Plastics are Polluting the Planet

Garbage In OceanWhen you are marketing and running your business it is crucial that you diligently avoid the use of all plastics. Of course you are thinking, “Wow, that is impossible because plastic is in everything we do.” That is precisely why it is so important that you avoid it. Plastic is everywhere and it is causing irreversible damage to the earth and your health. If you avoid plastics you will save money, reduce the amount of waste you have to recycle or throw away, you will be much healthier, and you will protect the planet for your children’s future. Photo Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography

There has been much news lately about the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) used in plastic drinking bottles. I wrote a previous article "Plastic Is Poisoning Your Customers," about the health effects of plastic food containers leaching chemicals into our food and drink. However, in this article I want to spend more time on how plastic is ruining our environment and ultimately our health and our future.

Plastics Contaminate the Entire Planet

Even if we never use plastic food containers, chances are we are getting those same chemicals in our bodies simply from the food we eat. This is because the damage done by plastic is so widespread that it has contaminated the entire world and has entered into our food supply. Animals are eating it and it is in our soil. The proof is in our oceans and on our beaches. There are literally islands of plastic the size of the continental U.S. floating in our oceans and beaches full of plastic debris. 

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Plastic gets washed into the oceans because of litter, poor landfills, floods, ships, and garbage purposefully being dumped into the ocean. Once in the ocean garbage floats around, gets carried by the natural currents of the ocean, and eventually ends up collecting in large vortexes in the oceans and can’t escape. One of the most well-known and first discovered continents of plastic is in the Pacific between Hawaii and Japan know as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Graphic of garbage patch.

Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or “trash vortex” that has existed since the 1950s, believes (in 2006) about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region.

Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the U.S.-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation founded by Charles Moore, says, “It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size of the continental United States.”

Because the sea of garbage is translucent and lies just below the water’s surface, it is not detectable in satellite photographs. “You only see it from the bows of ships,” he says. It is about 30 meters deep and is not solid on the top.

Plastic is believed to constitute 90 percent of all garbage floating in the oceans. The UN Environment Program estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.

Plastics Destroy Ecosystems and Food Chain

This plastic is greatly affecting our ecosystem. According to the UN Environment Program, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals due to plastic poisoning and starvation. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.

 Dutch scientists have found that more than nine out of 10 European fulmars – seabirds that eat only at sea – die with plastic rubbish in their stomachs. A study of 560 fulmars from eight countries revealed they had ingested an average of 44 plastic items. The stomach of one fulmar that died in Belgium contained 1,603 separate scraps of plastic.

 It is worse than simply ingesting the poison in the plastic itself. Plastic acts as a chemical sponge attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. They then enter the food chain. “What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It’s that simple,” says Dr. Eriksen.

Jelly Fish with Plastic Inside

Jellyfish Credit: National Park Service

 The Damage is Already Done

The scary part is that even if we totally stopped using it now, the plastics in the ocean would still be there for thousands of years. This is because plastic does not degrade. It simply breaks into smaller and smaller pieces. Every single piece of plastic that has ever been made still exists. If we stopped using it now, thousands of pieces of plastic would still sink to the bottom of the ocean and disrupt the fragile ecosystems there. We should all know by now that the world is dependent on the ocean ecosystem for life. If the oceans die, we all die. This is why it is so important that we stop contributing to the problem and stop making it worse.

These are the Facts About Plastic:

1. Plastic food containers leach plastic into our food and drink.


2. Plastic food containers are designed to only last so long and then it must be replaced.


3. Plastic never degrades. It only breaks down into smaller pieces in the sun. Every single piece of plastic that was ever made is still out there.


4. Plastic can only be recycled a finite amount of times. Each time it is recycled it can only be used for more and more limited uses.


5. About 120 billion pounds of plastic were produced in the U.S. in 2006; that is more than 200 lbs. used by each person and only about 3-5 percent was recycled.


6. Plastic attracts very large quantities of poisons onto its surface and they are then ingested from microbes all the way up to us.

 This is why it is so important to stop using plastic in your business and personal life. There are so many alternatives now that there really is no need to use plastics for many of the things you do, especially your marketing.

What You Can Do 

1. Provide canvas bags for your shopping customers with your brand on them.


2. Do not use plastic envelope windows, envelopes, packaging, or promotional items in your direct mail marketing campaigns.


3. Do not use plastic promotional or retail items.


4. Use glass and other recyclable materials when possible. You can use ceramic, stainless steel, and Pyrex food containers or dishware instead of Tupperware and throw-away dinner plates. You will save a lot of money in the process. Think of all those disposable plates and plastic forks you buy and then throw away.


5.  Limit the amount of things you buy and sell that are encased in plastic. Reducing your own packaging material will also reduce your costs.


6.  Recycle plastic as much as you can.


7.  If you must use disposable food containers, clear envelopes, etc. then use FSC paper or plant-based, biodegradable plastic.

 By starting here you can ultimately make a difference and save money, your business, your health, your customers’ health, and the environment in the process.