In a memorable scene from the 1967 movie The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin Braddock is told, “There’s a great future in plastics.” The line was prophetic. Plastics are strong, lightweight, cheap to produce, endlessly flexible, and resistant to corrosion—qualities that have made them an integral part of modern life.
Omnipresent in product packaging and food wrappers, clothing and footwear, water pipes, building materials, and electronics, plastics have enabled us to keep food fresher for longer and reduced food waste, facilitated advancements in healthcare and medical devices, helped us manufacture more fuel-efficient cars and airplanes and energy-saving homes, and delivered public health benefits.
But plastics are also durable—extraordinarily so. Once in nature, they can take between 20 and 500 years to degrade. Even then, plastics never really disappear; they break down over time into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics—particles measuring less than 5 mm (about the size of a grain of rice), which mounting evidence suggests may pose significant threats to human health.
Shed into the environment and easily ingested or inhaled, these tiny specks have been detected in human blood, hearts, brains, livers, and even placentas. Recent studies have shown that exposure to microplastics may be associated with some cancers, heart and lung diseases, and neurological issues. And though research on their effects is still limited, scientists suspect microplastics could be a factor in Alzheimer’s and infertility, among other conditions.
Thousands of the more than 13,000 chemicals used in plastics are also considered hazardous, particularly in high concentrations. Leached from everyday products, water, and food into our bodies, “forever chemicals” such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs)—found in nonstick cookware, carpets, and waterproof clothes—are known carcinogens that can disrupt hormones. Then there’s the pollution tied to plastics production. In communities where large numbers of plastic-producing petrochemical factories are located, chemicals that contaminate air and drinking water have been linked to alarming environmental and health impacts, with historically disenfranchised people often hit the hardest.