Nick Sillari

R01291808

107.1

Fall 2016

Professor Denison

Plastic Pollution

In the 21st century, people across the planet have accomplished many feats including

great technology advancements and massive structures. However, there is an epidemic

happening right now that we have introduced to our plant ourselves. This epidemic is the

pollution of plastics. Plastic pollution has been a problem for the past few decades that has not

been solved but ignored. Plastic is a unique material synthesized by humans that have many

different uses and come in many different shapes and sizes. Today, people across the planet use

plastic nearly every day and we are most likely to use it only once then throw it away. This is a

problem because of the amount of plastic that is littered in our cities, suburbs and even our

oceans and rivers. Plastics are not like any other litter however, they pose major defects to our

environment and ecosystem which could then harm us before this gets too late to do anything

about it. If we do not act soon, our marine life and wildlife could suffer from death by littered

plastic in their habitats which could cause breaks in the food chain and limit the number of

sellable fish to the markets. So, we as a community and as a planet, must enact certain statutes

and encourage all people and communities to reduce, reuse, and recycle all plastics to ensure that

all marine, wildlife and our own lives, do not suffer from our carelessness and to address and

take measures on the damages we have already done.

 Plastic pollution is a huge problem in 2016 because it is a problem that is not directly in

front of our faces. If we do not act soon, we could be endangering many species and be forced to

quarantine areas where pollution is too much to handle. World leaders across the planet should

recognize the consequences that this epidemic poses. The reason that this problem is dire to our

planet is because plastic is a non-biodegradable material meaning that plastics can take nearly

1000 years to naturally degrade into its molecular parts, so every single piece of plastic is on this

earth for literally centuries. That said, many plastics are thrown away or littered across the planet

which then sit there moving with the currents and winds. According to an article written by

Science News for Students; A recent study suggests as much as 8 million metric tons (8.8

million short tons) of plastic wound up in the ocean in 2010 alone (Science News for Students,

2). With all this plastic rummaging around the ocean and shores, it is very harmful to animals

and can kill massive amounts of animals by a few means. The first, and probably the most

common, is ingestion of plastic. Animals like fish and birds will mistake plastic particles for

food because of the different colors plastic come in. After eating the plastic, their bodies cannot

digest it, leaving the animal feeling full. Animals will then not eat for days on end, until they die

of starvation and dehydration (Save our Shores, 5). Even the manufacturing process of plastic is

harmful to our atmosphere because when manufacturing plastic, fossil fuels are needed and fossil

fuels are non-renewable power sources that release harmful gases to our atmosphere. In an article

by the Ecology Center, they stated that; Plastics also put a big chemical burden on the

environment. The information available showed that most toxic releases went into the air, and

the plastics industry contributed 14% of the national total. (Ecology Center, 1). It is very

difficult to get rid of plastic without any other defects, such as the destruction by incineration

which is extremely harmful for the workers and atmosphere. Drinking from plastic bottles also
has health defects in humans as well. Digested small particles of plastic can be very bad for the

human body. This problem can literally be for every living thing on our planet, from us humans

to fish, birds, mammals in general and even our earth. According to Maggie Ostdahl, in an article

she said Some things we do know: most marine debris (60-80%) actually comes from land-

based sources (e.g. humans), and that the majority of marine debris again up to 80% in some

studies is some form of plastic (Ostdahl, 2). The pollution of plastic has an extremely harmful

to anyone since it is synthetically made by scientists where the chemicals in plastic are harmful

to merely everything. This can also be a problem for the future of our world, if we decide to

ignore this problem and wait for it to be a bigger problem. It could already and has already ended

many lives of wildlife and harmed workers and society.

So, if plastic is so bad for our planet why do we use it? Well the history of plastic dates

back to the 1940s. The first plastic water bottle was invented by scientists in the 1940s to

transport and keep water fresh using mainly polyethylene but were not commercially used in the

public until the 1960s. Companies bottled their product in plastic because of the lightweight and

low production cost rather than glass bottles. The plastic bottle became superior to glass because

of its durability and mass production. After the plastic water bottle came the plastic canteen,

where it had the same benefits as a plastic bottle but without the environmental and health

impacts. Plastic bottles took the beverage companies by storm, where before plastic, beverages

like soda and tea were bottled in glass or aluminum, but nowadays, it is rare to find a glass Coco-

cola bottle. In an article written by Sandy Bauers on The Inquirer based out of Philadelphia, she

stated that Plastic bottles have a big target on them from environmental groups because they're

made with petroleum a non-renewable resource, which gives glass an upper hand in the greener

category (Baures, The Inquirer). The battle between plastic and glass is really no match when it
comes down to the facts. Plastic is a unique material that has benefits in liquid transportation but

has major negate environmental impacts that have gotten out of hand, littering our shores and

oceans and leaving our animals on this planet to suffer.

Today, we have seen efforts of trying to ensure that plastic is recycled. Most notably the

reduce, reuse and recycle movement has encouraged people to reuse their plastic and recycle

them in order to ensure that plastics are diverted from landfills and oceans. We see blue garbage

cans in offices and schools to differentiate between garbage and plastics and sometimes even

paper. However, this has not been enough to resolve the issue. This issue can be solved by first

making sure that we dont contribute to the burden of littered plastics. I encourage most people,

if they dont already, to use a refillable plastic or aluminum bottle instead of purchasing plastic

bottles that are just going to be thrown away. Personally, I have seen littered plastic bottles in

bushes, streets, and sidewalks. Most garbage bins are mixed with both garbage and plastic

instead of them being separated in their designated bins. I notice these things nearly every day

here at the University of Scranton where I am a student and currently live. I decided to go out

and find more information on what we can do as a University to ensure that we are keeping our

town clean from plastic pollution. The first thing I noticed, was across campus there were always

2 garbage cans, one for garbage and one for recycling. For the most part, all plastics except for a

few stragglers were separated nicely. It seemed as if people do not realize the effect of not

separating their plastics before public works gets to empty the bins. Even though the plastic and

garbage will be separated eventually down the line, it is much easier to separate directly, rather

than depending on someone else to do it. I then conducted interviews across the student body and

faculty at the University of Scranton and found out some interesting information. Out of the 12

students I interviewed, ranging from freshman to junior, 9 of them said that they use a refillable
water bottle, 6 said they buy plastic water bottles in bulk and 2 only use plastic water bottles.

Also, for the students that live on campus, 10 do not separate their garbage and plastics inside

their dorm. From this information I can conclude that most people use a refillable water bottle

but also buy bottled water. After asking them as to why they did both; buy water bottles and

refill reusable bottles, most replied that they use both because they believe bottled water is

cleaner than the water from the water fountains they refill their bottle with. This interested me a

lot, so I then moved on to ask the janitors and the maintenance staff about the recycling inside

the halls. They said that students rarely separate their plastic and that they do it themselves. Also,

one member from the maintenance staff, Joe M. said that they are working on putting water

purifiers in all the water fountains in the halls to ensure that people refill their water bottles with

clean water (Joe. M). I believe that this is a solid step forward in reducing the polluted plastic

across the campus as well as the town of Scranton. Another, solid solution to this problem that I

saw in my university was that annual Street Sweep. The street sweep is an organization run buy

the students where they would go around the town picking up all trash that was littered on the

weekends. Students working together to keep their community clean is very impactful in keeping

our environment safe from pollution. Everything I mentioned here in solving this epidemic, I

believe that all schools and universities across the nation and eventually the planet, should enact

these practices from the street sweep, to encourage reuse of plastic and aluminum bottles. This is

a great problem so we must start small and work together, as a community, university, a nation,

and as a planet, we will bring light to the species we have hurt.

While we can do as much as we can in our own individual communities to ensure that

our they are clean and plastic pollution is under control, there are other drastic impacts that are

happening right that will not be fixed if left alone. If we can work together in our communities,
states, and our nation, we can work together as a planet and make this a global effort to stop

anymore of this epidemic from spreading before its too late. As we know, most plastic we litter,

eventually will end up in the ocean where it goes to follow the currents. For decades, plastic has

been bleeding out from our shores and into the ocean, where it runs with the oceans current,

collecting in massive groups and washing up on shores in many countries. This is a global effort

to clean up what we have ignored, and waited to become a problem. According to Save the

Shore, a non-profit organization out of Santa Cruz, California, said The North Pacific Gyre, an

area of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Japan, is an accumulation zone (gyre means

convergence of currents) for plastic pollution said to be at least twice the size of Texas (Save

the Shore, 5). The accumulation of littered plastic following the gyre that they have mentioned, is

hard to believe but is still being added to as we speak. The Save the Shore organization

understands what needs to be done and has contributed to helping the world and saving the

ecosystem and environment. As this moat of plastic is floating around, we are doing the opposite

of helping the cause, as we are adding to it every day. We must bring this to the attention to

world leaders across the planet where they have the power to speak out about this topic. In

todays world information and movements can be done in days, we have the ability to speak to

other countries and come together to clean up this mess. In this example, if we bring this to the

attention of the right people, we can talk to Japan and work together and go out and clean up all

of the polluted plastic that has been gathering for decades. There are already many ocean and

shore clean up movements across the world, and working together for a huge clean-up will be

very impactful instead of waiting around for it to get worse. This will give people a job

opportunity, and a for a good cause. In order for these things to happen we have to work together
and bring this topic all the way to the top, where the people with power, can make these ideas to

come into effect.

The 21st century has had many great advances, and we understand and learn more things

every day. We have lived on this planet for centuries and we cannot let something that we have

created, destroy our fellow mammals and our own. Plastic pollution is not like normal trash that

we throw away when we are done with its use and wait for it to go away. Plastic does not go

away. Plastic will be on this planet forever, and if we dont control its litter, our future

generations will have a lot to deal with. So, we as a community and as a planet, must enact

certain statutes and encourage all people and communities to reduce, reuse, and recycle all

plastics to ensure that all marine, wildlife and our own lives, do not suffer from our carelessness

and to address and take measures on the damages we have already done. I have noticed it myself

around my community and I can see what communities can do to prevent and control this

epidemic. I encourage all people from all communities to reuse their plastic and know before

they throw their plastic in the wrong bin, or litter it on the streets. We have the ability to control

and prevent any more plastic from killing our animals and fish, and clean our oceans. Starting

small from inside our universities we can teach people what the impacts littering plastic can do.

In todays day in age, we can make a difference, we can speak out to get the attention to world

leaders and connect with others across the planet to stop and clean up the mess we made.

Knowing is half the battle and we know what we must do, acting is the next step in solving this

epidemic, and prevention is key. So lets get the attention of the world leaders in this world to

enact statues in controlling plastic pollution and come together to protect and clean up our planet

as it is our home for everyone in the present and the future.

Bibliography
Works Cited

ABC TV Catalyst Catalyst ABC TV - Plastic Oceans Catalyst TV, Abc.net, Sept. 9th 2012.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTDvqaqPlM

Bauers, Sandy Which is Greener: Glass Bottles, Plastic Bottles, or Aluminum Cans?

Philly.com, The Inquirer, Jul. 23, 2012.

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/sandy_bauers/20120723_Which_is_greener__G

lass_bottles__plastic_bottles__or_aluminum_cans_.html

Clean Water Action The Problem of Marine Plastic Pollution Clean Water Action, Clean

Water Action 2016. http://www.cleanwater.org/problem-marine-plastic-pollution

Engler, Sarah 10 Ways to Reduce Plastic Pollution NRDC, Natural Resources Defense Council

2016, Jan. 05, 2016

Ecology Center PTF: Environmental Impacts Ecology Center, The Ecology Center, 2015.

http://ecologycenter.org/plastics/ptf/report3/

Garnatz, Judy Biodegradable Plastic May Not be the Answer St. Petersburg Times, CITY

Edition, St. Petersburg Times, Mar. 25, 1990. St. Petersburg, Fla.

Luckovich, Mike Plastic Trash Choking Sea. Bottlenose Dolphin!! Mike Luckovivhs Editorial

Cartoons. Feb. 17th 2015.

http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/properties/luckovich/art_images/cg54e40d8f6525f.jpg

M2 Presswire. Global Plastic Production Rises, Recycling Lags; New Worldwatch Institute

Analysis Explores Trends in Global Plastic Production and Recycling M2

Communications Jan. 29th 2015. http://www.worldwatch.org/global-plastic-production-

rises-recycling-lags-0
Ostdahl, Maggie. Sustainable Initiatives Manager. Plastic Pollution and its Solution Sailors for

the Sea, Sailors for the Sea. Sept. 2013. http://sailorsforthesea.org/programs/ocean-

watch/plastic-pollution-and-its-solution

Save our Shores. The Save Our Shores Plastic Pollution Initiative Save our Shores, Save our

Shores, 2014. http://saveourshores.org/what-we-do/pollution-prevention/

Science News for Students Tiny Plastic, Big Problem Society for Science & the Public,

Science News for Students, April 10, 2015.

http://search.proquest.com/central/docview/1672359979/5B19CE154DD64C73PQ/8?acc

ountid=28588

Sillari, Nicholas. Interviews: University of Scranton: Nov. 2016

Bahara, Christian. Hardesty, Eli. Modica, Ryan. Rogan, Conor. Seldomridge, Ryan.

Jenkins, Dr. Long, Emma. M, Joe.