The question about whether plastic is always bad or not is starting to be asked around the world. Many areas of the world are banning plastic in many forms, especially single-use plastic, plastic bags, straws, and plastic that tends to go straight to landfills almost immediately after use. But are there times that plastic is okay? Or is plastic always bad?
Recycling Doesn’t Help (Much)
One problem is that many people think that all plastic can be recycled. Sadly, most of the plastic you put in the recycle bin cannot be recycled. In fact, less than 10 percent of plastic gets recycled. Therefore, most of it is winding up in landfills, even when you dutifully put your plastic in the bins.
The Main Problem Is Single-Use Plastic
Any type of plastic that is considered a single-use plastic is usually of low quality and not even made well enough to use in recycling. That includes a lot of the plastic bottles that you drink water and soda from. When plastic is recycled, it becomes lower quality and cannot be used for much since it’s considered contaminated.
Another Problem Is Colored Plastic
You know the bottles your detergent comes in? Yeah. Those. They cannot be recycled. If you’ve been putting them in your bin, you likely don’t realize that they’re being bundled up and put right into the landfill because they are not reusable at all. The only way you can really reuse them is to keep them and repurpose them. Try buying white or clear containers instead to be assured they have more of a chance of being recycled.
Biodegradable Plastic Is Not Okay
Many single-use plastics like forks are labeled as biodegradable. This makes you think that you can put them in the compost pile, but you can’t. No single-use plastic is either recyclable or compostable. They’re supposed to break down fast but only in a specialized high heat center made for helping these things decompose. It won’t happen in your back-yard compost pile.
Learn Your Plastics
There are several types of plastic to learn about, and yes, most of them are not suitable for the environment. But some are worse than others, such as anything with PVC or BPA.
The best thing you can do is to stop using plastic for single-use needs. Instead, find alternatives such as reusable glass and metal containers, which are much easier to recycle when you’re done with them. Only buy plastic that you plan to keep forever and make sure you only buy it from used sources when you can.
