Around half of all plastic waste is from single use items. This in turn leads to microplastic pollution in the environment. This has triggered a growing trend to ban or reduce the sale of single use plastics around the world. In 2024, the Biden administration announced a national strategy to reduce plastic pollution. Several US states have banned single use plastic bags. And many companies have limited their use voluntarily. However, this may come with an unexpected environmental cost by driving increased use of PFAS compounds.
What are single use plastics?
Single use plastics refers to items that are designed to be used once and then thrown away. This includes things like:
- Plastic bottle caps
- Drinking straws
- Fast food containers
- Sachets for sauces to go with your fast food
- Disposable plastic bags
- Plastic packaging on fresh food
If you start to look, you will quickly notice how many items fall into this category.
Why are they a problem?
The big issue with single use plastics is that they typically end up in landfills or other waste. There are various reasons for this. Often, the items are too small to economically sort and recycle. Or they are contaminated with food, making it really hard to recycle them. In other cases, they are made of materials that are hard to recycle, like expanded polystyrene. This is in contrast to things like plastic bottles that are relatively easy to recycle.
What are companies doing to replace them?
Many companies are coming up with innovative approaches to replacing single use plastics with alternative materials. Some companies are using novel materials, others are innovating by repurposing existing approaches. Let’s look at a few of these approaches.
Bamboo fibers
Bamboo is something of a miraculous material. Some species of bamboo can grow 1.5 inches an hour. That means in a week, the plant could have grown over 20 feet. Now that’s an extreme case, but many species of bamboo can grow several feet in a week. That makes it a very attractive material for harvesting and reusing. Bamboo fibers have started to be used in many ways, including clothing, paper, and boards. This means bamboo is ideal to create alternatives to single use plastics. It is used to make disposable dinnerware, paper straws, and many other things.
Seaweed based plastics
Seaweed is another miracle of nature. It grows rapidly, and many species exhibit strange properties when they are processed and cooked. One company, Sway, is harnessing seaweed in a whole range of different ways. These include:
- Resins that can replace many injection molded plastics
- Films that are flexible and thin enough to use for food wrappers
- Replacements for the plastic windows on food packaging
- Compostable mailer bags
And there are other companies experimenting with the use of seaweed as an alternative to plastic, especially for packaging.
Biodegradable plastics
Biodegradable plastics have been around for quite a long time. They are typically produced from organic material that may be a byproduct of food production, or may be grown for this purpose. The most common types are::
- Thermoplastic starches
- Polylactic acid (PLA)
- Cellulose
These can all be used for a variety of food packaging as well as disposable cutlery and plates.
How does this increase PFAS exposure and pollution?
Reducing plastic use is undeniably a good thing. But as with so many things, there are unexpected downsides.
A 2023 paper published by scientists at the University of Antwerp in the Netherlands tested 39 different brands of drinking straws made from a variety of materials. These were plastic, stainless steel, glass, paper, and bamboo. They were looking for the presence of PFAS compounds. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are widely used to make objects waterproof, greaseproof, or stain resistant. They are often called forever chemicals because they break down so slowly in the environment. Increasingly, they are linked with serious health issues including cancers, cardiovascular disease, neurotoxicity, and immunosuppression.
The researchers found that every single type of straw contained PFAS, apart from the ones made from stainless steel. More worryingly, the greatest concentrations of PFAS were found in the straws made from bamboo and paper. This shouldn’t be surprising, since many plastic alternatives have to be coated with PFAS to make them suitable for food use. PFAS helps make the material waterproof or greaseproof.
What can you do about this?
This highlights the conflict between being environmentally aware and controlling toxin exposure. Fortunately, there are some concrete steps you can take if you are concerned about the environment but also want to reduce your exposure to harmful PFAS compounds. Firstly, try to replace single use items with reusable alternatives, ideally choosing stainless steel or similar. Secondly, avoid fast food as this tends to be packaged in containers coated with PFAS. If you do get fast food, try to go somewhere that allows you to take your own food containers. Thirdly, be aware of potential sources of PFAS in your life. PFAS compounds are used because of specific properties:
- Waterproofness: e.g. breathable waterproof membranes and waterproof coatings on clothes
- Greaseproofness: e.g. coatings on fast food containers, such as the box your favorite burger came in
- Stain resistance: e.g. coatings on furniture and carpets that reduce staining
- Non stick surfaces: e.g. non stick coatings on cookware
Almost anything exhibiting these properties may contain PFAS. But sadly, avoiding PFAS can be hard. “PFAS Free” is currently an unregulated term, so even things claiming to have no PFAS may actually contain it.
