler Did Not Need to Be Wrapped in So Much Plastic
Amazon must become a leader in reducing single-use packaging.
By Pamela L. Geller and Christopher Parmeter, New York Times | Opinion
April 5, 2021
» My Team Found 2,000 Plastic Bags Inside A Dead Camel
By Marcus Eriksen, Bloomberg | Opinion, in NDTV
March 24, 2021
» New Study Shows Fish Are Ingesting Plastic at Higher Rates
By Tara Lohan, EcoWatch
March 8, 2021
» Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé Are Worst Plastic Polluters of 2020, Have Made ‘Zero Progress,’ New Report Finds
By Tiffany Duong, EcoWatch
December 11, 2020
» Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé named top plastic polluters for third year in a row
Companies accused of “zero progress” on reducing plastic waste, with Coca-Cola ranked No 1 for most littered products
By Karen McVeigh, The Guardian
December 7, 2020
» U.S. Leads the World in Plastic Waste, New Study Finds
By Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
November 3, 2020
» Campaigners Tell Kenyan Government ‘Don’t Backslide on Plastics’ in US Trade Deal
By Maina Waruru, DeSmog UK
October 27, 2020
» New Study: 15.5 Million Tons of Microplastics Litter Ocean Floor
By Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
October 6, 2020
» ‘Trash Tsunami’ Washes up on Honduran Beaches
By Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
September 23, 2020
» Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic.
Faced with plunging profits and a climate crisis that threatens fossil fuels, the industry is demanding a trade deal that weakens Kenya’s rules on plastics and on imports of American trash.
By Hiroko Tabuchi, Michael Corkery and Carlos Mureithi, New York Times
August 30, 2020
» Pollution Scientist Calls Plastic Pellet Spill in the Mississippi River ‘a Nurdle Apocalypse’
By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog
August 28, 2020
» Oceans’ plastic tide may be far larger than thought
Artificial fibres now go everywhere. The oceans’ plastic tide may reach their whole depth, entering marine life and people.
By Tim Radford, Climate News Network
August 20, 2020
» Study Dives Deeper Into How Much Plastic Is In The Oceans
By Rebecca Hersher, NPR
August 20, 2020
» Could a Solution to Marine Plastic Waste Threaten One of the Ocean’s Most Mysterious Ecosystems?
By Deutsche Welle, EcoWatch
August 15, 2020
» A Plastics Spill on the Mississippi River But No Accountability in Sight
By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog
August 11, 2020
» Waste plastic cascade could triple in 20 years
In a throwaway world, some discards are forever. New research measures the crisis of the world’s waste plastic.
By Tim Radford, Climate News Network
July 30, 2020
» ‘Our life is plasticized’: New research shows microplastics in our food, water, air
By Elizabeth Claire Alberts, Mongabay
July 15, 2020
» Where’s Airborne Plastic? Everywhere, Scientists Find.
There’s “no nook or cranny” on the planet where it doesn’t end up, the lead researcher on a new study said.
By John Schwartz, New York Times
June 11, 2020
» Satellite imagery is helping to detect plastic pollution in the ocean
By Elizabeth Claire Alberts, Mongabay
May 1, 2020
» Scientists Discover Highest Concentration of Deep-Sea Microplastics to Date
By Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
May 1, 2020
» Planet Plastic
How Big Oil and Big Soda kept a global environmental calamity a secret for decades
By Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone
March 3, 2020
» Congressional Democrats Join the Debate Over Plastics’ Booming Future
A new bill would impose a three-year moratorium on new plant construction in parts of Appalachia and the Gulf Coast.
By James Bruggers, InsideClimate News
February 21, 2020
» Your Foam Coffee Cup Is Fighting for Its Life
The Dart Container Corporation, which makes foam products, is a manufacturing behemoth and produced a fortune for the family behind it. Environmentalists say its products are polluting the globe.
By Michael Corkery, New York Times
February 10, 2020
» Booming Plastics Industry Faces Backlash as Data About Environmental Harm Grows: Environmentalists cite “an incredible disconnect” between government support for plastics manufacturing and evidence of the industry’s pollution and climate impact.
By James Bruggers, Inside Climate News
January 24, 2020
» The Plastics Giant and the Making of an Environmental Justice Warrior
By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog
January 7, 2020
» Microplastics a million times more abundant in the ocean than previously thought, Scripps study suggests
Mini-microplastics uncovered in the stomachs of filter-feeding marine organisms
By Chase Martin, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
December 03, 2019
» To Make This Tofu, Start by Burning Toxic Plastic
Plastic waste from America, collected for recycling, is shipped to Indonesia. Some is burned as fuel by tofu makers, producing deadly chemicals and contaminating food.
By Richard C. Paddock, New York Times
November 14, 2019
» In the Sea, Not All Plastic Lasts Forever
Polystyrene, a common ocean pollutant, decomposes in sunlight much faster than thought, a new study finds.
By William J. Broad, New York Times
October 11, 2019
» It’s raining plastic in the Rocky Mountains
A USGS study identified plastic in more than 90% of rainwater samples taken from across Colorado.
By Eleanor Imster in Earth | Human World
August 14, 2019
» Trump To Promote Turning Natural Gas Into Plastics During Monaca Visit
By Jill Colvin & Josh Boak, Associated Press
August 13, 2019
» A Giant Factory Rises to Make a Product Filling Up the World: Plastic
Royal Dutch Shell’s plant will produce more than a million tons of plastic, in the form of tiny pellets. Many in the Pittsburgh area see it as an economic engine, but others worry about long-term harm.
By Michael Corkery, New York Times
August 12, 2019
» An Ocean Plastics Field Trip for Corporate Executives
Recycling is broken. The oceans are trashed. As the plastics crisis spirals out of control, an unlikely collection of executives and environmentalists set sail for the North Atlantic Gyre in a desperate attempt to find common ground.
By Rowan Jacobsen, Outsideonline.com
August 8, 2019
» 66 people sent for medical attention after ExxonMobil refinery explosion in Texas
The facility processes light hydrocarbons including propane and propylene, materials used to make plastic and industrial products.
By Associated Press and Doha Madani, NBC News
July 31, 2019
» Where does your plastic go? Global investigation reveals America’s dirty secret
A Guardian report from 11 countries tracks how US waste makes its way across the world – and overwhelms the poorest nations
By Erin McCormick, Bennett Murray , Carmela Fonbuena , Leonie Kijewski, Gökçe Saraçoğlu , Jamie Fullerton, Alastair Gee and Charlotte Simmonds, The Guardian / United States of Plastic
June 17, 2019
» As the world grapples with plastic, the U.S. makes more of it — a lot more
By Center for Public Integrity
June 13, 2019
» Food packaging is full of toxic chemicals – here’s how it could affect your health
By Eleanor Goldberg, The Guardian
May 28, 2019
» Man makes deepest-ever dive in Mariana Trench and discovers … litter
A retired naval officer dove in a submarine nearly 36,000ft into the deepest place on Earth, only to find what appears to be plastic
Reuters
May 13 2019
» We’re Up to a Million Plastic Bottles Per Minute
Return to Now
May 11, 2019
» Ocean Cleanup experts pinpoint failure points, plan fixes
By Catherine Kavanaugh, Plastics News
April 5, 2019
» Plastic production is the problem, and not plastic waste
By Irish Examiner
March 11, 2019
» New Warnings on Plastic’s Health Risks as Fracking Industry Promotes New ‘Plastics Belt’ Build-Out
By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog
March 5, 2019
» Our plastics, our selves
What’s plastic doing to our bodies? This all-female team is investigating.
By Eve Andrews, grist.org
February 6, 2019
» Experts warned this floating garbage collector wouldn’t work. The ocean proved them right.
By Ben Guarino, Washington Post
January 17, 2019
» Invisible Stew of Plastic Pollution Found in Fur Seal Poop
By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science
November 14, 2018
» Plastic trash from the ‘sachet economy’ chokes the Philippines’ seas
By Bong S. Sarmiento, Mongabay
October 9, 2018
» Wilson Update – Tweaking the System
Update on Ocean Cleanup’s System 001 Beta Trial in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
By Boyan Slat, Founder & CEO, Ocean Cleanup
November 20, 2018
» Why Plans to Turn America’s Rust Belt into a New Plastics Belt Are Bad News for the Climate
By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog
October 28, 2018
» Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Plastics Are Predicted to Rise
By Kendra Pierre-Louis, New York Times
October 4, 2018
» Giant Trap Is Deployed to Catch Plastic Littering the Pacific Ocean
By Christina Caron, New York Times
September 9, 2018
» Floating Trash Collector Set to Tackle Pacific Garbage Patch
The Ocean Cleanup’s nearly 2,000-foot boom will collect ocean plastics from the gigantic garbage gyre over the next year.
By Laura Parker, National Geographic
September 7, 2018
» As Industry Pushes Billion-Dollar Fracked Petrochemical Projects, State Regulators Struggle To Keep Up
By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog
July 1, 2018
» Using less plastic leads to fewer harmful chemicals in the body
By Katherine Martinko, TreeHugger.com
May 11, 2018
» Mr. Trash Wheel cleans up Baltimore Harbor with a dash of humor
By Fedor Kossakovski, PBS News Hour
April 9, 2018
» Great Pacific Garbage Patch Growing Rapidly, Study Shows
New analysis reveals the region contains as much as sixteen times more plastic than previously estimated, with pollution levels increasing exponentially.
Press Release, TheOceanCleanup.com
March 22, 2018
» Finally, the world is talking about plastic pollution
By Katherine Martinko, Tree Hugger
January 24, 2018
» The Ocean Cleanup Unveils First Prototype
Press Release, TheOceanCleanup.com
June 22, 2016
» The Ocean Cleanup Prepares For 2020 Pacific Cleanup, Successfully Completes Mega Expedition Reconnaissance Mission
Press Release, TheOceanCleanup.com
August 23, 2015