It is interesting how an everyday item can be so detrimental to the environment. Plastic pollu¬tion, the accumulation of plastic in the environ¬ment, continues to put ecosystems at risk. For example, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a gyre of mainly plastic that swirls continuously in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. The rate of recycling of plastic continues to be lower than desired and this build up of plastic is not only harming wildlife, but also humans.
As Californians, one of the things we pride ourselves in is our oceans, of which takes the majority of the consequences of plastic pollu¬tion. According to the Environmental Protec¬tion Agency, only about 30 percent of waste is recycled when 75 percent is recyclable. Plastic has unique characteristics that contribute to the amount of damage it does on the environment. It is composed of both organic and inorganic polymers, which are chains of carbon atoms that may include atoms of other elements such as nitrogen or sulfur. The covalent bonds within these polymers create a very durable substance. These polymers have a very high chemical re¬sistance while providing flexibility. Plastic cannot be broken down past the size of small particles and these particles remain in the environment and are congested by wildlife, working its way up to humans. With the fields of chemistry and engineer¬ing bloom¬ing with new advancements, new structural alternatives to plastic must be developed. Not only must alter¬natives maintain the strength of current poly¬mers used in plastic, but also be less toxic to the environment. As BPA bans are starting to be implemented, there has been research into BPA free alterna¬tives such as polypropylene and estrogen based plastics. However, it is also important that these alternatives do not in turn create new problems as well. Financially, alternatives must be low enough in cost so that businesses will be will¬ing to make a switch in the composition of their products. Asking for people to reduce, reuse and recycle their plastic is a concurrent solution that nearly every facility is implementing. However, these solutions are very limited as they depend on the willingness of people to use these methods of reducing plastic pollution. Continuing and supporting chemists and engineers in the search for an alternative are critical in finally obtaining a legitimate solution to plastic pollution.