Saturday, May 30, 2020

LeDomduVin: Plastic is Fantastic !!!

Plastic is Fantastic !!! by ©LeDomduVin 2020

Plastic is Fantastic !!!

I don't get it. I really don't. More than 20 years that scientists are telling us to reduce the production and consumption of plastic and derived products, and instead we can see even more plastic everywhere invading all corners of our daily life. What's up with that?

A brief history of plastic

"Rubber" consists of natural polymers of the organic compound isoprene, harvested/collected in the form of the "latex", the white milky sap (or colloid) extracted from the rubber tree, which is then refined into rubber (via a chemical process called "vulcanization"), to be used for different purposes.

Understandably, prior to the vulcanization process was invented in the 19th century, natural rubber only existed under its primal form known as "latex".

Surprisingly enough, although latex has always existed, being present in rubber trees growing in various places around the globe (such as some countries of Africa, Asia and the Americas), and thus, could have been discovered and put to use long before, the first traces of its use only go back to 1600 BC, with the Mesoamericans (pre-Columbian societies of Central America) who, apparently, used natural rubber (latex) for balls, bands, and figurines. (*)

After that, natural rubber and its uses remained pretty much the same, with no major breakthrough until the end of the 18th century.

In fact, the evolution of "natural rubber" (latex) into "rubber", then later into "plastic" really started in the 19th century, with the process of vulcanisation and a few other primordial discoveries, like:

1844 - Patents of the vulcanisation of rubber deposited by Thomas Hancock (in the UK) first, then Charles Goodyear (in the US)
1872 - PVC was accidentally invented
1889 - Eastman Kodak successfully patented the celluloid film
and a few more...

At the dawn of the 20th century, the first "synthetic plastic" was invented by Leo Hendrik Baekeland, a Belgian-born American living in New York state. It was based on a synthetic polymer made from phenol and formaldehyde, with the first viable and cheap synthesis methods that Baekeland created in 1907. (**)

In the 40 years that followed its creation, synthetic plastic triggered the interests of both scientists and industrials alike. It was then further studied, developed, enhanced, yet was mainly produced and mostly used for various household and industrial products, at first.

Also, probably due to the timing of its creation and development between the two World Wars, plastic remained a kind of novelty up to the mid-1940s.

The Golden Age of plastic came after WWII. Like for most petrochemicals derived products, the 2nd half of the 20th century marked the beginning of exponential growth and production, obviously accelerated at the time by the needs and demands of the Baby Boomers (my parent's generation, born between 1946 and 1964).

To resume and list some of the major advances made in terms of plastic evolution during the 20th century (*):

1941 - Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is discovered in Britain and expanded polystyrene is first produced
1950 - DuPont begins the manufacture of polyester.
1951 - Polymerized propylene for the first time to produce polypropylene
1953 - Polycarbonate independently developed
1954 - Polypropylene was discovered by Giulio Natta with production starting in 1957
1954 - Expanded polystyrene, used for building insulation, packaging, and cup was invented by Dow Chemical.
1957 - Italian firm Montecatini begin large-scale commercial production of isotactic polypropylene.

Which brings us to an interesting and historical point in time, important for this Wine Blog and more particularly for this specific post about plastic:

1960s - High-density polyethylene (or polythene) bottles are introduced to the market and soon replace glass bottles in most applications (soap, shampoo, detergent, chemicals, etc...).

This historical point in time was the moment that started the chain reaction, which led to the ever-growing production of plastic that we have been experiencing and living ever since (until today).

Plastic, plastic and more plastic... (sigh).

For those of you who may not know, polyethylene (or polythene) is basically the most popular plastic in the world. It is the polymer used to make pretty much everything we use in our daily life, from packaging and grocery bags to most bottles (soap, shampoo, sodas, wine, etc..), as well as children's toys, and even bulletproof vests. It is a very versatile material with a very simple structure, which represents the simplest of all commercial polymers.

As of 2017, over 100 million tonnes of polyethylene resins are being produced annually, accounting for 34% of the total plastics market in the world. (***)

So, to close this brief history of plastic, in the mid-60s, after polyethylene bottles were introduced to the market, industrials rapidly understood the benefits of synthetic plastic: low cost, easy to produce and manufacture, versatile, stretchable, moldable, fairly resistant and impervious to water.

Consequently, plastics started to be heavily produced and used, as a part or as a whole, in a multitude of products and tools of different shapes, forms and scale, ranging from simple paper clips to parts of houses and other buildings and even vehicles like car, train, plane and even spacecraft.

In less than a few decades after they were first invented, plastics of all kinds have prevailed over traditional materials, such as wood, stone, horn and bone, leather, metal, glass, and ceramic, in some products previously left to natural materials. (**)

The plastics situation today

Nowadays, it is said that the global production of plastic roughly corresponds to 45 to 50kg of plastic / per person produced per year:

45 kg x 7.6 billion people = 342,000,000,000 kg = 342,000,000 metric tonnes

50 kg x 7.6 billion people = 380,000,000,000 kg = 380,000,000 metric tonnes

Which seems to be correct, as the estimation from various websites (including www.statista.com) confirms that in 2018, for example, the world plastics production totalled around 359 million metric tons.

Global Plastic production from 1950 to 2018 (in million metric tons)

courtesy of www.statista.com

FYI: a US "ton" only weight 2000 pounds = 907.1847 kg, and is therefore different than a "metric ton or tonne" which weights 1,000 kg.

That's really a LOT of plastics, don't you think?

More especially knowing that out of these 359 million metric tonnes produced per year (total from 2018 above):

about 8 million metric tonnes (roughly 2.22%) are dumped into the oceans and seas around the globe every year
only about 35 million metric tonnes (roughly 9.75%) is recycled
thus, that's a whopping 90.25% (324 million metric tonnes) that is NOT recycled

Here is a comparison chart I made for you to have a better understanding of the situation and what I'm trying to say.

Global Plastic Production Dumped - Recycled - Unrecycled

by ©LeDomduVin 2020 (v2)

And they're not many solutions to get rid of the unrecycled plastics, in fact, understandably and logically, there are only 3 solutions to waste disposal: unrecycled plastics are either:

Incinerated: as per the statistic, this method only represents between 12-15%

Burned in specialized incinerators with smoke filters to minimize air pollution,
Or, burned outside in open fields (with no smoke filters) which is a major source of air pollution around

Buried: probably the most common way to do it in most countries, representing about 80-90% of most waste including plastics

Pilled up in opened fields becoming garbage landfills on which some people live and feed as they have no other alternative if they want to survive
Pilled underground and covered with dirt/soil, usually used as landfills for agriculture

Dumped in water: between 2-5% depending on the source

Dumped in rivers and lakes, ending up in oceans and seas eventually
Dumped in oceans and seas

Here is another comparison chart I made for you to have a better understanding of the situation.

Global Waste - Plastics Disposal Methods Comparison

by ©LeDomduVin 2020

As you can see on the two charts above, the situation is quite desperate and critical, and not only for plastics but for waste in general. Yet, if I focus on plastics for this post, its because they are now used for pretty much everything and everywhere around the globe.

And despite the warnings and suggestions from the scientists and other experts for the past 20-30 years now, the production of plastics never ceased nor decreased (refer to the chart of Global Plastic production from 1950 to 2018 (in million metric tons) courtesy of www.statista.com above)

In fact, plastics are present in between 5 to 75% in most things we use daily and in most places we work, live and leisure daily.

Concretely, if we were to divide the global total annual plastic production per sector (let's take the total of 359 million metric tons from 2018 as in the previous example above), it will look roughly as follow in the chart below (a visual is easier):

Total Plastic Production per sector - per year
by ©LeDomduVin 2020

You would have surely guessed it if someone would have asked you the question prior to seeing such a chart, but "packaging" only represents roughly 36% of the global total annual plastic production.

That's huge! But not surprising, more especially when you see the rise of products individually packed/wrapped (i.e fruits and vegetables) on the shelves of most supermarkets around the globe.

Individually packed - wrapped fruit
by ©LeDomduVin 2020

The packaging dilemma is a real problem growing exponentially a little more every year... this trend has to stop!...

...which brings us to the initial main subject of this post.

The Packaging dilemma

So, now that we know a little more about plastic, let's move on to the main reason that prompted me to write this post in the first place: Packaging.

One of my colleagues, at work, recently ordered some bottles of wines via an online wine store and received his packages at work, at it was easier for him.

He went to an empty office and closed the door to open the packages without making to much noise and not disturbing the colleagues and me.

The empty office he went to is near my desk, so, even if I could not see anything, I could still hear pretty much everything, even if slightly muffled.

He started to open the packages, and could clearly hear the sound of the cutter cutting through the tape.

Then, right after that, really loud noises could be heard, even if the door was closed. It sounded like if he was tearing up everything in the room, and I really started to wonder what he was doing in there.

After quite a few minutes of chaotic sounds, he came out of the room and explained to us that the online store packed the bottles individually.

So, first, he had to open the box, then go through an insanely large amount of plastic prior to finally the bottles reach...

Judge for yourself on the following pictures

Shipping cartons with protective plastic packaging inside
©LeDomduVin 2020

Basically, once he opened the shipping box, he quickly realized that the bottles had been first wrapped into some kind of protective net sleeve...

Bottle wrapped in a net sleeve ©LeDomduVin 2020

Then, covered with bubble wrap on top...

Then, put into an inflatable air column bubble cushion reusable protective sleeve, covering the previous two layers...

Inflatable air column bubble cushion reusable protective sleeve ©LeDomduVin 2020

Maintained in place within the box by small inflatable cushion bags

Small inflatable cushion bags ©LeDomduVin 2020

So, if we put everything together...

That's 5 layers basically...

Fishnet sleeve (on each bottle)
Bubble wrap (on top of the fishnet sleeve, on each bottle)
Inflatable air column bubble cushion reusable protective sleeve (covering 1. & 2. for each bottle)
Small inflatable cushion bags (to maintain 3. that has 1. and 2. already inside)
The Carton box in which all the above come

And I fully understand that's only as a protection measure to ensure the bottles will not break and will arrive at destination in the original conditions, but still, in my opinion, that's insane! So many layers are totally unnecessary in my opinion.

And imagine the impact on the environment?

I know what you are about to say, it is fully reusable. And I will say that in theory and technically you are 300% correct.

Yet, in reality, how many of us are keeping aside reusable shipping packaging for an eventual use and need later on? A very small minority of us maybe ... people that are either in the wine business themselves or so conscious of the environment that they actually keep it for further use. But, otherwise, no one is really keeping it and/or end up putting it in the trash a few days later.

And don't get me wrong, I fully understand also that in terms of bottle's safety and protection, plastic bubble wrap, plastic sleeve and cushion bags, are as good or even better than the classic styrofoam inserts and definitely safer than the simple carton dividers.

However, in terms of environmental impact, styrofoam packaging is worst than plastic not biodegradable and cannot be recycled, which means that Styrofoam cups contribute to landfill trash. ... While plastic cups are not biodegradable either, many of them are recyclable, which does make them the more environmentally friendly option

We now live in a sanitized and sterile world, where our immune system is no longer able to fight on his own any diseases and virus, which would have been totally harmless and insignificant to our health 30-40 years ago.

What I mean is that I grew up in the countryside drinking water from the well for more than 2 decades and I have always been in fairly good and strong health compared to most people I know.

I very rarely went to the doctor and never really had to either, unless it was really serious; which, thank god and touch wood, has never really been the case, except once, here in Hong Kong, a few years ago, when I caught the rickettsia due to a nasty tick's bite when I was hiking around.

I stayed for 10 days at the hospital and could have died as the pathogen's infection had already disseminated in my blood and contaminated several organs, more particularly my liver and was on its way to the kidneys and the lungs. A nasty Genus bacteria, I'm telling you.

However, what I'm trying to say is that back in the old days, when I was young, people strength seemed stronger and plastic was mainly used and found in reusable and recyclable products.