Plastic and More Plastic

I noticed litter strewn across many interstate highways on a recent road trip. Since the Pandemic, it seems trash alongside roadways has increased. Are there more drivers who just throw their garbage out the window? On one particular thoroughfare, I recorded the items I could see through my car window: plastic bottles, fast food wrappers, plastic bags, cardboard boxes, aluminum cans, pieces of Styrofoam, plastic cups, plastic fragments, a desk, a mattress, wood products, beer and liquor bottles, construction debris, and blown out tires from semis. The most common items were plastic in all shapes and forms. Plastic and more plastic everywhere.

Plastics are primarily made from natural gas and petroleum, which are processed into hydrocarbons for the building blocks of polymers (big synthetic molecules that are shaped like long strings to make things such as garbage bags). Plastics take a long time to break down. Anywhere from 20 to 500 years, depending on the type of plastic. A plastic bag will take 10 – 20 years. A plastic bottle will take 450 years. Plastic doesn’t decompose in the same way that organic material does. It breaks down into smaller pieces, called photodegradation, and doesn’t disappear completely, but rather deteriorates into tiny particles called microplastics. Microplastics, a growing health and environmental concern, are everywhere, including the human body. A recent study found that human brains now contain about 4,800 micrograms of microplastic per gram of tissue (equivalent to the amount found in a plastic spoon). New studies are showing that people diagnosed with dementia have 3 to 10 times that amount, and research has linked Parkinson’s Disease with microplastics. Specifically, nano plastics that interact with brain protein, the clumping of alpha-synuclein (a hallmark of the disease). Even advanced water treatment plants have not been able to remove these tiny particles from our drinking water.

Ocean plastic, mostly from discarded plastic trash and the fishing industry, has accumulated in five gyres (or circular current systems) worldwide. One is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between California and Hawaii, with an accrued mass of 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and about the size of Texas. The other four are in the Indian, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, and the South Pacific. If it takes a plastic bottle 450 years to decompose, how long will it take for one of those gyres to disappear, or will it keep growing?

It makes me sad in the same way that observing all the litter on the roadways does. It reminds me that there is no “away.” Everything ends up in the streets, landfills, and the ocean, possibly sticking around for many generations. The vision of our world ending up like that 2008 movie WALL-E makes me even sadder.

I know it’s not much, but I will try to do my part. I will not forget to fill my water bottle and not buy water in a plastic bottle. I will bring my reusable cloth grocery bags. I will put my sandwich in my stasher food bag. I will purchase biodegradable garbage bags when I can. Perhaps if each of us does one small thing, it might make a difference because, as far as I can tell, plastics are not going anywhere anytime soon.

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” Dalai Lama

Enjoy the Passage of Time.

Sharon

© 2025. Sharon Kreider. All Rights Reserved.

One thought on “Plastic and More Plastic

  1. Sharon, this is very thought-provoking!! It is so easy to grab a plastic bag, use it for a bit, and then just pitch it. Your blog reminds me how important it is to think before you toss!
    Thanks!
    Hugs,
    Karen

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