Single-use plastic are those objects that are used one time and then disposed of. Examples include straws, cups, lids, cutlery, bottles, bags, and other kinds of packaging. Most single-use plastic is entirely avoidable or reusable.
Plastic never truly breaks down in the environment, and instead turns into tiny pieces called microplastics, defined as plastic particles smaller than five millimeters. The chart to the right from Our World in Data shows the decomposition rates of various items found in the ocean. The longest-lasting are mostly forms of single-use plastic. The most glaring result of this fact is that all of the plastic ever produced still exists, and will continue to exist for the forseeable future.
Most studies of current plastic levels mostly look at plastics in the oceans, but a clearer way to get the numbers is to simply look at the amount of plastic created. The chart below from Our World in Data shows the total global plastics production from 1950 (the time when plastic was first invented) until 2019. Comparing this data with that in the chart above, it becomes clear that all plastic produced in the past eighty years is still on the planet, and the total comes to several billions of tons of plastic - and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
Plastic is everywhere - sometimes blown away from its intended location, but more often is abandoned by those who don't bother with proper disposal. There isn't enough effort put forth for cleanups and litter prevention, and the ubiquitous nature of plastic pollutions means that serious problems are raised. Some of these include environmental damage, ingestion of microplastics and the obstruction of infrastructure.
Possibly the most publicized aspect of plastic pollution is that of environmental damage. It is entirely common to hear about tragic stories of animals killed by the ingestion of plastic. A video of a sea turtle with a straw rammed into its nose reached the Internet in 2018, causing public outrage. Fishing gear and plastic bags are constantly being found wrapped around various animals. Less publicized, but just as important, is the effect of microplastics on animal life. Anything that consumes water, consumes microplastic. This includes not just sealife, as is most commonly covered, but terrestrial plants, wildlife, and livestock. 1
Microplastics have been found in tissues from all kinds of living beings, including domesticated livestock, plant life, and human tissue. These microplastics come from many sources, partly from ingestion of contaminated water. Plants can absorb plastic from soil; which can come about when fertilized with contaminated matter or when plastic is tilled underneath the soil. Plastic can also leak into food from single-use packaging, meaning that people ingest about 35,000 pieces of microplastic daily - we are literally eating plastic. 1
This picture is an example of a way that plastic pollution can cause significant damage. With a particularly heavy rain, this culvert could become blocked by garbage and the water would begin to flood out. This has the potential to cause serious property damage. This is only a hypothetical situation, but entirely possible. In other cases, plastic can become jammed in equipment and cause expensive repairs.
Recycling is often promoted as a way to help the environment, and would be an efficient way to protect the environment under ideal circumstances. However, in most cases, plastic never makes it to the recycling plant, instead winding up thrown in landfills with ordinary garbage. This chart from Our World in Data shows the prevalence of this issue, pointing out specifically that the United States has the lowest percentage of landfilled plastic of anyone, and only Oceania has a higher percentage of landfilled plastic. This phenomenon has only been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it a spike in the use of plastic products and several restrictions on imports, which made it more difficult to send material for recycling. 2
Biodegradable plastic is typically defined as plastics that break down faster than typical; however, this is only under very specific conditions, and in most cases only accelerates the process of becoming microplastics. They also require specialized facilites, very few of which exist, and the process of separation is expensive and often not worth the cost. All in all, biodegradable plastic does almost nothing to offer relief from the problem of plastic pollution. 3