Do We Really Know the Whole Story of Plastic?

Ocean plastic pollution has been in the media for so many years now that most of us think we know the whole story, however the 2019 documentary ‘The Story of Plastic’ proves us all wrong. This award-winning documentary shows the sides of plastic pollution that media coverage often shies away from, including the motivations for why we produce so much plastic and the impacts of petrochemical factories on local communities. So if you’re looking for something to fill the increasingly dark and wintery evenings, why not spend an hour or two swotting up on plastic. If you’re struggling to find the time, here are the highlights and main messages from the programme. 

When plastic was first created, it was seen as a miracle material which held the promise of new and better things in the 1950s after the last decade of war and depression. Single use, disposable plastic items promised to free housewives from their duties as plates and cutlery could simply be thrown in the bin rather than cleaned. However, this wasn’t the main reason that plastic suddenly burst onto the market. Plastic was actually initially a waste product which companies either had to pay to dispose of or they could transform it into a new product which they could sell for profit; no prizes for guessing which option they chose! 

Fast forward to the modern day and plastic has expanded to fill every supermarket shelf and every kitchen cupboard. Unfortunately, much of the plastic produced is built to last, despite only being used once and therefore, every ecosystem on the planet is also filled with our ‘miracle material’. The first anti-littering campaign focussing on disposable packaging ran in America in the 1950s but 70 years on, we don’t seem to have achieved very much. The impact of littering and an overwhelming mountain of landfill trash is causing issues around the world. For example, in Manila in the Philippines, 40% of local fishermen’s catch is now plastic waste as opposed to fish. The well known statistic which states there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050 appears almost a reality here already. Despite shocking stories such as these being told all across the globe, our plastic production isn’t slowing, with half of all plastic ever existing being made in the last 15 years.

The articles we read online or in the media often focus on these stories of overwhelming pollution levels before then placing the blame on countries with poor waste management systems or ourselves as consumers for buying plastic items. However, what they often fail to do is paint the picture of plastic at the beginning and middle stages of its life. Here are the four main stages of the plastic life cycle shown in the documentary which we don’t so often hear about.

First off, plastic must be created which seems straightforward but here is an interesting fact; uniquely, plastics are driven by supply, not demand as most other products are. The documentary takes an interesting perspective here by stating that large fossil fuel companies are worried about their profits now that the world is turning evermore green with schemes such as energy efficient homes and electric cars. In order to maintain their profits, they must find a new use for their oil and so billion dollar investments have been plunged into new petrochemical factories which will produce millions of tonnes of plastic. These companies are so powerful and profitable that even some governments are working with them, allowing them to evade environment and health regulations in order to make the most of newly found oil deposits. Already, the issue of plastic pollution is starting to sound a lot less like the consumer’s fault.

Once oil has been extracted, petrochemical factories transform this into a variety of products, including plastic. However, the poor local communities who live near these sites are forced to endure a very low quality of life as pollutants fill the surrounding air, water and land. Incredibly in America, more chemicals are delisted from their watch list than added, meaning only 187 chemicals out of 86,000 are monitored with regard to air pollution. In these areas, people are unable to drink tap water whilst cases of respiratory diseases and cancers skyrocket. Others have their own land forcefully taken over by petrochemical companies which may, for example, run an oil pipeline across their land. These communities have no say in what happens to the area where they live and if they try and stand up for themselves, they often receive blackmail, bullying and high levels of surveillance. This part of the documentary is particularly eye-opening as the film-makers speak to people who have tried to defend the environment from oil pipelines which carry a high risk of explosions, plastic pellets which are polluting local seas and gallons of toxins which are freely flowing into estuaries every day. With new petrochemical facilities being opened every day, a process which leads to large amounts of debt, it seems certain that these companies will continue to push plastic products for years to come in order to squeeze every drop of profit from these factories.

Whilst plastic is being melted and moulded and packed into boxes, these companies are gathering in Western boardrooms wondering how they can sell all their product when supply exceeds demand. The solution; flood the market in the global south, they must want plastic, right? Many Asian countries often have a bad reputation when it comes to plastic, yet Western companies are selling millions of single use plastic items in these countries everyday whilst knowing their waste systems simply cannot cope. One of the greatest polluters in Asia is sachets. Sachets are made of thin layers of mixed materials, including aluminium foil and plastic film which makes them incredibly hard to recycle as the layers cannot be separated. Each of these sachets contain one day’s worth of shampoo, oil, spices and much more, making them affordable to many. Yet Asian countries, such as India, already had a solution to this problem as families used to take containers from home and buy their goods for the day at local markets which display their wares in large crates and sacks, eliminating the need for individual plastic sachets and packaging. The demand for plastic-wrapped products just wasn’t there until multinational companies decided they needed them.

This is not the only problem global businesses have caused Asia either. Fossil fuel companies for many years have resisted the idea of limits on plastic disposable packaging and have instead, pushed the idea of taxpayer-funded recycling schemes. Over the years, they have pushed recycling companies to accept more and more types of plastic, all of which need to be recycled separately. This has made recycling increasingly expensive whilst there is very little demand for recycled plastic which loses its quality during the process. To resolve this issue, America exported 50% of its plastic waste to China, until China finally put its foot down and refused to accept the West’s waste any longer. Now, our unwanted recycling is flooding other southeast Asian countries which are quickly building ad hoc, unsafe infrastructure to cope with the influx of trash. Much of this waste is delivered in large bundles which contain mixed, low quality materials which are incredibly difficult to recycle, even with the most modern technology. When products are recycled, the dirty, soapy and polluted water they are washed in often pours straight into rivers which are used for drinking water whilst toxic fumes are emitted when the plastics are melted down ready to be reshaped. It seems that, in most cases, recycling isn’t the golden ticket we have been hoping for and realistically, if poverty didn’t exist, the global recycling scheme would fall to pieces as there would simply be no one desperate enough to take and sort our useless waste. 

‘The Story of Plastic’ is a great watch which really helps us think differently about plastic and question what we have been told by countless news stories. We spend so much time focussing on consumers but are we at fault? We blame poor waste management systems for pollution but is the sheer level of rubbish we create even manageable? The companies right at the start of plastics’ life have evaded the blame for such a long time whilst we have been accused of using plastic shopping bags and littering water bottles. It’s time that we look at the bigger picture and make sure that these companies do not continue to profit from creating disastrous environmental and human issues. Petrochemical companies may claim that they commit $1.5 billion to environmental clean-ups but in 2019 they invested $204 billion in new plants primed to produce plastic. As the documentary powerfully states, it is time we stop supporting the bottom line of these companies and hand them the bill. We, as consumers, can turn off the tap on plastic by choosing alternative materials and products whilst supporting, often more sustainable, small scale businesses. As a global community, we also need to hold these companies accountable by demanding policy change and continuing programmes such as brand audits which expose corporate culprits. So many policies have already changed in the last few years, including bans on single use plastics, meaning we now stand on a tipping point; do we tip back on a path towards environmental destruction or do we move forward and revolutionise consumerism once more?

By Neve McCracken-Heywood