📘 Part 3: Plastic products

This episode's vocabulary

Packaging (noun) - the materials in which objects are wrapped before being sold.

Excessive (adj.) - too much.

Alternative (noun) - something that is different from something else, especially from what is usual, and offering the possibility of choice.

Impractical (adj.) - impractical arrangements, ideas, or methods cannot be done or used easily or effectively.

Cardboard (noun) - material like very thick, stiff paper, usually pale brown in colour, used especially for making boxes.

Lining (noun) - a material or substance that covers the inside surface of something.

Tie (noun) - any piece of string, plastic, metal, etc. that is used to fasten or hold together something

Thermosetting (adj.) - thermosetting substances can be melted and formed into shapes that become hard and cannot be melted again.

Biodegradable (adj.) - able to decay naturally and in a way that is not harmful.

To speculate (verb) - to guess possible answers to a question when you do not have enough information to be certain.

Carton (noun) - a box made from thick cardboard, for storing goods, or a container made from cardboard or plastic, in which milk or fruit juice, etc. is sold.

Readily (adverb) - quickly, immediately, willingly, or without any problem.

Redeeming (adj.) - making someone or something seem less bad.

Long-lasting (adj.) - continuing for a long period of time.

To degrade (verb) - (of a substance) to change into a more simple chemical structure.

Microbeads (plural noun) - very small pieces of plastic that are added to products for cleaning the skin.

Endocrine (adj.) - relating to any of the organs of the body that make hormones (= chemicals that make the body grow and develop) and put them into the blood, or to the hormones that they make.

To refer to something (phrasal verb) - to look at something for information or help.

To wrap something up (phrasal verb) - to cover or surround something in paper, cloth, or other material.

-

Questions and Answers

M: Should we use plastic products, Rory?

R: I'm not sure what else we're supposed to use, to be honest. There's some packaging that is excessive, of course. But certain products have to be made with plastic because the alternatives are impractical. I mean, could you imagine using a laptop made of cardboard?

M: How can we reduce our use of plastic?

R: I'm hardly an expert. But if I were to guess, either removing or replacing certain components or elements of packaging would be a good place to start. For example, you don't really need your earphones delivered in a hard plastic case with a plastic lining and plastic cable ties, which are, I think they're almost always thermoset and immediately going in the bin upon opening. You could replace all of that with biodegradable cardboard, probably.

M: What kinds of plastic waste are often seen in your country?

R: Well, I don't really know a great deal about environmental or waste management. Although if I were to speculate, I'd say it would be any sort of packaging, including containers, like bottles and cartons. After all, everything we eat apparently must be packed in something. I suppose there will also be a huge number of plastic bags and packets just blowing around in the breeze, which is unsightly.

M: Why do people like to use plastic products?

R: I'm not sure they like it. It's just what corporations have decided is the cheapest and most readily accessible material to use. If they could have done it more cheaply with a different material then they would have. The one redeeming feature that might draw people toward plastic, I mean, if you can call it redeeming, is that it's long-lasting and usually doesn't degrade so easily.

M: Is plastic packaging the worst thing, when it comes to climate change?

R: Oh, I think only an expert in the process of industrial plastic making could tell you that. Though, if I were to guess I'd say that climate change is surely more about what is put into the atmosphere. And I'm not sure if plastic is related to that significantly. It might be bad for food chains and other forms of life, which is quite serious. But in terms of how it affects climate change, I would speculate probably not that big of a deal.

M: And how might it affect food chains?

R: Well, for example, microbeads in certain face scrubs go into what they get washed down the sink and they go into the food chain. And they're eaten by small fish, for example, which are then eaten by larger fish, and they're harvested and they are eaten by people. So plastic is actually in the food supply, which I don't think has positive consequences or could have positive consequences for anybody. I think somebody said that it affected endocrine levels, for example. So that's not good.

M: Is the amount of plastic we use increasing?

R: I have absolutely no idea. At a guess, I would say it might be decreasing slightly as companies become more environmentally aware and take measures to reduce plastic in their products. For example, my washing tubs come in a cardboard box. And you can see cardboard being used more and more as packaging in other things. But the population of the world is also increasing. So maybe that evens out any edge we might have had in reducing plastic. You would need to refer to the statistics to get a sure answer on that.

M: Is it better to buy goods with no packaging?

R: I'm not sure that's possible. However, we are possible getting things with reduced packaging would be a good idea until an alternative is created that isn't so harmful or damaging. Some items will need to be wrapped up in plastic though. I mean, can you imagine buying a pizza that was just left out in the open? Nobody would want to buy that.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

-