The Oil Age 2: Plastic

Pliable, pliant, ductile, malleable, adaptable, susceptible of being modified in form or nature

Photo by Zoran Borojevic on Unsplash

Waking up to an alarm clock while it’s still dark is an insult.

But there it was. My plastic clock radio alarm went off while it was still dark. Swinging my legs out from underneath my fleece blankets, my feet hit the synthetic fiber carpet. I walked to the bathroom and used the toilet and sink, the water controlled by plastic plumbing parts.

After my stop in the bathroom, I shuffled off to the kitchen over the hard laminate floor. Once there I flipped the plastic light switch that provided energy through the plastic-coated wires to the lights housed in their glass and plastic fixtures. Time for breakfast.

I pulled out the cardboard cereal box and poured granola from the plastic bag inside. Then, I filled the kettle with water from the sink, which was controlled by plastic plumbing parts. I replaced the kettle on its plastic base and flipped the switch on the plastic handle. Electricity now flowed through the wires encased by the rubberized plastic cord to create heat to boil my water.

The oat milk I poured from the plastic-coated carton was cold from the refrigerator cooled by the refrigerants and plastic parts located inside. As I ate my breakfast, on the varnished table I read from the screen of my tablet encased in its plastic housing.

I packed my lunch in small plastic containers, put them into my insulated nylon lunch box, and included a reusable ice pack to keep it all cool.

After brushing my teeth, shaving, and using the hydro floss (all with plastic components), I dressed. Since it was a cold wet day, I decided to wear warm socks made from wool and synthetic fibers. I grabbed my tea in my travel mug with the metal and plastic lid, put my Gore-Tex raincoat on and my waterproof shoes with their composite soles, and walked out the painted front door.

I got in my gas-powered painted car with its myriads of plastic parts, synthetic upholstery, and “rubber” tires and drove to work.

So went just the first hour of my day. How many more times would I interact with things made from fossil fuels?

As I said last time, we’ve all heard of the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Industrial Age, the Nuclear Age, etc. We are now living in the oil age.

Never mind using oil for transportation, think of how often you interact with something plastic. Plastic is so… plastic. It’s useful, effective, versatile, pliable, malleable, adaptable, and capable of being modified into many forms; and, in many cases, it is an irreplaceable material for so many things, especially in medicine and health care. But throughout the world, and across political boundaries, everyone agrees plastic pollution is plaguing our planet, particularly our oceans.

About half a billion tons of plastic are produced yearly, more than double the amount from two decades ago. Simply using less plastic may seem like a good idea but oh so hard to implement, for many things, there are no other options. Much of the plastic we use is single-use plastics primarily in packaging. According to the UN Environment Program, they comprise almost 44% of the plastics we use yearly. How often do we find ourselves using something plastic and immediately throwing it away? It’s so odd that we have created this substance that can last so long but then use it for the shortest time possible.

Recycling can help and has been around for decades (eons if you want to get into the details of how Mother Earth operates). Items like cardboard, paper, glass, and aluminum can be recycled fairly effectively and sometimes even profitably. For example, recycling aluminum uses only 5 percent of the energy needed to produce new aluminum, and that material can be recycled infinitely. Plastic, on the other hand, is a different story.

I once heard a quote from an executive of a plastic manufacturing company say, “We don’t have a plastic problem, we have a recycling problem”. He has a point, the worldwide recycling rate of the nearly half a billion tons of plastic produced each year is less than 10%.

Several factors contribute to the abysmal plastic recycling rate. The main driver is simple economics. Making new plastics from virgin oil is cheaper than using recycled materials. Plus, most recycling systems in the developed world focus only on food and beverage containers, which are a fraction of the total plastic products we use.

Most plastics created end up either landfilled, incinerated, or set free in the environment, some are recycled. Recycling plastic is not the panacea people may think it is. Most plastics are reincarnated once or twice then end up in the landfill. Recycling plastic doesn’t eliminate waste, it just delays its inevitable journey to the landfill. That is when it comes to mechanical recycling.

Chemical recycling ( where plastics are broken down into their basic molecular parts) is a different story. That process could allow us to endlessly recycle plastic, unfortunately, it is incredibly expensive. Who knows, maybe someday that technology’s time will come.

But my issue is that the bulk of the burden in solving the problems associated with our reliance on fossil fuels is put on developing nations, the consumers, independent researchers, and waste managers to deal with it. Should oil companies and plastic manufacturers not be held accountable? Should they be able to keep pumping out the products that cause litter and emissions and then expect someone else to clean up their mess? These are externalities of the products they produce, they hold some responsibility for this.

I’ve acknowledged that oil companies make my life easier. I know from experience that most people who work in that industry are good people who feel they are providing essential resources needed to sustain our way of life here in the oil age. Globally, the fossil fuel industry employs nearly 32 million people. (As a side note, the clean energy sector employs even more than that; in 2023 for the first time, more than 40% of the world’s electricity came from “zero-carbon” emitting sources.)

When evidence is brought up about the harm fossil fuels are having on our planet, those in the fossil fuel industry feel like it is an assault on their livelihood, and the traditional way of life we’ve all become accustomed to; and, well… it kinda is.

I don’t want to vilify everybody in the oil industry but as Emily Atkin stated in her Substack, Heated:

…here’s the thing: If an industry doesn’t acknowledge the massive harm of its products; then publicly denies those harms for decades while acknowledging them internally; then makes false promises to fix those harms once forced to acknowledge them; and then spends billions to delay time-sensitive solutions through advertising, lobbying, campaign spending, and public school educational material—then yeah. I think it’s fair to say an industry has entered villain territory.

Many individuals argue against government overreach, opposing laws and taxes that compel companies and the public to adapt. Some believe that regulations on pollution and waste place an excessive burden on industries, asserting that the free market is capable of addressing these issues. They advocate for minimizing government involvement and allowing the private sector to handle the situation.

Fine then, I say, put up or shut up. Where are the leaders from that industry willing to address it? It’s not like they can’t afford to. The top five US-based oil and gas companies made more than $250 billion in profits between 2021 and 2023. Darren Woods, the CEO of ExxonMobil, alone made $37 million last year. Maybe he, or other leaders in that field can put some of their income or devote some of their companies’ record profits towards solving the problems we all agree exist instead of gaslighting us about how fossil fuels are not to blame.

Every single day, all around the world, more and more people are taking action on plastic, climate change, fossil fuel use, and how we manage our resources. It’s like a snowball rolling downhill gathering speed; and when that snowball comes barreling toward us and our way of life, we have two choices. Get out of the way and get left behind, or hop on and help steer it in the right direction. Cause it’s happening, it will take a while, but the oil age is inevitably coming to a close.

What will come next? Time will tell. I’m an old guy who hopes to live until at least 2050, I’d love to live longer. I want to see what our bright, young, creative minds come up with.