I watched the documentary "Plastic Planet" which challenges the trustworthiness of plastics and reveals the truth behind this globally-used packaging material. The beginning of the film focuses on plastic's extreme popularity and the naiveness of people to what makes plastics better than other products and materials. The main character of this documentary, Boot, inspired by his grandfather who worked for the plastics industry, travels the world to learn about how plastic is made, used in the environment, food chain, and ultimately our bodies. According to Boot, 4% of the world's oil supply is used to create the plastics we use, yet the thousands of chemicals to create plastic are guarded as trade and the effects they have on organisms are largely unstudied and unknown. By paying chemists and independent labs to look for certain chemicals coming out of plastic bottles, he discovered something quite noteworthy. Environmentalists, scientists, etc. say that plastic is not the inert, stable material we think it is; plastic breaks down especially when scratched, old or cheaply made. This causes plastics to leach and out very dangerous chemicals, the main one being Bisphenol A (BPA). Why is this bad? Because BPA mimics hormone estrogen - it can cause obesity, cancer, early puberty in girls, and sperm malfunction. Because BPA acts like hormones, you don't need much for them to have major effects. There are horrible amounts of BPA in the blood and urine in people everywhere, but 92.6% of Americans.
These findings definitely don't support the plastics industry, and because plastic is an extremely vital part of the packaging industry, it's the last thing a future packaging professional wants to hear. However, this documentary definitely changed my view on plastic. It's crazy how much humans have plastic in their lives, odds are as you are reading this, you're touching at least three pieces of plastic....at least one of the three being inside of you. However, this just proves that plastic can not be
fully removed from our lives. This changed my view on plastic because it opened my eyes to the harmfulness of this material and inspired me to be smart about my use of plastic. Until a better, more safe material can be used to replace plastic packaging of food and drinks, I will attempt to limit my intake of food and drink linked to Bisphenol A. I can do this by looking for bottles that say "BPA free", avoiding scratched plastic bottles, plastic containers that have been heated up, and plastics that have been washed in a dishwasher. This will decrease my chances of consuming BPA and harming my body, all of you should do the same.
First Stone Age, then The Ice Age, so what's next..... The Plastic Age?
Sources Cited
Plastic Planet. Dir. Werner Boote. Perf. Werner Boote. 2010. Documentary.
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