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Plastic Free Delaware
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • MISSION & HISTORY
    • WHO WE ARE
    • 2022 ANNUAL REPORT
    • IN THE NEWS
  • SINGLE USE PLASTICS
    • SINGLE USE PLASTICS
    • BAGS
    • BALLOONS
    • POLYSTYRENE FOAM
    • STRAWS
  • ZERO WASTE
    • ZERO WASTE PRINCIPLES
    • FOOD WASTE/COMPOSTING
    • RIGHT TO REPAIR
  • COMMUNITY COMPOSTING
    • ABOUT DCCI
    • DCCI SITES
    • DCCI SCHOOL PROGRAMS
    • COMPOSTING RESOURCES
  • EDUCATION/PROGRAMS
    • YES! YOUTH SUMMIT
    • DE COMPOSTING INITIATIVE
    • WILD&SCENIC FILM PROGRAM
    • HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTT
    • SCHOOL RESOURCES
    • WEBINARS
  • GET INVOLVED!
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SINGLE-USE PLASTIC POLLUTION

Climate Change

Environmental Injustice

Environmental Injustice

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Environmental Injustice

Environmental Injustice

Environmental Injustice

.

Animals & Habitats

Environmental Injustice

Animals & Habitats

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Human Health

Environmental Injustice

Animals & Habitats

From extraction of oil and natural gas, to refining, manufacturing, transporting, and disposal, single-use plastics are proven to impact human health in a myriad of ways.   LEARN MORE

TRACKING THE DATA

HUMAN HEALTH IMPACTS

The life cycle of plastic bags and other plastics which become “fugitive” in our environment threatens public health.  Plastic does not biodegrade in the environment.  Instead, it photo-degrades (breaks down from exposure to sunlight), oxidizes and physically breaks down from wave action.  This creates increasingly smaller particles of plastic which absorb pollutants from surrounding water. Because plastics are buoyant, they are carried long distances by marine currents. Plastic particles have been found to transport pollutants to such distant locations as the Arctic and presents the opportunity for bioaccumulation in geographically distant food chains.


Plastic particles concentrate metals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and persistent organic pollutants, including PCBs flame retardants. Small plastic particles in the ocean have contained concentrations of PCBs more than 1,000,000 times greater than the surrounding water. When eaten by marine species, especially plankton, these pollutants enter the marine food web. The bioaccumulation of toxics in marine predators and commercially valuable species has far-reaching effects on human health.


Despite these risks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not yet monitor for many of the toxins that could be found in fish and shellfish. Fish consumption advisories for commercial seafood are sometimes based on samples taken many years ago, well before plastic particles became recognized by the scientific community as a problem (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2011; U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2012). In addition, many of the microbes that are found to accumulate on plastic particles have not yet even been identified by science.


In addition to the secondary health impacts of plastics that contaminate seafood, the manufacturing to production to disposing of “single-use plastics” causes many health problems from respiratory illness to carcinogens.  As a large proportion of single use plastic product manufacturing relies on hydraulically-fractured natural gas, plastics use is linked to the environmental impacts of fracking. 


Another little-studied health impact of plastic bags involves the visual, psychological, emotional and health effects of plastics in our air, water and soil. 


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/microplastics-detected-in-human-blood-180979826/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022001258 


Newly released report outlines plastic pollution's health implications:https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Plastic-and-Health-The-Hidden-Costs-of-a-Plastic-Planet-February-2019.pdfhttps://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Plastic-and-Health-The-Hidden-Costs-of-a-Plastic-Planet-EXECUTIVE-SUMMARY-February-2019.pdf 

Andrady 2011 Microplastics in the marine environment (pdf)Download
Betts 2008 Why small plastic particles may pose a big problem in the oceans (pdf)Download
Cole 2011 Microplastics as contaminants in the marine environment (pdf)Download
Derriak 2002 The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris (pdf)Download
Moore 2001 A comparison of plastic and plankton in the north Pacific Central Gyre (pdf)Download
Moore 2008 Synthetic polymers in the marine environment - a rapidly increasing long-term threat (pdf)Download
Rochman 2015 - Anthropogenic debris in seafood sold for human consumption (pdf)Download
Zarfl 2010 - Are marine plastic particles transport vectors for organic pollutants to the Arctic (pdf)Download

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Plastic Free Delaware is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, EIN #85-2916447


Non-discrimination Statement:

Plastic Free Delaware does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender expression, age, national origin, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations. 

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