Addicted to Plastic

The documentary "Addicted to Plastic" covered a lot of the same topics as "Tapped" as far as pollution and environmental research goes, but it also looked into how companies around the world are trying to reduce plastics waste that ends up in landfills. (Photo courtesy of http://www.crypticmoth.com /plastic.php.)

Captain Charles Moore (also in "Tapped") provided the same findings as in "Tapped" but also added more on the topic.  He said that only about ½ of all plastic floats, so the garbage they are finding on the surface of the Pacific Ocean is a very small portion of what is actually in the water.  Moore also said that although some waste in the ocean is generated by the fishing industry, about 80% of it originates on land.

I know the Pacific Ocean doesn’t seem to relate to us at all in Fargo, so I’ll try to put together a different scenario.  Say someone throws a bottle out of their car when they are driving along the Red River; that bottle might end up in the River, where it will start to float to Canada.  Canada really doesn’t like us sending pollution their way so I’m assuming they will be pretty ticked about that bottle floating into Lake Winnipeg.  Now, I did a little research on good old Wikipedia and it told me that water from Lake Winnipeg eventually ends up in the Hudson Bay (part of the Arctic Ocean) by way of the Nelson River.  So, if you are still reading this, the bottle that was thrown out in Fargo could end up in an Ocean after all, and it might break up into pieces and become fish food.

Back to the movie – "Addicted to Plastic" traveled all over the world finding people who were doing research on plastic pollution.  In Holland, Dr. Jan van Franeker is doing research on birds.  Most of his research consists of dissecting dead birds that are found on beaches.  Dr. Franeker has found that 90% of the birds he dissects have plastic in their digestive systems; the average amount is 0.6 grams with the largest amount being 20 grams.  So if 90% of the birds Dr. Franeker finds and dissects have plastic in them, it seems to me like plastic has a pretty harmful effect on wildlife if they eat it.  The picture above is an example of a seabird that has ingested plastic and died as a result (http://trendland.net/2009/10/26/chris-jordan-the-message-from-gyre/).

From what I’ve been talking about so far it probably seems like this whole movie was about how bad people are for using plastic, but a lot of the movie actually looked at what some countries and companies are doing to reduce wastes.  Each of the following countries/companies were featured in the documentary.

Denmark

Denmark has a plastic bottle recycling rate of about 90%; all recycled bottles are run through state operated recycling depots where they get sorted and returned to the manufacturer (ex. Coke, Pepsi) where the bottles can be disinfected and reused up to 20 times.  Only certain types of bottles can be reused though; all other plastic that is run through the depots can be ground up and turned into new plastic items.

Texas – TieTek - http://www.tietek.com/

TieTek is a company in Houston, TX that takes waste plastic from the city and melts it into railroad ties that are sold to railroad companies all over the world.  The ties last longer than wood, meet all required specifications for rail use, are resistant to insects, and can be reused over and over because if one breaks, it can be melted down and reformed.  According to the company owner Henry Sullivan, TieTek consumes hundreds of millions of plastic bottles and bags, and uses 750,000 tires to make the ties each year.

California – Patagonia - http://www.patagonia.com/us/home

Patagonia is a pretty popular company known for making jackets and other outerwear.  I had heard of Patagonia before I watched "Addicted to Plastic" but I didn’t know their jackets are made from recycled plastic.  According to Jen Rapp, the Patagonia representative featured in the movie, each jacket is made from about 2% plastic bottles and 98% random plastic.  Also, all of their old jackets can be recycled and turned into new jackets.

These are just a few examples of countries/companies that are trying to reduce the amount of plastics that gets thrown away.  There were many other examples in the movie like a very small company in Africa that make jewelry and other novelties out of rubber flip-flops to help clean up their beaches and make a living.  Other examples mainly consist of companies that collect plastics and other garbage to make new products out of them.  Some companies have even started “mining” landfills to make money.

Tennessee – WastAway - http://www.wastaway.com/

WastAway is a company that takes all municipal waste, separates the metal and glass from the rest of the garbage, and grinds the rest up and pushes it into a high temperature steam system that renders it inert.  The final product is called “fluff”.  WastAway says that fluff is a good growing medium that can be bagged and sold to landscaping companies for profit.  Fluff can also be turned into more useful products like benches and decking boards.  Eventually, WastAway believes they will be able to mine landfills and turn the garbage into useful products.

I think it’s awesome that companies can take garbage and make useful products out of it.  I also think it is good that companies are trying to take initiative to make products out of recycled material.

"Addicted to Plastic" also showed a lot of companies that are taking steps to make plastic out of biodegradable material so it can be decomposed if it is thrown into the environment.  I will talk more about these companies in a later post about solutions to pollution problems.