Everyday Sources of Hidden Plastics
It’s finally Plastic-Free July, which means it’s time to take stock of all the single-use plastics in your life, in order to move towards more sustainable, reusable, or compostable alternatives. While it’s easy to spot some plastic items and identify them as such, like disposable cutlery, clamshell packaging, and cushioned poly mailers, others have become so ingrained into our daily lives that we might not even know about them. Thanks to the fossil fuels industry, there's plastic hidden almost everywhere. Here are some lesser known sources of plastic that might be found in your home and daily life, and simple alternatives for how to replace them.
Clothes & Textiles
One often forgotten-about source of plastic in our everyday lives is the synthetic fibers found in our clothing, blankets, carpets, and other textiles. These plastic fabrics make clothing and other textiles cheap, stretchable, quick-drying, and easy to mass manufacture, but are known to shed microplastics and make fabric recycling virtually impossible.
For the most part, it seems straightforward to find out the fiber contents of the clothing that you’re buying, as most have their components listed right on the label. However, these labels might not be telling the whole story. While the fabric content may be accurate, most labels don’t include the contents of any functional or structural pieces to the garments, like the thread used, inks for graphics, interfacing or logo patches, elastics for fit, or even the large silky sewn-in tags with washing instructions. These small pieces of synthetic materials, along with larger pieces of acrylic, rayon, polyester, and nylon fabrics, all shed microplastic particles whenever they’re washed. This is especially detrimental, as these synthetic fabrics make up around 60% of clothing materials worldwide, have been found contaminating even the most remote regions of the planet from the Mariana Trench to the Antarctic, and are even appearing in our drinking water.
Alternatives:
When looking for clothing and textiles, stick to natural fibers when possible. These fabrics can last a lot longer than tearable and hard to mend synthetics, and can actually regulate body temperature much better! Wool provides great insulation for both hot and cold temperatures and is water-repellant, while cotton is known for softness, lightness, and breathability. Linens are lightweight, fast drying, and highly breathable, and have been used for thousands of years to make clothing in Ancient Egypt, the Middle East, and around the Mediterranean. Of course, we always recommend purchasing certified organic or fair trade whenever possible, as these have a much more beneficial impact on the environment as well as guaranteeing the rights of workers who make the items for us.
Thrifting is a great way to find new-to-you items to spice up your wardrobe and home, and buying pre-owned items is much better for the environment anyways! One downside to second-hand shopping is sometimes tags have been removed or aren’t visible and the material content is a mystery. If you do have synthetic items or clothing with possible mixed fibers, don’t toss it all out! When washing any synthetics, try putting them into a microplastic washing bag or attaching a microplastic filter to your washer setup. These will help capture microplastics to prevent them from going into our waterways, especially with recycled synthetic fabrics, as the material degradation may lead to more microplastics being released.
Cookware
Another surprising place you’ll likely find plastic is in the kitchen. While there are obvious plastic items like food storage containers and plastic covered appliances, some items might be less obvious to the everyday chef. Items like “rubber” coated whisks and tongs or “silicone” spatulas are just another hiding place for plastics to sneak their way into your lives. While there are a ton of high-quality, safe to use silicone products out there, there are as many, if not more, cheap alternatives made with plastic fillers. Because many of these fillers are unlisted materials or quantities mixed in with actual silicone, there is no way to verify what chemicals they might expel or how heat-proof they are. Just saying “silicone” or “rubber” leaves a lot up to the imagination, and a lot of wiggle room for companies and manufacturers to hide the plastic fillers and other additives. For more on actual silicone vs fake silicone, along with ways to check your current products, check out our article all about the silicone in the kitchen.
Speaking of non-stick items, pots and pans coated in a non-stick finish are similarly lined with synthetics. While not exactly plastic as we typically think of it, teflon or other non-stick coatings are made of a synthetic polymer called Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Up until 2016, a chemical called Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) was used in PTFE production, when it was phased out by the EPA and US manufacturers. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a section of the World Health Organization (WHO), has classified PFOA as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. Newer chemicals introduced to non-stick coatings, like GenX, are similarly labeled “forever chemical” for their inability to decompose, and will ultimately make their way into groundwater. GenX, PFOA, and other forever chemicals have been found in the drinking water of 49 US States.
Alternatives:
When shopping for silicone products (or other sustainable products for that matter), one of the best things to look for is transparency. Do the products list their material components? What about working temperature ranges? Are these specifications clear, or vague? All Simple Ecology silicone products are made of 100% Platinum-Cured Food Grade Silicone, and can be used between -76°F (-60°C) to +356 °F (180°C) or +446°F (+230°C), depending on the specific product. Because of their pure silicone components, they can be recycled through our Silicone Recycling Program designed specifically for our products.
Instead of synthetic coated non-stick pans, try out a good old-fashioned cast iron pan! While they’re known for being heavier and more expensive than cheap non-stick pans, cast iron is incredibly durable and will last for decades. They form their own non-stick surface over time, as leftover fats from cooking are heated, binding them to the metal surface. And don’t be intimidated by a seemingly daunting list of care instructions, they’re surprisingly simple to take care of. For a less maintenance heavy option, look for enamel coated cast iron or porcelain enamel, or check out this guide to non-toxic cookware.
Tea Bags & Coffee Strainers
Who doesn’t love a nice cup of tea or coffee? The bad news is, if you’re using disposable tea bags and coffee strainers, there may be plastics hidden inside. We first learned this ourselves when whole, practically-untouched tea bags were popping up in our finished compost pile. Even after leaving them in the dirt for a full 18 months, they just wouldn’t break down.
Many companies don’t list the components that are in their filters, so it’s hard to know which ones do and don’t contain plastic. Others claim their products are plastic-free, despite them being made of bio-plastics or other “not technically plastic” synthetic materials. The BBC did a deep-dive into the top 6 tea brands in the UK, and not surprisingly, almost all of them contain plastic. For coffee filters, it’s even more difficult to find which filters contain plastic, as there’s much less research done on the subject.
In most cases, the reusable versions of tea and coffee strainers are just made of different kinds of plastic than the disposable options, whether it be rigid hard plastic or soft plastic filled “silicone”. While these are reusable, and therefore don’t fill up a landfill as frequently as the single-use varieties, they still deposit millions of microplastic particles in your drinks.
Alternatives:
The best thing to do to avoid plastic in your tea and coffee is to purchase it loose and in bulk, then brew using a reusable cloth or metal strainer. Head to your local bulk grocery stores to see what loose teas and coffees they have available, or look up any specialty tea shops or coffee roasters close to you, and forget to bring your own containers. Grocery chains like Mom’s Market and Sprouts have huge selections of coffee and teas in bulk, and for any Canadians, Bulk Barn is always a great choice. For online ordering, Arbor Teas offers an incredible selection of bulk teas, all of which are USDA Certified organic and come in backyard compostable packaging with clear disposal instructions.
For straining the tea and coffee, we prefer to use Organic Cotton Straining Bags for the job. Not only are they plastic free, they’re made of organic cotton, meaning there’s no residual pesticides on the cloth, they can be machine washed after use, and can be composted at the end of their life. They also come in 4 sizes specialized for tea, coffee, and nutmilk straining, and can be repurposed for almost any straining needs you can think of. Alternatively, metal tea and coffee strainers can also be used for crafting a plastic-free cup of cozy.
Pet Supplies
While having a pet is a wonderful source of companionship, happiness, and countless other surprising health benefits, not to mention the much appreciated work of service animals, the cute lil buggers often come with piles of plastic goods. If you’ve ever had a rambunctious dog, cat, or other free-range pet, you’ll know that they’re prone to destroying a copious amount of toys (and oftentimes, a fair amount of your own belongings too). While it’s great entertainment for you and them, the vast majority of pet toys are made out of and filled with plastic, which can be a serious problem.
For most soft dog and cat toys, everything from the colorful exterior fabric to fluffy white filling to high pitched squeakers are all, you guessed it, plastic. Even worse, these materials can easily be torn apart and eaten by pets, even when under close supervision. Hard plastic toys are more of the same, and when eaten can even cause choking, intestinal blockages, or other serious hazards, leading to dangerous health conditions that may require surgery, a huge amount of stress on you and your pet, and growing amounts of costly vet bills. Almost every pet owner we know (ourselves included) has had some sort of emergency trip to the vet due to plastic consumption, whether it be toy squeakers, cling film, food packaging, or mystery garbage. If you need more convincing, ask your vet about plastic-caused injuries and how to avoid them yourself.
Other pet necessities like collars, leashes, harnesses, food bowls, and more are almost all derived from plastics. Plastic pet food bowls and containers are cheap, lightweight, and durable, and are sometimes excessively chewed or licked post-meals, while synthetic leashes, blankets, and toys are cheap, easy to clean, quick drying. However, all this plastic being washed, chewed, and licked means that more microplastic particles are making their way into our water systems or into your pets mouth. Many plastics are known to leach harmful chemicals into contacting materials such as bisphenol A, phthalates, styrene, polychlorinated biphenyls, and more, which are known to cause infertility, disrupted hormones, nervous system problems, hearing loss, cancer, and weakened immune systems in humans, to name a few.
Alternatives:
When shopping for your pets, try to stick to more natural materials when possible. Metal food dishes are lightweight and easy to clean without leaching microplastic particles into the food or water. For accessories, Wiggly Woos offers a great selection of plastic-free leashes & harnesses for dogs (and cats!) made of natural materials like cotton, hemp, and cork, all with metal buckles. For toys, companies like Purrfectplay and Boba & Vespa have a bunch of natural and organic options to choose from, like catnip filled cloth mice and durable cotton tug ropes. Boba & Vespa also has a great article about their decision for making squeaker free dog toys. If you have birds, rodents, or other pets, check with a vet for a more specialized recommendation of toys and entertainment. Some starter ideas might include non-coated cardboard or vegetables and seeds for treats. For pet waste disposal (ie. poop bags), The Wildest has a wonderful article which dives into their take on compostable pet waste bags and advocacy for using post-consumer recycled bags instead.
Gift Wrapping & Decorations
Giving a gift is a great treat to bestow any time of the year, though mostly reserved for winter festivities, birthdays, anniversaries, and specialized holidays like Mothers & Fathers Day or Valentines. And while “it’s the thought that counts”, a lot of thought is not given to the copious amounts of packaging that we go through and where it will all end up.
While wrapping paper is often thought of as paper, more often than not it’s covered in plastic and synthetic coatings. If anything is shiny, metallic, reflective, or covered in glitter (the worst), then it contains plastic. On top of that, any tape, tags, bows, or synthetic shiny ribbon are similarly made entirely of plastic. After opening, especially during the holiday season, this wrapping is gathered up and put into recycling bins, and can contaminate batches of actually recyclable materials, sending everything to landfill.
Greeting cards come with similar problems. While paper cards and envelopes on their own are recyclable, any lined with foil, glitter, metallic ink, raised surfaces, musical elements, and more cannot be recycled, as these are made of plastic or mixed materials. Additionally, while many cards found at pharmacies come unwrapped, more “boutique” cards found anywhere from small specialty shops to large scale grocers like Trader Joes come individually packed in clear plastic film.
Alternatives:
Instead of going through the trouble of purchasing costly supplies to excessively wrap and decorating gifts, only for the paper to be ripped off and discarded in a matter of seconds, try a more minimalistic approach. Try out wrapping gifts (sans tape) in old newspaper, repurposed kraft packaging paper, or even large pieces of fabric. For a more decorative display, try out some Reusable Gift Wrap Bags, which make wrapping as quick and easy as could be. If you find yourself in possession of traditionally wrapped gifts, make the most of it and repurpose the wrapping. Do the classic parent move of carefully removing every piece of wrapping paper, ribbon, and bow, and then use these to jazz up a boring or branded paper bag into a reusable paper gift bag.
For a less consumerism-driven approach, try gifting experiences instead, in the form of date nights or home cooked meals, a trip to the beach or favorite hiking spot, museum visits, or a skilled hobby class. If you’re a fan of greeting cards, look for plantable cards, which are often made from recycled paper and contain flower or herb seeds and are designed to be planted in dirt for new plants to grow and bloom. For more tips on sustainable gift giving, check out our post all about sustainability during the holiday season.
