A Wonder Material You Can't Get Rid Of

Plastics Are Durable And Flexible, But They Stick Around For A Long, Long Time

(CBS)  To anyone who's truly green at heart, San Francisco's central recycling plant is an exhilarating sight. There, tons and tons of paper, plastic, glass and who-knows-what works its way through a mountain of belts, gears and gizmos. Much of what the city throws away gets separated, classified and bundled for sale.

Recycling is a point of pride to Robert Reed of Norcal Waste Systems. When it comes to giving garbage a second life, no American city does it better.

"We like to say 'life's a mess but we sort it out,'" he told CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. "There’s a Safeway bag – it doesn't go through like the rest of the stuff."

But not everything is welcome here. Take, for instance, the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag.

"Plastic bags — they're very light and they float around," he said. "They get twisted around things. They're a difficult material. They're one of the most difficult things to recycle. The recycling business, like the garbage business, is all about tonnage. You want so many tons of aluminum cans and so many tons of paper that you can bale. And you can handle."

Put simply, it costs so much more to process the bags than can be earned from selling them that they're simply trucked off to the dump. And while a few flimsy bags don’t seem like much, they add up: Americans consume an estimated 100 billion of them every year.

So many bags, they seem to grow on trees, which is why in northern New Jersey, Bill McLelland and Ian Frazier invented the bag-snagger.

"It's annoying to see a bag in a tree. [Investing the bag snagger] was sort of a sport. It was something to do for fun," Frazier said.

And something to do for the environment: plastic bags blowing in the wind have become a litter problem nation-wide.

"You see a bag in a tree," McLelland said. "One bag. And you notice it. And it bugs you. And you can get that bag out of the tree. You suddenly see this tree just kind of come back to life. And you feel like, you know, you've really made a little dent in the problem."

It's a problem that's pretty clear when you see how much we send to the dump. Each of us generates more than 1,600 pounds of garbage every year. That's more trash per person than any other nation on Earth. Much of it comes from plastic bags, plastic water bottles and plastic packaging. As some see it, our love affair with plastic has turned us into a throwaway society. The plastic heads straight to landfills, where it stays for years and years and years.

It wasn't always like this.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it came to trash, practically nothing went to waste. Everything from rags to scrap metal to manure found a second use. Recycling was truly the American way, says Heather Rogers, author of "Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage."

"Disposability and the way that we dispose is learned — a learned behavior," she said. "We've had to be taught how to do that."

Rogers argues that today's attitudes towards trash took root in the postwar boom, when plastics were promoted as a new wonder-material: cheap, versatile and disposable.

"One of the first disposable plastic items was a rigid plastic cup that was dispensed in vending machines that sold coffee and hot chocolate," she said. "And after people consumed their drink, they had this cup left over that they clearly recognized could be re-used. And a discussion erupted in the plastics industry trade press about, 'How do we convince consumers that this product that clearly can be re-used is garbage?'"

In the four decades since "The Graduate" parodied the phony or plastic values of American society, plastics really have taken over. Just look around and try to imagine a world without them.

"The last 40 years have been good for the plastics industry," Greg Babe, chairman of the American Chemistry Council's Plastics Division said. "But the plastics industry has been very good over the last 40 years for society as well."

Recently, the plastics industry has come under pressure to boost the relatively low percentage of plastic recycling. While close to three-quarters of cardboard boxes and nearly half of aluminum cans find new uses, only about a quarter of plastic bottles — and just 5 percent of plastic bags — get recycled.

[bojinco]

HOSPITALS, 'GO GREEN', SAVE LIVES AROUND THE WORLD

A perfect follow-up story to your June 24 Sunday Morning feature on glutting our landfills with plastic would be a presentation of Project C.U.R.E., the largest distributor of donated medical supplies and equipment in the world. With less than a 2% overhead every week of the year we ship two forty-foot ocean going cargo containers worth nearly a total of $1M wholesale value to emerging nations, 106 countries to date. This amounts to a yearly environmental benefit to the United States of 3.1 million cubic feet of landfill space -- Equivalent to 125 homes, 2500 square feet in size, packed floor to ceiling with medical supplies. We need more medical equipment and supplies to fill our containers which provide health and hope to the 22.8 million people most medically deprived world-wide. If you'd like an interview or more information, please contact [e-mail].
Thanks, Barbara O. Jacobsen, Angel Ambassador
www.projectcure.org

[rheola-2009]

So what? that's what the dump is FOR- bury your trash, so it stays in a hole in the ground forever- BFD!
Posted by newster1 at 12:08 AM : Jun 25, 2007
+ report abuse

Whilst the world has such incredibly selfish anti social persons, [MORONS] as obviously is newster1, no matter how hard the rest of us try to do what is best for all, these fools will always contiue to undo any good done by others.

If only there were more like Ecuadoriana and cgesuaido.

[ecuadoriana]

"...garbage is usually the food products..." Posted by mitch0927 at 02:01 PM : Jun 25, 2007

Ah, see THAT'S what I have trouble with! I am grateful to be living in a country where I don't have to struggle daily for food just to survive. As much as I have issues with our government, I never fear that they are controlling the populace by with holding food, water, medicines.

But here in this land of endless glutoney & assumption of entitlement we consider what food we don't eat to be "garbage". A bruised spot on the apple? Throw it away. A wormy tomato- garbage. I juice bruised fruit, compost the rest. And I count my blessings & repay the earth for its generous bounty.

[greenchick-2009]

I'm glad they are trying to come up with solutions to ease recycling woes. I was on the Social Venture Network's site today and saw a contest for businesses, exactly like these, that are helping to improve the environment

[mitch0927]

ecuadoriana,
Very good point. There is a difference between garbage and trash. Trash is usually the non-food goods and garbage is usually the food products. That's why they call garbage disposals "garbage disposals" and not trash disposals. We as a nation of the "throw away society need to think about what we put out for collection, because we will run out of room to dispose of it. Big cities like NYC have to have their garbage put on barges and taken somewhere else, because they don't have the room to "bury" it anymore. I see devices in the not to distant future that will incinerate our trash/garbage and give us the opportunity to recycle it into heating fuel. I think the EPA has a strangle hold on that project right now.

[ecuadoriana]

"I just have one other comment, aimed at ecuadoriana's ..." Posted by cgesualdo at 12:09 PM : Jun 25, 2007

You made a good point, cgesualdo. I just find that for my family the least amount of stuff we buy produces the least amount of trash. That's the hub of the problem for most americans- they can't stop buying new stuff. Then what to do with the old? Just throw it out.

We don't find a need to replace everything just because it's no longer in style. I have refinished & sold (or donated) many no longer needed items. Old clothes that are beyond wear & repair get made into cleaning rags or donated to animal shelters. The list is endless if we really try to rethink our "just toss it out" ways.

Why is liguid in the trash cans anyway? That's something I don't understand. I never put any liquid in the cardboard box I use for trash (I also have a recycle bin for any paper, glass & cans). What is wet that people are throwing out? I'm not being a "wise arse"- I really don't know. If it's food scraps why isn't it being composted? Even if one doesn't have a yard, there are community gardens who are happy to have coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable scraps, etc for their compost. Even many schools have gardens that the kids help tend as part of their curriculum.

[cgesualdo]

I'm a little grateful for the plastic bags you get at the store because I have to have something to pick up after my dogs. Then again, that is how I recycle the bags. They also make fantastic (and less messy) packing material for moving or mailing things.

I just have one other comment, aimed at ecuadoriana's comment about what people did before plastic bags. People simply dumped their trash as it. They fed anything that might be construed edible to the pigs and burned the rest. Fire codes and the FDA these days would present a problem for these methods today. Even if you simply dumped your trash in your dumpster or individual trash container, the trucks that pick them up will simply turn the container upside-down and rain your unbound trash upon your neighborhood. Think about all the liquid waste that would end up in our lakes and rivers and drinking water sources because it wasn't contained. I wish we could go back to the way we used to do things, but we're going to have to move forward, not backward, to solve this problem.

[ecuadoriana]

"So what? that's what the dump is FOR- bury your trash, so it stays in a hole in the ground forever- BFD!" Posted by newster1 at 12:08 AM : Jun 25, 2007

We treat the earth like a garbage dump. Yet it is the origins of our birth (from the clay & all that) & our final place of rest.

I don't know about you but I certainly wouldn't want to rest for eternity in a land fill.

If they wanted to build a landfill on top of one of your loved ones you'd scream & fight it I am sure.

"NOT in MY back yard!" is the battle cry of all those selfish peole who want to toss their trash at will- but want it to end up somewhere else, out of sight out of mind.

Yes we are all "Out of our minds"!

[mitch0927]

FUNKIWITEBOY, are you that much of a moron you can't even spell right, or are you trying to be cute and write like you talk, lazy and good for nothing. Sure shows my tax dollars were wasted on you....

[funkiwiteboy]

gettin back down to earth, rememba the guy what kilt his whole family an shot hisself in the leg then blamed his dead wife?
or them five babies what burned up cause theire mommas left em with two 8 yr olds so they could go party or whatever at the bar?
they put all them bodys in plastic bags!
it keeps body fluids an th smell of burnt skin from leakin out in the transport vans...

[nothappyatall]

"The plastic heads straight to landfills, where it stays for years and years and years."

So what? that's what the dump is FOR- bury your trash, so it stays in a hole in the ground forever- BFD!

[acauble1]

I just can't imagine my printer and laptop made of wood!

Anyway...

Perhaps, if our congress weren't so bought by various interest groups...

...hemp would actually be widely used as a raw material for manufacturing!

The future is HEMP for manufacturing! Europeans, once again, are decades ahead of us on this issue as well.

[lsajra99]

For a more comprehensive story on the problems with plastic, check out this Best Life Magazine online article:

http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/travel-leisure/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we.shtml

Or, enter into your search engine the name of the article:

"Our oceans are turning into plastic. Are we?"

The picture of the sea turtle on that web page says it all.

[ecuadoriana]

Sorry the 2nd half of my post below went in twice!


"The White House is full of trash that needs to be thrown out. Not much recycling value though." Posted by long_rider at 11:27 AM : Jun 24, 2007

long_rider, that's a good one!

Although I envision BushWhacked making a lovely table lamp, book end or door stop. I do press flowers for crafts. He's make a good dead weight!

[ecuadoriana]

"So what do individuals put their garbage in then if not plastic bags? Anybody have suggestions for something that is liquid proof and can be sealed tight?" Posted by ginetta11 at 03:03 PM : Jun 24, 2007

The biggest question each of us needs to ask ourselves is: What is it I'm actually considering "garbage"?

I have a juicer to make my own fresh juices every day. No need for all them plastic bottles. I carry the juice in my reusable glass jars. The pulp from the juicing process isn't garbage- it goes right into the compost for the garden where I grow all my own vegetables so I don't need to buy the plastic wrapped or canned at the store (then I freeze them). Don't buy pre made foods at all- everything from scratch- much healthier, tastes better, so much cheaper!

The parts of the food that one doesn't eat is still part of the food that was a gift from the earth. How can we call the peelings of a potato "garbage" when it was part of something that gave us life? (cont)

[ecuadoriana]

Newspaper cleans glass, office paper & such gets reused for scratch paper- then it all goes to recycling. Cloth napkins & towels. I bring my own canvas bags for shopping. I create a lot of arts & crafts from many things that others consider trash. Then at craft fairs I sell those SAME pieces of trash BACK to people who threw the stuff out in the first place!

The amount of trash this 3 person family generates per week barely fills a small cardboard carton. I take them from stores that are throwing them out & I use them to put my trash in. No plastic bags!

With a lot of heavy thinking about our personal impact on the planet, a bit of ingenuity & self sacrifice we could all turn this problem around.

We do not need plastic bags for trash. Think about what people did before the advent of plastic bags!

[ecuadoriana]

Newspaper cleans glass, office paper & such gets reused for scratch paper- then it all goes to recycling. Cloth napkins & towels. I bring my own canvas bags for shopping. I create a lot of arts & crafts from many things that others consider trash. Then at craft fairs I sell those SAME pieces of trash BACK to people who threw the stuff out in the first place!

The amount of trash this 3 person family generates per week barely fills a small cardboard carton. I take them from stores that are throwing them out & I use them to put my trash in. No plastic bags!

With a lot of heavy thinking about our personal impact on the planet, a bit of ingenuity & self sacrifice we could all turn this problem around.

We do not need plastic bags for trash. Think about what people did before the advent of plastic bags!

[chezchas1]

Typo:
Investing the bag snagger...

Correction:
Inventing the bag snagger...

[sandy19731]

We need more stories like this. And, we all need a kick in the pants.
We're American's you have to tell us a few hundred times before it sinks in.
Keep it up, CBS.

[ginetta11]

So what do individuals put their garbage in then if not plastic bags? Anybody have suggestions for something that is liquid proof and can be sealed tight?