Action needed to avoid a crisis of plastic

Plastic, the '50s miracle is now almost everywhere and almost always forever, forever in our air we breathe and the water we drink. One study showed micro plastics in 93% of bottled water, and the Journal of Science details micro plastic dust carried by wind to the Arctic.

Too good to be true? Use it and throw it away, an estimated one trillion plastic bags, and bottles, an unending list of single use plastic.

But there is no away - not in the Arctic or even in the remote Midway Islands as shown on 60 Minutes. Worldwide, the average person disposes of 110 pounds per year. Eight million tons enter oceans each year, five trillion pieces of micro plastic.

Wide swathes in the ocean threaten sea life, clogging their airways, choking them, filling their stomachs with debris that kills both them and the larger life feeding on them. We at the top of the food chain cannot escape. The average human ingests 70,000 micro plastics daily.

Once, China took much of our recycled waste. We could recycle all those single use items and not worry. Not anymore. Now less than 10% of the plastic ends up recycled. Most of the rest, that which does not end up in the ocean, ends up in landfills, leaching out, poisoning the soil and nearby waterways and water tables.

True, plastic production provides jobs, like the new Pennsylvania plant and those intended to open in the Gulf area. Yet the fracked gas used to produce the plastic emits toxic elements ingested by those living nearby. Don't we need less, not more plastic?

The plastic miracle has become unsustainable. Check out Sierra Club and "plastic" for personal choices you can make. Fund environmental groups, and influence companies and governments to curb wasteful plastic use. Solutions exist but action is needed to avoid catastrophic consequences.

Susan Spengler

Palatine