Single-Use Plastic Exceptions

"It would be hard to overemphasize the importance of plastics in modern society."
"Just think what our world would be like if we didn't have garbage bags. It's not a frivolous use -- it's absolutely necessary for sanitation."
"We were gyrating with hula hoops, going to Tupperware parties [in the 1960s], listening to vinyl records, playing with plastic toys and drinking from plastic cups through plastic straws. And we were paying for it all with plastic."
"[The current backlash against plastic is no all-or-none situation]: It never is in science. You have to evaluate each of these uses on their own merit."
"This business of having a plastic-free world, it's just nonsense."
Dr. Joe Schwarcz, director, Office for Science and Society, McGill University, Montreal

A surgeon holds a syringe prior to administering chemotherapy on June 7, 2019, at the Georges-Francois Leclerc centre in Dijon, central-eastern France.   ROMAIN LAFABREGUE/AFP/Getty Images

"Climate change is now a lot more real for more people than ever. To most, it falls under the umbrella of 'environmental harm', so it all gets lumped together."
"The problem is, being aware that something needs to be done about the environment, and actually doing something about the environment is a big leap. They have all the worry of climate change, and none of the control."
"That it might be negligible overall [to give up plastic straws and feel virtuous about it] is not really the issue, it's the feeling of making a difference, of being able to affect outcomes -- that is the main thing."
"[Politically, straws are easy targets], something that could be removed without much upheaval, for maximum political gain."
"The disposable plastic furor isn't bad, per se [but some objects will always require durable, flexible, sterile material for proper function]. Syringes, IV stuff. Could you make plastic alternatives that have similar properties but are more biodegradable? Maybe."
Dean Burnett, neuroscientist, author, Cardiff, Wales

Disposable plastic items in the health sector aren’t a major concern, experts say. Tim Boyle/Getty Images

A study conducted a few years back by researchers at Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh found that on average, a single abdominal hysterectomy was responsible for generating 9.2 kilograms of waste. Half of that waste was disposable gloves, thin film packaging, wrappers, hard plastic trays and other plastics. The idea of the study was to weigh the environmental impact involved in the second most common major surgery for women in the U.S. and Canada; a hysterectomy.

The team studied 62 surgeries where researchers immediately on the completion of each of the surgeries entered the operating theatre to carefully collect, sort, label and weigh the solid waste and recycling. When politicians announce that it is time for single-use plastics to be regulated against in view of the vast amount of plastics circulating as waste in our environment, in the world's oceans, they have a point; we do package consumer items much, much too much.

On the other hand, there are exceptions; nothing is ever as simple as it seems at first glance. Syringes, IV tubing, saline bags, plastic-wrapped drugs, catheters -- all are objects made of plastic without which modern hospitals would find it difficult to operate, ensuring adequate sterile conditions to contain bacterial contamination. Some  hospitals, cognizant of the ultra abundance of waste plastics have undertaken steps to make operating rooms and other patient care areas less wasteful.

According to an article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, up to 85 percent of hospital garbage is non-hazardous solid waste. Plastic packaging is a typical source of waste plastic where many surgical products are double-wrapped. Blue sterile wrap is used to cover surgical instruments, but it can be recycled into curbside blue boxes. Hospitals in Quebec sort plastics, to send them to recyclers.

Hospitals began their shift to plastic, single-use sterilized products a decade ago, transitioning from sterilizing reusable products in a bid for absolute sterility, and to ensure that pathogenic bacteria not be transferred from one patient to another through re-used instruments, when sterilization processes failed. "The shift has been done and, while it's not impossible, it's difficult to undo", stated Jerome Ribesse, director general of Synergie Sante Environnement and a member of the board of the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care.

According to Vito Buonsante, plastics program manager at Environmental Defence (what a name to match with an enterprise!) disposable plastic items emanating from the health sector do not constitute a major concern. It is the unnecessary use of plastics for the production of cutlery, plates and take-out containers that would usefully be tackled first. Straws are symbolic for environmentalists, yet they account for little in terms of weight in total plastic waste.

Think in terms of plastics of merit and long-term use. Say, for example, flat-screen TVs, computers, water pipes. Indispensable to our modern way of life.

Operating room. - 123RF Stock Photo