Today, I’m continuing to talk about plastic and the many ways it’s harming our health and the environment. I’ll also suggest ways to use less of it — particularly single-use plastics. All aspects of plastic can cause harm — its manufacture, use, and disposal. For information about plastic production, go to the February 2026 podcast. This week I’ll concentrate on how just using plastic can harm the environment and our health. As I’ve said, the overarching problem with plastic is its success. It’s used everywhere in almost everything; it’s cheap to manufacture, and we make a lot of it. And it hangs around, virtually forever. So, we have a material that is made to last forever that we often only use for a few minutes.
Here are some plastic usage facts:
- More than 1 million plastic bags are used every minute, with an average "working life" of only 15 minutes
- 34% of plastic is used for packaging, which is usually discarded after a single use
- Approximately 1.3 billion plastic bottles are used every single day worldwide. This equates to nearly 1 million plastic bottles per minute.
- The global population burns through an estimated 250 to 500 billion plastic cups every year.
- In the United States alone, an estimated 500 million single-use plastic straws are used every single day for an average of 10 minutes and nearly 7.5 million plastic straws were found on U.S. shorelines during a five-year cleanup research project. I was involved with this research on a section of Pensacola Beach.
Most of the impacts of plastic use are due to use of plastic bottles, straws, food containers and lining material as well as medical equipment, water lines, and the use and laundering of synthetic fibers. This can lead to exposure through diet, skin, and breathing harmful chemicals and microplastics.
The use of plastic products can expose people to toxic chemicals, including phthalates, which are linked to brain development problems in children, BPA, vinyl chloride and heavy metals which are linked to a variety of health impacts,
Unfortunately, a lot of medical equipment contains phthalates, vinyl chloride, and other toxic materials, which can leach out.
Dietary exposure is the main way that one class of plastic chemicals, the Bisphenols, enters the human body. The BP migration process is both physical and chemical. And exposure comes from packaging, disposable cups, and plastic-lined cans.
According to scientific studies, the critical factors in BPA release are, first and foremost, temperature, then the manufacturing process, food and packaging type, pH, mineral elements, repeated use, irradiation, washing, contact time, and using detergents.
First, temperature. Think about the cup you get your coffee in or the container you get takeout food in or use for leftovers. To most of us, that cup feels harmless — just a convenient tool for caffeine delivery. However, if that cup is made of plastic or has a thin plastic lining, there is a good chance it’s leaching plastic chemicals or shedding thousands of tiny plastic fragments directly into your drink. Studies have shown that BPA migration and shedding of microplastics increase with increasing temperature. The studies found, however, that how long the drink sits in the cup was not as important as the temperature of the liquid when it first hits the plastic.
Next, pH. The higher the pH of the contents, the more BPA was released from the packaging.
Minerals, such as hard water, can increase packaging degradation and BPA release.
Repeated use or aging causes erosion of the plastic surface and increased BPA migration, as does UV light. That’s why your vinyl car seats crack over time as the plasticizer leaches out and into the air and dust around you, and why indoor dust contains toxic chemicals. Storage of plastic bottles in sunlight increased the migration.
In a study done using polycarbonate baby bottles, washing the bottles by hand or in the dishwasher increased BPA availability.
The types of plastic also made a difference in the migration and uptake of plastic components. When polyethylene cups were compared to plastic-lined paper cups, the plastic cups shed more microplastics. The rougher texture of solid plastic cups makes it easier for particles to break away. Heat accelerates this process by softening the plastic and causing it to expand and contract, creating more surface irregularities that eventually fragment into our drink.
Individual plastic-wrapped cheese slices are generally wrapped in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Both of which contain carcinogens and endocrine disruptors that have been observed to migrate mainly due to the high fat content of the cheese.
Currently, synthetic fibers constitute almost two-thirds of all textile fibers produced globally and are used in clothing, upholstery, and household goods. Processes used to convert raw polymers to finished fiber-based products, such as dyeing, impregnating, coating, and plasticizing, involve multiple hazardous chemicals, which we can be exposed to through our skin.
However, washing these materials creates other problems. Every load of laundry releases millions of tiny fibers into sewage systems and subsequently into waterways, soil, and the atmosphere, where they can be breathed and ingested.
And a study has found that polyester microfibers present in soil can delay development and reduce success rates for some plants.
Plastics are also used for building materials, such as furniture and flooring. A study of plastic flooring found a variety of chemicals present. Phthalates, for example, are not bound to the polymer matrix and are therefore leachable. Phthalates vaporize from linoleum flooring into the air and have been detected in suspended air particles and sedimented dust in homes as well as in water after cleaning plastic floors.
Toxic chemical additives are found in a wide range of plastic-based medical supplies, and they are an important source of human exposure to phthalates, BPA, and PFAS. Both phthalates and BPA have been detected in NICU patients, and phthalates are associated with increased risk for poorer outcomes in newborns.
Solutions:
Carry a cloth bag and say no to single-use plastic bags
- We all have dozens of reusable bags in our houses, hang a few on your front door knob, and take and keep them in your car
- Then don’t forget to take them into the stores with you
Use plastic-free containers
- Store your flour or leftovers in glass or stainless steel containers
- Carry a stainless steel or glass water bottle with you
- Carry a reusable coffee cup
Create a travel kit
- Keep a bag in your car with reusable cutlery, water bottle, straw, and to-go containers for restaurant leftovers
Buy in bulk
- If your store has a bulk section, bring your own reusable containers
- If not, buy the largest size you’ll use up without creating food waste; you’ll get less packaging per food amount
Buy used
- I know there will be some plastic items that you’ll be buying — at least it won’t be new plastic and there won’t be the packaging
Recycle good plastics
- I’ll discuss the positives and negatives of recycling more when I discuss waste and disposal, but recycling plastics saves energy over using virgin plastic, reduces landfill waste, and lowers greenhouse gas emissions
Wear natural fiber clothes
- Try to wear cotton, wool, hemp, or silk
Make your own
There are lots of recipes online for soaps, laundry detergents, food kits, and beauty products, I’ll list a few on the web page. But not only can you use safer packaging, but you can also use safer ingredients.
Do without
- If plastic is the only alternative, think if you really need to buy it.
If there’s a topic you’ve heard on the EcoMinute that you’d like me to examine in more detail, or an environmental issue that you’d like to learn more about, email me at EcoMinute@wuwf.org, for more information and the references for this podcast, go to WUWF.org/Eco
