Hello hello, welcome back to this week's edition of Sunday Chillin'! We are now more than halfway through 2023, feel old yet?
Not Great
Something that I feel quite strongly about is that plastic is one of the worst discoveries humanity has ever made and should be avoided at all costs. I don't tend to mention this to many people because it's simply not an Opinion™ that anyone wants to hear.
After all, our everyday lives are suffused with so much plastic paraphernalia that it's almost impossible to avoid it entirely. But I think many people don't tend to worry much about plastic simply because they don't necessarily know or understand what makes it so bad.
Of course, we've all heard the tired "each time you drink through a plastic straw, it's like you're personally choking a small, defenseless sea turtle to death with your bare hands at its birthday party in front of its friends" bit. [1] Or maybe you've heard some fact about the huge mass of trash that meanders around somewhere in the Pacific Ocean strangling a dolphin or two.
I'm not really claiming that these are incorrect or not worthy of our attention. What I am claiming is that viewing the issue of plastic this way is not likely to actually affect any change in people's behaviors. You may briefly feel some sort of pity for this hypothetical sea turtle that you are murdering in cold blood, but what does the Sea Turtle Preservation Society expect you to do? Carry a sustainable bamboo straw with you everywhere you go just in case you have a hankerin' for some boba?? Unlikely. [2]
So today, I'd like to take some time to delve into some of the issues surrounding plastic and its place in our society. I hope that by the end of this, you too will try to minimize it as much as you can in your life. If you don't want to read about this sort of topic because you prefer not to think about these things (perfectly understandable), then maybe you should just skip down to the music part of this newsletter. But for the rest of you, here's the one reason that I think you should care about plastic.
The main reason why I avoid plastics and why you should care to do so as well is because plastics cause a lot of health problems.
Study after study now shows that our constant exposure to plastic is indeed harming us, despite what plastic companies claim. They're now being incriminated in many immune and gut health problems that are becoming increasingly prevalent in worldwide populations.
Partially, this is due to the fact that society often uses plastic products in ways that are not particularly safe. For example, how many food containers have you seen that are just straight up plastic that people place in the microwave? Large plastic pieces are relatively inert at cooler temperatures, but they really shouldn't be in contact with food when they're heated up. These high temperatures cause the plastic to release lots of carcinogens, many of which are not well-understood. [3]
However, we have been able to draw more correlations between heated plastics and increases in obesity, many other metabolic disorders, reduced fertility, and cancer. Remember the whole "BPA-free" movement that swept consumer grade Nalgene water bottles for years and years? That happened because it was shown that Bisphenol A causes cancer.
Phew, thank goodness that was removed! I wonder what they use now? Oh shucks, my sources tell me that now they use Bisphenol S (BPS) and Bisphenol F (BPF). And before you get too excited about these new wonder chemicals, I regret to inform you that studies are finding similar effects from exposure to these replacements as well. [4] So it might be a good idea to stay away from this class of chemicals as a whole.
And I'm sure you've all heard the hubbub around "microplastics." Microplastics, for those of you that are unfamiliar with the formal definition, are plastic fragments that result from the breakdown of other consumer plastic goods. They are often in the micron or sub-micron size range, hence the "micro-" prefix. These minuscule fragments have now been found in every part of the globe, from the highest peaks of the Himalayas to the deepest parts of the Mariana Trench.
"Big whoop, I don't intend on visiting the Mariana Trench within the next 3 years," you might be saying to yourself. [5] But alas, microplastics (and their even more devious younger siblings nanoplastics) have now been found in human blood circulation, breast milk, and have even been shown to have the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. Truly no corner of the world is safe.
On one hand, the ubiquity of microplastics in every crevice of your body is a pretty good reason to stop caring. If these plastics are truly that prevalent in nature, what's the point in being vigilant in every day life?
But on the other hand, minimizing how many plastic byproducts you knowingly introduce into your body can only be good for you in the long run. I don't have any data supporting this of course, since the existence of microplastics has only been widely recognized for the last 5 or so years.
I could go on and give you a lot of other reasons about why plastics are The Devil's Solution™ to the human desire for infinite convenience, but really, I think avoiding plastic for the entirely selfish reason of wanting to maintain your own health is good enough. [6]
As for alternatives, I recommend substituting glass and metal for plastic whenever possible. One thing that I try to do nowadays is to only keep hot food in glass or metal containers. No leaching of chemicals, no burnt taste transferred to my food, easy cleanup. Win-win-win.
I know, I know, these are heavier, more cumbersome, and they tend to be more expensive too. But you know what else is even heavier, even more cumbersome, and even more expensive? American Healthcare. Better safe than sorry I think. [7]
Moving away from the food category (though I think it is the most important), I also try my best to avoid polyester clothing or fabrics. Polyester is just another form of plastic so probably a good idea to err on the side of caution when possible here too.
I think it's important to note that you shouldn't think that you need to make all these changes super quickly. Progress is never sustainable that way. But re-orienting your mind towards defaulting to items that don't contain plastic will allow you to slowly break your plastic habit.
My hope is that this newsletter scared you just enough to re-examine how you use plastic in your life and how you can reduce its use even a little. If you use 10% less plastic after reading this, that's good enough for me. And if you eliminate plastic entirely, I'll give you a sticker. It'll be a pretty cool sticker too, probably. Let that marinate in your mind.
After all, our everyday lives are suffused with so much plastic paraphernalia that it's almost impossible to avoid it entirely. But I think many people don't tend to worry much about plastic simply because they don't necessarily know or understand what makes it so bad.
Of course, we've all heard the tired "each time you drink through a plastic straw, it's like you're personally choking a small, defenseless sea turtle to death with your bare hands at its birthday party in front of its friends" bit. [1] Or maybe you've heard some fact about the huge mass of trash that meanders around somewhere in the Pacific Ocean strangling a dolphin or two.
I'm not really claiming that these are incorrect or not worthy of our attention. What I am claiming is that viewing the issue of plastic this way is not likely to actually affect any change in people's behaviors. You may briefly feel some sort of pity for this hypothetical sea turtle that you are murdering in cold blood, but what does the Sea Turtle Preservation Society expect you to do? Carry a sustainable bamboo straw with you everywhere you go just in case you have a hankerin' for some boba?? Unlikely. [2]
So today, I'd like to take some time to delve into some of the issues surrounding plastic and its place in our society. I hope that by the end of this, you too will try to minimize it as much as you can in your life. If you don't want to read about this sort of topic because you prefer not to think about these things (perfectly understandable), then maybe you should just skip down to the music part of this newsletter. But for the rest of you, here's the one reason that I think you should care about plastic.
The main reason why I avoid plastics and why you should care to do so as well is because plastics cause a lot of health problems.
Study after study now shows that our constant exposure to plastic is indeed harming us, despite what plastic companies claim. They're now being incriminated in many immune and gut health problems that are becoming increasingly prevalent in worldwide populations.
Partially, this is due to the fact that society often uses plastic products in ways that are not particularly safe. For example, how many food containers have you seen that are just straight up plastic that people place in the microwave? Large plastic pieces are relatively inert at cooler temperatures, but they really shouldn't be in contact with food when they're heated up. These high temperatures cause the plastic to release lots of carcinogens, many of which are not well-understood. [3]
However, we have been able to draw more correlations between heated plastics and increases in obesity, many other metabolic disorders, reduced fertility, and cancer. Remember the whole "BPA-free" movement that swept consumer grade Nalgene water bottles for years and years? That happened because it was shown that Bisphenol A causes cancer.
Phew, thank goodness that was removed! I wonder what they use now? Oh shucks, my sources tell me that now they use Bisphenol S (BPS) and Bisphenol F (BPF). And before you get too excited about these new wonder chemicals, I regret to inform you that studies are finding similar effects from exposure to these replacements as well. [4] So it might be a good idea to stay away from this class of chemicals as a whole.
And I'm sure you've all heard the hubbub around "microplastics." Microplastics, for those of you that are unfamiliar with the formal definition, are plastic fragments that result from the breakdown of other consumer plastic goods. They are often in the micron or sub-micron size range, hence the "micro-" prefix. These minuscule fragments have now been found in every part of the globe, from the highest peaks of the Himalayas to the deepest parts of the Mariana Trench.
"Big whoop, I don't intend on visiting the Mariana Trench within the next 3 years," you might be saying to yourself. [5] But alas, microplastics (and their even more devious younger siblings nanoplastics) have now been found in human blood circulation, breast milk, and have even been shown to have the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. Truly no corner of the world is safe.
On one hand, the ubiquity of microplastics in every crevice of your body is a pretty good reason to stop caring. If these plastics are truly that prevalent in nature, what's the point in being vigilant in every day life?
But on the other hand, minimizing how many plastic byproducts you knowingly introduce into your body can only be good for you in the long run. I don't have any data supporting this of course, since the existence of microplastics has only been widely recognized for the last 5 or so years.
I could go on and give you a lot of other reasons about why plastics are The Devil's Solution™ to the human desire for infinite convenience, but really, I think avoiding plastic for the entirely selfish reason of wanting to maintain your own health is good enough. [6]
As for alternatives, I recommend substituting glass and metal for plastic whenever possible. One thing that I try to do nowadays is to only keep hot food in glass or metal containers. No leaching of chemicals, no burnt taste transferred to my food, easy cleanup. Win-win-win.
I know, I know, these are heavier, more cumbersome, and they tend to be more expensive too. But you know what else is even heavier, even more cumbersome, and even more expensive? American Healthcare. Better safe than sorry I think. [7]
Moving away from the food category (though I think it is the most important), I also try my best to avoid polyester clothing or fabrics. Polyester is just another form of plastic so probably a good idea to err on the side of caution when possible here too.
I think it's important to note that you shouldn't think that you need to make all these changes super quickly. Progress is never sustainable that way. But re-orienting your mind towards defaulting to items that don't contain plastic will allow you to slowly break your plastic habit.
My hope is that this newsletter scared you just enough to re-examine how you use plastic in your life and how you can reduce its use even a little. If you use 10% less plastic after reading this, that's good enough for me. And if you eliminate plastic entirely, I'll give you a sticker. It'll be a pretty cool sticker too, probably. Let that marinate in your mind.
Plastic-Themed Songs?
Honestly, this is extremely contrived but there are indeed many songs in my playlists that have plastic in the title. I'll stick with these songs out of obligation for thematic continuity, but thankfully, they're all actually quite good too.
Plastic Soldiers - Portugal, The Man
Spotify | YouTube
Plastic Plants - Mahalia
Spotify | YouTube
Plastic 100ºC - Sampha [8]
Spotify | YouTube
Plastic Beach - Gorillaz (feat. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
Spotify | YouTube
Plastic Love - Mariya Takeuchi
Spotify | YouTube
Next week will begin another round of musical-genre themed newsletters. Should be a nice change of pace from all this doom and gloom, hold on to your britches.
See you all next Sunday!
suhaas
————————————————————————————
If you'd like to share this newsletter with your friends, please direct them to this link.
Here are Spotify and YouTube playlists with all the songs so far.
[1] Of course, there's no way for us to know whether death by plastic is the preferred way of kicking the bucket for the common sea turtle. Can one really say whether turtles like being eaten by a gang of sharks or would rather be choked by a Starbucks straw? I'm not sure that we can assume and I've never found studies asking a turtle directly.
[2] Now, if I were asked to carry a straw as a condition of entrance into The Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles (also known as the Turtle Club), then I might reconsider. That's something I'd put on my LinkedIn tbh.
[3] You may have heard of "food-safe" plastic. This is a scam. As far as I can tell, it only refers to types of plastic that haven't been rigorously studied. Give it 10 years, I'm sure those will get phased out for different "better" plastic as well. Also I was surprised to learn a number of years ago that even cold plastic leaches chemicals into food (though less than hot plastic). Unfortunate.
[4] The statistically astute among you may triumphantly point to the fact that these are correlations and not causations. And to some extent, I'll give you that. But if so many studies show such strong correlations between plastic use and some of the worst health effects known to man, I'm not sure that it's a great idea to ignore it in favor of academic nitpicking. Remember when there were no causative studies on the effects of fossil fuel consumption driving climate change for like 40 years because oil companies lobbied against those studies? Have you ever thought about how plastic is a petroleum-based product? Probably just a coincidence.
[5] Who knows what the future holds? Maybe you'll be visiting there for a family vacation as submarine fares drop.
[6] I honestly feel like it's easier just to think of massive problems from a selfish angle. We can't even begin to fathom the enormity of most issues, so why not just try your best at self-preservation and go from there?
[7] If you are European or come from another country where they don't charge you for every breath you take at the doctor's office, then I suppose you have some more leeway. But wouldn't you rather be kayaking in some picturesque fjord instead? Seems like an easy choice to make.
[8] 100ºC is an unsafe environment to use plastic in, please don't let this song give you any ideas. With the tone of the song though, he may very well be warning you of the despair of exposure to heated plastic. On that note, my brother actually hates this song due to its melancholy character. YMMV.
Plastic Soldiers - Portugal, The Man
Spotify | YouTube
Plastic Plants - Mahalia
Spotify | YouTube
Plastic 100ºC - Sampha [8]
Spotify | YouTube
Plastic Beach - Gorillaz (feat. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
Spotify | YouTube
Plastic Love - Mariya Takeuchi
Spotify | YouTube
Next week will begin another round of musical-genre themed newsletters. Should be a nice change of pace from all this doom and gloom, hold on to your britches.
See you all next Sunday!
suhaas
————————————————————————————
If you'd like to share this newsletter with your friends, please direct them to this link.
Here are Spotify and YouTube playlists with all the songs so far.
[1] Of course, there's no way for us to know whether death by plastic is the preferred way of kicking the bucket for the common sea turtle. Can one really say whether turtles like being eaten by a gang of sharks or would rather be choked by a Starbucks straw? I'm not sure that we can assume and I've never found studies asking a turtle directly.
[2] Now, if I were asked to carry a straw as a condition of entrance into The Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles (also known as the Turtle Club), then I might reconsider. That's something I'd put on my LinkedIn tbh.
[3] You may have heard of "food-safe" plastic. This is a scam. As far as I can tell, it only refers to types of plastic that haven't been rigorously studied. Give it 10 years, I'm sure those will get phased out for different "better" plastic as well. Also I was surprised to learn a number of years ago that even cold plastic leaches chemicals into food (though less than hot plastic). Unfortunate.
[4] The statistically astute among you may triumphantly point to the fact that these are correlations and not causations. And to some extent, I'll give you that. But if so many studies show such strong correlations between plastic use and some of the worst health effects known to man, I'm not sure that it's a great idea to ignore it in favor of academic nitpicking. Remember when there were no causative studies on the effects of fossil fuel consumption driving climate change for like 40 years because oil companies lobbied against those studies? Have you ever thought about how plastic is a petroleum-based product? Probably just a coincidence.
[5] Who knows what the future holds? Maybe you'll be visiting there for a family vacation as submarine fares drop.
[6] I honestly feel like it's easier just to think of massive problems from a selfish angle. We can't even begin to fathom the enormity of most issues, so why not just try your best at self-preservation and go from there?
[7] If you are European or come from another country where they don't charge you for every breath you take at the doctor's office, then I suppose you have some more leeway. But wouldn't you rather be kayaking in some picturesque fjord instead? Seems like an easy choice to make.
[8] 100ºC is an unsafe environment to use plastic in, please don't let this song give you any ideas. With the tone of the song though, he may very well be warning you of the despair of exposure to heated plastic. On that note, my brother actually hates this song due to its melancholy character. YMMV.