Prioritizing Plastics Key to Kicking Oil Addiction - Plus Reducing Waste & Pollution

photo: Geof Wilson Once we've gotten our priorities straight regarding reducing the massive amount of oil we use in transportation--largely because we've built our communities into places where most people need to drive rather than walk, bike or take public transit--there's another conceptually big issue that needs to tackled: What to do with plastic? Now, plastics alone don't amount to much out of a single barrel of oil compared to liquid fuels, but their utter ubiquity in our lives combined with the resultant massive waste management and water pollution issues means we've got some serious contemplation to do. Removing Plastics From Our Lives Will Be Tough As when I wrote about oil and transportation, I don't claim to have all the answers to solving our great plastic problem, but just want to encourage readers to start thinking about solutions seriously. Simply avoiding using all plastic is both impractical personally and impossible communally at the moment--as initially empowering it feels to say. Not to mention, as much as all-natural material loving people (including myself in that category) often don't want to admit it, plastic is an amazing substance that has plenty of important uses--even if we radically reduced its usage and our oil consumption in general. Make no bones about it, removing plastics from our lives is going to be tough. So, let's deal with the pointless use of plastic first.

The only solution is to collect it all; it will remain for a millennia otherwise. Photo: Zianub Razvi via flickr. Disposable Plastics Must Go, Period... The first way we need to address our plastic usage is acknowledging that disposable plastic products (with perhaps a few exceptions, medical usage pops to mind) are the most inane and inappropriate use of the material. To expend all that energy into extracting oil, or even raising plants for bioplastics, and then turning it into a material that never biodegrades, clogs waterways, and fills landfills, and yet using it in one-time use applications is absolutely ludicrous. Only by entirely ignoring what happens to the material once its intended lifetime is over is there any sense in it. Some of the solution to this is habitual--getting out of the habit of using disposable plastics products, be they cups or pens or cling wrap, and favoring product reuse and heirloom design--while some of it is bigger. If we place even a modicum of effort into it, more environmentally friendly, yet durable solutions to very nearly every current use of disposable plastic can be developed. From packaging to end product, this is a problem that design and technology can indeed fully solve. We don't need massive policy changes to accomplish it. But Plastic May Still Be The Right Material For The Job, Sometimes The second way is to recognize that when we want a product to last for generations and/or absolutely requires the uniquely durable and malleable characteristics of the material, then plastics may well be the best solution--provided we close the loop from manufacturing to disposal so that plastic pollution can be reigned in.

It may go against the conventional wisdom of the green community--especially in the middle of the gulf oil spill, plus one in the Yellow Sea off the coast of China-but in certain situations the benefits of using plastic probably outweigh the risks. The hippo water roller pictured above at left may be one of the most appropriate uses of plastic out there-lasting forever and radically reducing the workload of people using it to fetch water. Photo: Cristina Bejarano via flickr. Plastic Needn't & Shouldn't Be The Default Material Choice Which isn't to say that for many, many uses where plastic use is now the norm we couldn't or shouldn't use all-natural materials, we absolutely should. But there still may be times when plastic is appropriate. If we radically reduce our use of oil in other areas of our society, and abolish through habit and design the use of nearly all disposable plastics, then the plastic use which remains will far less of a waste disposal or pollution issue. A rough way to think about it (exceptions occur always): If it's disposable = nearly never use plastic and ensure recycling of waste. If it's non-disposable = is there a non-oil based material that will work as well and doesn't have the disposal issues or some other outweighing energy use or environmental concern? If so then use it. If not, and the product is both intended to last a lifetime or longer and needs the material characteristics of plastic, then perhaps use it--provided disposal is taken fully into consideration.

Want to Kick Our Oil Addiction? Let's Get Our Priorities Straight First
Mat McDermott Business / Corporate Responsibility July 14, 2010

photo: Joost J Bakker via flickr You'd have to be living in a cave since the beginning of the BP oil spill to not have heard, or made, statements about never letting this sort of environmental disaster happen again and kicking our oil addiction. There have even been checklists 50 items deep of ways you can use less oil. Before we act on that sentiment, (and let me be clear that we will be using less oil in the future, whether by choice, by supply shortages, or a combination of these), we need to get our priorities straight. Where are we using the most oil, and how can we decrease that? This Will Be A Long Transition Before we begin though, let me add that transitioning off oil isn't something which is going to happen overnight--we're talking a decades-long transition. Petroleum is so thoroughly embedded into all aspects of modern life, that it's not really possible for any individual to give up using oil. Using less or no oil is something that has to happen at a national level, even if popular pressure can start the zeitgeist shift. Nearly Three Quarters of Oil Goes to Transportation A short while ago Good Magazine ran a nicely clear chart of how the US consumes oil. Here are the top line stats, some of which you may know: Currently the US uses about 19.7 million barrels of oil a day (23% of the world total demand, for roughly 4% of global population). Of that, 71% goes to transportation via cars, trucks, buses, airplanes; 23% goes to industrial purposes (manufacturing, plastics, chemicals, etc); the remaining 6% goes to residential and

commercial uses, plus a small amount of electricity generation. Those stats are so skewed that it's worth stating it plainly again. 71% of all oil use in the United States goes to transporting ourselves, the things we buy, and the things we eat. That's not the goods themselves, mind you, just moving them around, and moving ourselves so we can consume them. If we're really going to start consuming less oil, this is where we ought to be putting most of our effort. Technological Change Part of Solution... How do we transform our transportation? At a technical level this topic is well covered on TreeHugger and pretty much every other green website.Electrifying small motorized vehicles, shifting long haul vehicles to natural gas, using biofuels in aviation as much as possible, cleaner burning fuels in shipping, all can play a part.

Very crudely: More of this... photo: Poom! via flickr.

And less of this... photo: Alex via flickr. ...But Creating Different Communities the Bigger Part On a policy level though, the issue is less flashy, and doesn't quite hold people's attention the way a shiny(!) new (!) Tesla (vroom) does. Which is too bad, because if we want to really use less oil, we have to construct our communities, our product manufacture and distribution chains so that less daily travel is needed. So the average person doesn't need to own a car at all. We have to create more walkable and bikeable communities. Beyond that we need to re-localize and regionalize economic activity for all those goods which can be produced in this way--recognizing that not everything can or should. Normally framed as a quality of life issue, when it comes down to it, creating more communities where the average person's daily needs are met on foot, on non-motorized vehicle and via public transportation, is the most critical piece of using less oil. Entire careers can be devoted to developing more pedestrian-friendly communities, so a few sentences here obviously won't suffice. But more than most everything else, this is what government policy and social norms have to begin supporting. Personally Get Off Oil by Driving & Flying Less, Walking & Biking More Where does personal action come in? Back at the start of the spill, the Nature Conservancy ran the numbers and found that if, on average, if everyone cut their daily driving down by 5.4 miles, the US could forego drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. That's a good first step on the individual level. Another one: Biking to work at least one day a week and then trying to expand it. Get that down and then move on to moving closer to where you work, and moving to a more human-scale community. Again, drilling this into your head, nearly three quarters of oil usage in the US goes to moving ourselves and the things we buy around. Reducing the amount of oil-based products you use is a good thing for many reasons--waste, pollution, health--but even better than that is changing the way and how far you and these goods are transported. Like this? Follow me on Twitter and Facebook. More on Oil, Walkable Communities & Transportation: 50 Years of Selling America Oil (Video) US Military: Massive Oil Shortages as Soon as 2015

Dense, Walkable Urban Cities Create YIMBY Neighbors Ten Reasons Not To Bike To Work: All Debunked, Threefold In Transition: The Transition Movement Documentary