Reporting by Michael Hawthorne for Chicago Tribune:
Spending more than a decade documenting the spread of plastic waste throughout the Great Lakes took a psychological toll on Melissa Duhaime.
Scary findings. Seemingly few solutions to intractable problems. Scientists stacked against the world’s most clout-heavy corporations bent on tripling production of fossil fuel-based plastics.
Duhaime, a University of Michigan biologist, found solace — and maybe a chance to build her own business while bolstering the regional economy — in a plastics-free alternative dating back to ancient Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq.
She decided to adjust her research and focus on flax, a plant that can be spun into linen and woven into clothing instead of polyester, acrylic or other synthetic fabrics that shed plastic fibers every time they are laundered.
The stems of flax, mostly grown in America these days for versatile, nutritious seeds, also are a proven substitute for petroleum-based carbon fiber in automobiles and construction.
“Our farmers are interested, some big companies are interested,” Duhaime said in a recent interview. “We have the potential to create a new manufacturing sector when it comes to the growing and processing of (flax) fibers, spinning and weaving them, and developing new products.”
Duhaime is among a cadre of researchers, environmental activists, policymakers and volunteers striving to curb the onslaught of plastics in every aspect of life.
Some focus on legislation in state capitals and city councils and push for a global treaty that would limit plastics production.
Innovators seek to swap plastics for sustainable options and develop new methods to skim plastic litter out of the environment.
Beach cleanups draw attention to a throwaway culture spawned and encouraged by oil and chemical companies.
The problem is dire: Already more than 8 billion tons of plastic waste clog the planet, enough to rise into outer space if piled within Chicago’s Millennium Park.
At least 22 million pounds end up in the Great Lakes every year, half of it in Lake Michigan. Dump that on the Dan Ryan and it would bury every mile of the expressway in more than a foot of plastic garbage.
The Chicago Tribune is documenting the scourge — and highlighting potential solutions — in “Great Waste in the Great Lakes,” a series about plastic pollution threatening the health and environment of 40 million Americans and Canadians who depend on the world’s largest source of fresh surface water.
There are growing concerns about microplastics, bits of decomposing plastic goods no larger than a grain of rice linked to heart and brain diseases and other ailments, either by their mere presence in people or from toxic chemicals leaching out of the particles.
Tinier fragments — nanoplastics — might be even more dangerous.
“We are turning our lakes and oceans into unpermitted landfills with profound impacts,” said Judith Enck, a former regional administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who founded Beyond Plastics, a nonprofit research and advocacy group.
Plastics manufacturers contend their products are essential in modern life.
“Plastic products are highly engineered to meet performance standards for food packaging, medical devices, vehicles and electronics,” the American Chemistry Council, the industry’s chief trade group, said in an email response to questions.
“And there are places where we don’t even realize we’re using (plastic), but it’s indispensable,” Ross Eisenberg, chief of the council’s plastics division, is quoted saying in a November advertorial published online by The Washington Post.
Half of all plastics have been synthesized since just 2010. Much of it is devoted to single-use, nonmedical items such as soda bottles, utensils and food packaging, according to the United Nations.
Very little plastic is recycled in the United States; the rate has never exceeded 10% and hovers around 5%, according to the EPA. Most of what isn’t landfilled or burned despoils the environment and breaks down into microplastics.
“The science is absolutely clear,” said Anja Brandon, director of plastics policy at the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy. “We need to make fewer plastics, better manage the plastics we are using, and continue effective cleanups to prevent plastics already out in the environment from doing more harm.”