DC: Plastic is oil. It's made from processing oil products -- oil products, and then you add plasticizing chemicals to it. And what we've been learning over the last 30, 40 years is that these chemicals, which are added to the plastic, create polymer chains that don't break down in the environment. And they also leach bits of those chemicals into our food and beverages that have been linked to human health issues for us, and impact the marine life, are ingested by sea life and wildlife. It comes back to us in so many ways. Plastic is the gift that keeps giving.
RS: And it's worse than oil.
DC: I don't know that it's worse than oil, but it's part of the petrochemical world that we live in.
RS: And so let's cut to the serious part, really, the damage part. This is the major polluter of oceans, most of the waste, and --
DC: It is one of the major polluters of oceans; it is not the sole polluter of the ocean. But because of particular qualities that plastic has, it either floats or it sinks to the bottom, or it begins to get algae and things growing on it, which attract sea life and wildlife to it -- they smell it, and they believe it's edible, and so they eat it or they're attracted to the colors of it. Pelagic seabirds, like Laysan albatross and other seabirds, also collect plastic bits and pieces thinking that it's food or krill, or things that they normally would collect and feed to their babies. And then they bring it back to the nest and they regurgitate it, they feed it to the babies, and these babies die with their stomachs full of plastic. Or they live severely impacted, shortened lives because their stomachs are full of plastic.
And it's interesting, because when I first saw these photographic images that had been taken by Susan Middleton and Chris Jordan of dead adolescent Laysan albatross, from Midway Atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean -- when I first saw those photographs, you know, it hit me really hard. And not just cerebrally, it's not a thought that you have; it really hits you, you know, in your heart, in your stomach; it hits you in your gut. And you look at that image, and you think: my God, are my daily choices, and the choices that corporations and companies around us use for packaging for our food and beverages, killing -- unwittingly killing animals all over the world? And how am I, how am I playing a part in this? And so when I saw that, for me, those birds in particular, and those images which are very powerful, became a metaphor for what we're doing to ourselves. We're stuffing ourselves full of plastic, and the chemicals that leach from plastic, and we're doing it to our children, and most people are still not yet aware that this is even happening.
RS: Well, let's spell that out. How does that work?
DC: Well, so, the chemicals that are used to make plastic -- you take a carbon source when you make plastic; 98% of plastics are made from petroleum, but you can also use plant-based carbon sources to make plastic, like sugar cane or corn or potato or hemp or bulrush, different fibrous carbon sources. And --
RS: Are they marketed as good plastic, or --?
DC: Um, they're marketed as bioplastics. So, yeah, there are people who would consider that better; that's an incremental thing. You know, if you're trying to move away from and divest from being dependent on fossil fuels and petroleum, then yes, incrementally, perhaps, some of these are better. But the problem really comes to the chemicals that are added, that are the plasticizing chemicals, that give those carbon sources -- that give them the qualities that we identify as plastic; make it supple, malleable, transparent, translucent, rigid, et cetera. And those groups of chemicals are called bisphenols. So you might have heard, oh, this is made with bisphenol A, or this is OK because it's BPA-free. And it may be made with BPB or BPC or BPS or BPZ--another bisphenol. And then phthalates -- phthalates are added to a lot of things, from what I understand, to make the plastic mushy -- kind of soft and rubbery, like a rubber ducky or something like that, that's not actually made from rubber from a rubber tree, but made from heavily phthalated plastic.
So these two groups of chemicals have now been studied for some time, and BPA has probably been studied the most so far. And BPA leaches micro amounts into the food and beverage that are packaged in containers or bottles or packaging that are made with these materials. And bisphenol A, in studies, has been linked to lower sexual function, sterility and infertility. GQ just did a piece called "Sperm Count Zero," about new research that's come out about the impact to human sperm. It's also been linked to obesity and diabetes, as well as breast cancer, prostate cancer, and brain cancer. And then babies exposed to these chemicals in utero, BPA, it's been linked to shortened anogenital distance, smaller penis size, feminization of boys -- so boys getting breasts, early menses in girls -- girls getting their period much younger than they normally would, among other things.
RS: OK, so plastic is bad stuff, we don't have to debate that, right.
DC: Well, I mean, I think plastic is an incredibly useful material, but when we use it to package all of our food and beverage and beauty products in it, we're probably not using it in the wisest way for our health.
RS: So, OK, people get the message. And you've had some victories lately, right? Give me the headlines on the victories here in California, the governor signed legislation?
DC: Yeah, well, I mean, so we've had victories. So when you say we've had victories -- I mean, I'm a cofounder of and I'm the CEO of the Plastic Pollution Coalition; we're a global coalition, but we work with other coalitions as well. And we work with a global movement as well, a hashtag global movement called #BreakFreeFromPlastic, the Clean Seas Coalition, and other coalitions. So really, united together, we have had some great wins internationally and nationally and state-wise. And in California just in the last month or so, we had some legislation that passed the assembly, and then Governor Jerry Brown signed into law two bills that are related to reducing microfibers and microplastics, and a bill which has to do with reducing plastic food packaging. And then, I think one of the most interesting ones that we all worked hard to help get the word out about, is a bill that would make straws only available upon request.
So this is not taking straws away from anybody; this is straws only upon request. Which immediately does two things: one, it creates less waste; and prior to that, it saves eateries and restaurants and cafes and bars money. Because they don't need to order as many, because they're not giving out as many; they're not automatically putting them in your drink. And I think California was really the natural place to have a piece of legislation like that, that was brought by Ian Calderon. I think California is a natural place to do that, because for many years now, we've had water upon request, because we live in a drought-riddled state. And so in the same way, you know, you can have straws upon request. What that also allows businesses to do is make the switch to paper straws, which actually will break down in the environment, or can go in a compost and break down, unlike plastic straws. And unlike bioplastic, or compostable straws, which only will be composted if they go into a system that can heat them up and break them down.
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