Note the first word “reduce, reuse, recycle”
Veronique Greenwood’s Dec. 4 Ideas article, “Does plastic recycling have a future?” should pose a different question.
Even if you had a magic wand and could turn plastic into fairy dust, the fact remains that plastic is made from fossil fuels.More than 99% of plastic is fossil, according to the International Center for Environmental Law. Made from fuel-derived chemicals. I think we can all agree that we need to move away from fossil fuels.
The world produces more than 400 million tonnes of plastic each year. For reference, it’s less than all humans set foot in (just over 300 million tons). And according to the Plastic Soup Foundation, plastic production is increasing rapidly. Since 2000, he has put more than half of the total amount of plastic produced on the market. Production is expected to quadruple by 2050.
Reduce, reuse, recycle. These waste solutions are listed in this order for a reason. In a world where the mass of all our things exceeds the weight of all life on earth, the question we must ask is how we can reduce our use of plastic.
Janet Domenitz
executive director
Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group
Boston
How long will we continue to poison ourselves?
As Veronique Greenwood points out, plastics are “made of fossil fuels treated with softeners and other substances.”
In other words, they are completely synthetic.
Of the over 350,000 man-made chemicals and chemical mixtures that have been approved for commercial use, only a handful have been independently studied for safety.
In a study published in February, Danish scientists poured regular tap water into a typical sports water bottle and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours. Over 400 chemicals were released into the water, many of them toxic. After going through the dishwasher, the bottle he leached over 3,500 chemicals. Some of them may have formed as a result of the dishwashing process, including the insect repellent DEET.
On the other hand, no chemicals migrated to water in glass bottles as a control.
We have polluted ourselves and the entire planet through our use of plastic. Rather than identifying new chemicals to recycle more effectively, we should focus our energies on weaning ourselves from this toxic material.
Rebecca Kreshkov
Callicoon, New York
