Excerpts from the diary of a teacher on the brink of a climate crisis. Week 11: Plastic

For a supposedly ‘intelligent’ species, we seem really capable of making a huge mess. But even as a self-proclaimed environmentalist, I’m a little baffled by the fuss made every year on April 22 for Earth Day, which marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

Fifty-five Earth days later, our planet is becoming more polluted every day.

Little Johnny

Still, my Eco Committee wanted to celebrate the occasion. Their energy and enthusiasm know no bounds.

They asked all classes to take part in the Big Plastic Count and suggested that their classmates bring plastic items from home to show how difficult it can be to recycle. We had big piles of yoghurt pots, crisp packets, milk cartons and biscuit wrappers.

A few items had to be removed because they were biohazards, including (possibly) used rubber underpants. Officially, condoms are usually made from rubber tapped from the bark of trees rather than polymer plastic, but I didn’t want to waste time splitting hairs before having to help Mrs. D remove the item from the RE room. Fortunately, we did not find out which student brought it to school. I’m not sure I could have run into their parents at the next parents’ evening.

Named and shamed

Last week, a study published in Science Advances found that 60 companies are responsible for half of the world’s plastic pollution. The survey confirmed that Philip Morris International, Danone, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are the worst offenders. The international team of volunteers collected and examined more than nearly 2 million pieces of plastic waste in 84 countries over five years: most of the waste collected was single-use packaging for food, beverages and tobacco products.

While all these companies are making a lot of effort to talk about their sustainability initiatives for the future, it is the plastic manufacturers that we really need to hold accountable. The British government is apparently giving billionaire Jim Ratcliffe a £600 million guarantee to build the largest petrochemical plant in Europe in 30 years that will boost plastic production. Instead of easing production, more than 350 million tons of plastic waste are produced annually, and by 2060, plastic waste is expected to increase to 1 billion tons.

Recycling initiatives cannot cope with the amount of plastic that is already being produced and recycling is not the solution. We need to start by refusing all plastic. Every year, between 1 and 2 million tons of plastic ends up in the oceans, where it is broken down into smaller fragments that enter the food chain. My Y8s were shocked by pictures of dead fish and whales with plastic-filled stomachs when we studied the impact of humans on ecosystems, but there’s no point in covering up the truth. Plastic may be an incredibly useful material, but its properties, including its resistance to biodegradation, make it a serious risk to the environment, especially since plastic is expected to account for 5 to 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Microplastic chaos

When you ask children how they can save the planet, they often say, “Pick up litter.” That’s understandable, because it’s something tangible that they can do themselves. Perhaps it might be better to go after ‘polluting companies’.

We could start by removing all plastic packaging from stores and leaving the waste there to see if this helps promote action. Encouraging activism among young people may raise eyebrows, but I really care about their well-being. Microplastics, small plastic particles with a diameter of less than 5 mm, have been found in various parts of the human body.

We ingest microplastics through food and water and they are present in the air we breathe. They have been found in lung tissue and human blood and their impact on health is still relatively unknown, but recent research suggests they may lead to colon cancer.

The fact that microplastics can travel throughout the body and potentially lodge in organs should raise serious concerns and prompt action… oh, but what would the oil industry do if we buy electric cars and mass plastic production Reduce? To be honest, I don’t really care.

Plastic-free

Hubster and I tried to do a plastic-free July a few years ago. It was incredibly difficult, impossible even, to dump all the plastic.

Quick wins included stopping using cling film – we haven’t bought any since and stopping buying clothes made from man-made fibers (except for socks and trousers which tend to fall without fantastic elastic).

Much more difficult were packaged foods like chips or the occasional packet of cookies for kids or guests when I don’t have time to bake at home.

We tried making our own chips, but then we had a problem with a slightly greasy product and a lot of waste oil. No chips is probably the answer, but even the idea makes Hubster miserably grumpy – even with a dash of cinnamon, homemade dried apple chips don’t quite cut the mustard.

We may never be plastic free, but I will continue to do my damn best to reduce it significantly!

Note to self: Maybe for Earth Day next year we should collect a lot of plastic that we collect over the course of a month and invite local politicians and businesses to come share their ideas about what we can do to prevent production from skyrocketing . They probably won’t have any good ideas, but I’m really at the end of my tether (as elastic as it seems).

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