Life in plastic...it's far from fantastic.

While there are many events leading up to the invention of plastic—involving Goodyear tires, explosives, and film—we will start with a simple game of billiards.

Before the 1800’s, billiard balls were made of ivory. As the popularity of the game and the demand for swanky balls (...pretend I didn’t just use that phrase...) increased, so did the rate at which elephants were being slaughtered for their ivory. Because only six balls could be made per elephant tusk, this practice gravely endangered the elephant species. This encouraged inventors to engineer a new material that could save the elephants all the while enhancing the game.

Therefore, in 1870, John W. Hyatt devised a way to combine cellulose nitrate (imagine a plant cell wall with NO2 groups dangling off) and camphor (see ingredients panel on Vick's VapoRub) to produce a horn-like material, patented as Celluloid, that could be easily molded and shaped. This was the first industrial plastic.

Unfortunately, the nitrocellulose species (also found in low-order explosives, such as “guncotton”) made Celluloid dangerously flammable in its multi-step production. Even though Celluloid continues to be used in objects like ping pong balls, it was back to the drawing board for inventors.

In 1909, Leo Baekeland combined phenol and formaldehyde to create what is now ogled as the world’s first synthetic plastic, Bakelite. It was a prized invention because it could be molded quickly, allowing for mass-production, and once it was set, it served as an insulator for electricity, it was resistant to high heat, and it hardly reacted with other chemicals.

In 1925, the first issue of Plastics magazine was published and naturally, Bakelite was its cover girl.

Somewhere between Hyatt’s modified natural polymer and Baekeland’s artificial, all-purpose resin spawned the “Age of Plastics”. The various large, sturdy molecules that defined the Age were derived from small, repeating hydrocarbon units. They were all the rage during World War II when more natural materials like rubber were in short supply.

Nowadays, plastic begins with oil--one of the most basic forms of a hydrocarbon chain. (Also known as an alkane. Methane, ethane, propane...sound familiar? They're all hydrocarbon chains too.) Ultimately, the way in which the chains are arranged determine the specific physical and chemical properties of the plastics we encounter day-to-day.

You may be familiar with the three chasing arrows that practically scream, “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle!” But have you ever noticed the number positioned inside the triangle on plastic products or questioned what it means?

The number is a part of the Resin Identification Code and it denotes of what kind of plastic a product is made, and subsequently, what products can be recycled and what products should be avoided. Honestly, the system can get a little confusing so the following is my Plastics Précis:

1: Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET or PETE)

You might also know this substance as “polyester” (whose name essentially means many repeating units containing an ester functional group). It is used to make water bottles, soda bottles, condiment containers, etc. It is accepted at all major recycling facilities and it is generally considered safe. PET generally has an afterlife as stuffing for pillows and life jackets.

2: High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)

This guy makes up the vessels that carry milk, juice, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, shampoo, and cereal. It’s like PET’s burlier brother; it is accepted at all major recycling facilities and it is generally considered safe. It should be noted that while bottles made of numbers 1 and 2 are recyclable, their caps are not; caps are usually made of number 5 (see below).

3: Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)

If you’re a college student or a new homeowner, you’ve probably opened up a new shower curtain recently and made a note of the strong aroma. PVC contains many volatile organic toxins and presumed carcinogens (over 108 have been reported) that are responsible for disrupting the central nervous, endocrine, and reproductive systems. After its life as a pipe, raincoat, or faux Christmas tree, PVC is either incinerated or buried in landfills. But if you think PVC is bad for you, imagine how bad it is for the environment. These methods only aid in increasing the toxicity of air, soil, and groundwater. The chlorine that is responsible for that characteristic “vinyl” odor you encounter in the bathroom or while smelling checkbook covers at the bank (or is that just me?) is also the reason PVC is difficult to recycle. The chlorine concentrations in PVC contaminate other recyclables; in fact, one single PVC bottle combined with 100,000 non-chlorinated bottles contaminates the entire batch. New mechanical and chemical technologies have been developed to separate and reprocess PVC, but collection facilities have yet to emerge, so keep PVC out of your recycling bin for now—and attempt to keep it out of your life.

4: Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)

This “scrawny-arms” version of polyethylene is used in grocery store sacks, produce and bread bags, and the six-pack rings that have been chronicled in the entanglement of marine wildlife. What's the difference between HDPE and LDPE exactly? LDPE has more branching in its hydrocarbon chains, and therefore, weaker intramolecular forces and less density. 4 is not as widely accepted as 1 and 2, so inquire if your curb-side program picks it up or try to find a specific drop-off center, such as Publix. In an effort to protect our sea friends, federal law now requires that LDPE rings be 100 percent photodegradable (broken down by the sun/UV light). However, this only means that they will be broken down into smaller, microscopic plastic pieces, which in turn, threatens the health of marine filter feeders such as sponges, krill, clams, and some fish...

I'm starting to wonder if there is a true win-win in the world of plastics, too.

5: Polypropylene (PP)

This is not what you have to clean up when your dog accidentally goes Number One indoors… (...I’m sorry if you didn’t get that one.) PP is a hugely versatile and virtually shatterproof plastic with a very high melting point, making it ideal for TV dinners, Brita filters, automotive parts, and carpeting. (At least if your dog decides to go pee-pee on PP, the quality of your flooring won’t suffer!) Unfortunately, what makes it so useful is what makes it so harmful. It is the second most used plastic packaging in the United States (behind PET) but it is one of the least recycled. Like 4, 5 is not a widely accepted recyclable, so check with your local recycling program or donate to Preserve, a company that uses 100% of recycled PP to create toothbrushes, razors, etc. Preserve has mail-in programs as well as drop-off centers at major Whole Foods Markets.

6: Polystyrene (PS)

But don’t be fooled, this plastic is no post script. It’s a headline that reads, “Just Don’t Do It”. Popularly known as Styrofoam, expanded polystyrene (EPS) is 95 percent air, making it an excellent insulator and the perfect constitution of to-go boxes, disposable cups, plates, and bowls, and packing peanuts. Styrene, its monomer, is recorded as a hazardous chemical and suspected carcinogen that evaporates easily and leaches into food at just mildly high temperatures. More importantly, its simultaneously weightless and bulky properties make it exceptionally problematic and expensive to recycle. Thus, most municipal recycling programs do not accept it. There is the “Peanut Hotline” however—a call service though the Plastic Loose Fill Council that tells you the location of the closest packing peanut collection center (800-828-2214). But basically, the next time you want to reach for “Cup Noodles”, just don’t. (I’m not quite sure how safe the contents inside the cup are either.)

Okay, so maybe there is one "P.S." Despite polystyrene's bad rep, it is used in peptide synthesis to make one side of an amino acid un-reactive, anchoring it so that more amino acids can be selectively added to the other side in order to form a longer polypeptide chain. This process, developed by 1984 Nobel prize-winner Bruce Merrifield, is close to 100 percent effective in creating proteins in a lab setting. Being that proteins account for 50 percent of body matter, understanding polypeptides is imperative to biological and clinical research.

7: Other

Aka the catch-all designation of plastics. If the nebulous name doesn’t already deter you from consuming it, perhaps the fact that it contains BPA (Bisphenol-A), the shatter-proofing additive scrutinized for its role as an endocrine disrupter, will. Number 7 plastics are usually composed of polycarbonate (PC) or different plastics conglomerated together and are used to make baby bottles, sippy cups, and extraneous car parts. While historically these plastics have never been accepted at recycling facilities, there are new “other” plastics made from bio-based polymers like corn that can technically be recycled but only by means of commercial composting. These bottles are marked with “PLA”. Still, the ambiguity and cloud of pollutants that surround this class of plastics is enough to first ask your local recycling program about what they accept, and then avoid it at all costs.

Speaking of costs, plastics are considered a commodity. Theoretically, all of the plastic we recycle can be broken down into raw materials and sold back to manufacturers. Manufacturers make new products made from (insert some percentage here) recycled material and we purchase them because it makes us feel like we are doing our part—being environmentally savvy and what-not.

Hence, recyclables are valuables. Trash, on the other hand, is not valuable, but it is costly. When a waste management company has to deposit trash into a landfill, there are fees. When landfill sites exceed the limits of disposal, there are fees. (Don't worry, all of these fees are later passed on to the tax payer...) Consequently, a product needs to arrive at a recycling plant in fairly good condition if it is to actually be recycled and not end up as another landfill causality that we pay for anyway.

If the plastic is not rinsed completely, is broken down too small, is dyed or laced with too many chemical additives, or is otherwise impure, it is discarded as residual. The more residual, the more money a recycling plant loses.

Recycling isn’t only a national affair—China is currently the largest importer of recycled raw materials. In 2004, $3.1 billion worth of scrap material and plastics numbered "3" through "7" were shipped from the United States to China; but even then, it wasn’t pure. Our recyclable material found its way into China’s landfills instead.

China is now beginning to crack down on environmental policy concerning recycled goods. In 2013, they raised a “Green Fence”, implementing a stricter inspection of scrap imports and rejecting overly-contaminated shipments from the U.S. Previously, the U.S. never developed the capacity or technology to repurpose recyclables such as “other,” but with Green Fence, more pressure has been placed on American buyers and manufacturers to deal with in-house waste.

Regardless of where things are being recycled, constructing products from recycled material is more cost-effective, uses less energy, and is less harmful to the environment than generating products from virgin sources (...touched for the very first time).

During my time in China, I definitely saw a lot of plastic but not a lot of concern about where it was going after it cradled 300 grams of rice. On the contrary, while I was in Italy just a few months prior, I hardly witnessed any plastic beyond the hand of a tourist.

In Florence, I was presented with the opportunity to unpack the findings of an eight-year study conducted by Cózar A, Sanz-Martín M, Martí E, González-Gordillo JI, Ubeda B, Gálvez JÁ, (et al.) entitled Plastic Accumulation in the Mediterranean Sea. Throughout my assessment, I learned some fast facts and figures about plastic debris and accumulation that I feel are interesting enough to share:

• 50 billion plastic water bottles were used by Americans last year (2014), 38 billion of which were not recycled

• 50 percent of plastic is used for single use applications

• 500 billion plastic bags are used annually worldwide, but only one percent are recycled

• 90 percent of all trash floating in the oceans is plastic

• Roughly 83 percent of that plastic is smaller than 5 millimeters

• The weight of 25,000 elephants (greater than 125,000 tons) goes into the ocean each year in the form of plastic packaging, plastic nets, and buoys from ships

• 80 percent of all trash in the oceans originates from on land

• There are approximately 46,000 pieces of floating plastic per square mile of open ocean

• The amount of plastic outweighs plankton 6:1

• 70 percent of the plastic in oceans sinks to the bottom, only 30 percent is what is observed floating or at surface level

• Over 250 species are known to ingest or become tangled in plastic

• There are significant loads of micro-plastics in places like the Arctic ice sheet, the Great Lakes (a major freshwater reserve), and in the bellies of hundreds of thousands of albatross

• Plastic accounts for 8 percent of the world’s oil production—one ton of recycled plastic saves 685 gallons of oil

• Recycling one plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for 6 hours

• In 2005, a piece of plastic found in an albatross stomach bore a serial number that was traced back to a World War II plane shot down in 1944...

In 1992, a ship lost 30,000 rubber duckies off the coast of China and some were found on the shores of the UK some 15 years later.

Even though recycling efforts continue to improve, only five to ten percent of the plastic we use is truly recovered. It seems here in the United States, we are comforted by the thought that once the articles we set out in our blue, green and orange (PLASTIC) bins are whisked away, they are away for good. But now scientists are wondering if plastic will ever go away.

Recent chemical analyses have shown that plastic does not fully degrade for upward of 500 to 1,000 years, maybe even more. That means the very first plastics every synthesized are still somewhere on this earth. Plastic was engineered to be unaffected by the earth’s forces—oxygen, sunlight, and water. Even if it was affected, its position in a landfill or at the bottom of the ocean, sealed off from oxygen or light would prohibit its biodegradation anyway.

Going forward, I believe we need to reevaluate our relationship with “disposables” because, as I hope you can see, the term disposable is the furthest from the truth. As the demand for new materials with certain qualities increase, the plastics industry will aim to deliver. Meanwhile, as new countries, economies, and populations emerge, waste management infrastructure will also develop and grow, perpetuating the production, use, and reuse of plastics. This all bears in mind some questions: if the problem is this big now, how much bigger will it get in the future?

We know plastic production contributes to increased greenhouse emissions, global warming, and catastrophic natural disasters, but what other emergencies will it inadvertently cause? What do the interactive effects of plastic debris, such as the bioaccumulation of mercury and cadmium in large fish mean for our food supply? How much exposure to toxic chemicals transported by plastics will it take before most individuals are clinically infertile?

Until there are answers, I hope you will join me in doing some, if not all of the following:

1. Clean up and continually seek alternatives. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and the whole nine yards. Flaunt reusable, non-plastic everything. Sport a canvas reusable grocery bag and pair it with a sleek glass or steel reusable water bottle. Get involved in clean-up efforts, particularly on the shore, or initiate your own. Purchase 100 percent recycled paper. (Personally, I love that the slight off-whitish color of my homework distinguishes me from the other 300-something students in my Biomolecules lecture.) Be an artist of plastic. Think up creative and inventive ways to repurpose the plastic already effervescent in your life.

2. Take a stance. Urge plastic companies to take responsibility for the entire life cycle of their plastic products. Encourage your community leaders to have more recycling receptacles/centers that accept more kinds of recyclables. (Yes, it is a front-end investment, but in theory, it will create more jobs and improve resident infrastructure.)

3. Educate your friends and family. Whip out a fast fact, perhaps one I mentioned earlier. Do some digging on your own. Plant yourself in a position to learn everything you can about how your waste choices impact the world around you. The Lion King had it right—it's all about the circle of life, and it does not behoove us to believe that the things we do today will not impact the challenges we face tomorrow.