10 Unexpected Things That Contain Plastic

Plastic is fantastic as a material. Its versatility meant it’s used to make everything from food packaging, bottles, containers, to durable objects like tables and chairs, and parts of electrical appliances. In this post, we’ll look at 10 things that contain plastic that are hiding in plain sight.

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The Not-So-Obvious Things That Contain Plastic

Pillow stuffing

These days, pillow stuffings are usually made with polyester. This could be a good use of recycled plastic, but most pillow manufacturers wouldn’t use recycled plastic because they come at a higher price tag. I’m sure there are pillow makers who make pillows from recycled polyester, keep an eye out for them!

Even then, the pillows still can’t be recycled at the end of their lifespan. It doesn’t help that pillows stuffed with synthetic fibers also have a shorter lifespan than their foam and latex counterparts.

So, the next time you want to buy a new set of pillows, be it regular pillows or throw pillows, or even a dog/cat bed, remember what they’re made with. And keep these questions in mind:

• Can you wash your old throw pillow?
• Use fewer throw pillows?
• Is it possible to repurpose old pillows into pet beds?
• Can you use old pillows to cushion your knees in the garden? Make soft toys for your pet?
• Can you give them to someone who’s moving to use as a packing cushion?

I don’t see pillow fight in the same light as I used to. Can you imagine the plume of dead skin and polyester fiber that burst forth into the air when the pillows are beaten together? Heh.

Teabags / Sachets

Teabags used to be made with silk or cotton. These days, they’re more often made with paper coated or sealed with a thin layer of plastic. Some are made entirely with polyester.

The same goes for sugar/salt sachets too. They look like they’re made with paper but they’re lined with plastic.

The solution to this is very simple. Just go for loose tea leaves and buy sugar in bulk! All you’ll need is a tea ball/tea strainer.

Tea strainer:

Tea ball:

Maybe I’m paranoid, I never liked the idea of submerging plastic in boiling/hot water. I’m more assured knowing Anth drinks tea steeped in food-grade stainless steel.

Besides, loose tea leaves are usually better in quality than the store-bought types of tea and have a lower carbon footprint – simply because they aren’t individually bagged.

Chewing gum

Traditionally, chewing gum was made from chicle, a resin from the sapodilla trees in Mexico. These days, the chicle has been replaced with synthetic rubber, which is cheaper and is also… a type of plastic.

Gross, if you ask me. I don’t think I’ll ever want a stick of plastic gum anymore. That said, there are still gums that are plastic-free.

Simply Gum

Glee Gum:

If you’re an avid gum chewer who doesn’t mind regular gum, check this company out. They recycle chewed gum!

Aluminum and tin cans

Boo! Out of this list, this is the one that disappointed me the most, but what did I expect?

Most aluminum and tin cans are coated with a thin coat of plastic to prevent the metal from being corroded by the food. Still better than plastic bottles though!

I’m for the use of canned food and drinks, but if you aren’t, you can always buy beans and grains at places that sell them in bulk. Or choose products sold in glass jars.

Do note that the COVID-19 has caused a temporary suspension of personal bags at certain places, so that may be a problem.

Tetrapaks

You probably know this one already. Tetrapaks contain thin layers of plastic both on the internal and external walls of the packaging.

• Read about the sustainability and recyclability of Tetrapaks

Tetrapaks still beat plastic bottles if there’s a recycling facility near you. However, I’d choose aluminum and tin over a Tetrapak if I’m uncertain because aluminum and tin will have no problems getting recycled.

Clothes, bed linen, curtains – most things fabric

Thanks to the “affordability” of polyester, it’s used to make everything from socks to clothes to carpet and bedsheets. The unseen price is microfiber pollution.

There’s no easy solution to this. Tossing them away would cause waste, but washing them causes microfiber pollution. I recommend switching to preloved items made with natural fiber as the polyester ones wear out.

If you can afford it, you can get Guppyfriend bags to wash your polyester clothes in, install a Lint LUV-R in your washing machine to filter out the microfibers, or use these nifty Vermont-made Cora balls to catch the nasty microfibers. I’m not affiliated with these products, but they’re recommended by authoritative sites.

Produce sticker

Most produce stickers contain plastic. That’s why zero-wasters peel them off and put them into their jars.

These little buggers are the bane of my compost bin! Nah I’m just kidding. It’s a breeze to peel them off. Owing to their size, we may either think that produce stickers are too small to matter in a compost bin, or they’ll disintegrate because they’re so small.

But they contain plastic, so while they do disintegrate with time, it only means the plastic broke down to smaller bits and will now contaminate the soil.

Plastic has no place in the compost bin. Trash the produce stickers! To avoid produce stickers, go to a farmer’s market.

Glitter

If you’ve used glitter, you’ll know that they get everywhere and is difficult to clean off surfaces!

Glitter is a mixture of tiny plastic and aluminum fragments. Which means glitter contains microplastic.

What do we do when we get our hands full of glitter? We wash our hands at the sink. The glitter goes down the drain. At the water treatment plant, they don’t get caught by the filter completely – they’re tiny! So they enter the environment, where they attract contaminants then get eaten by little fishes. They’re definitely not as good as they look.

If you have to use glitter, go for the biodegradable or edible kind!

Craft glue

Maybe you already know this, but I never really thought about glue. I remember them as stinky sticky things I loved to peel off my fingers as a kid. Craft glue is made with Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA), a type of thermoplastic.

I found it difficult to wrap my mind around a liquid type of plastic, but PVA is a type of plastic.

There are alternatives though. For example, if your kids love papercraft, have them make their own glue with starch! However, since we don’t use glue in huge quantities, I think there’s no need to be uptight about finding an alternative.

Do consider stop making slime though.

Personal products

E.g. Masks, mascara, hairspray can contain PVA too! But this is a simple category to avoid. There are many products out there that don’t contain PVA. Just be sure to look at the ingredients!

This category confused me quite a bit when I was doing the research. I suspect there are plastic or plastic-type chemicals in shampoos, lotions, and other personal products, but I’m not well-versed enough in chemistry to say for sure. If you’re a chemist, will you help me with it?

In conclusion

Were you surprised by any of these items? Did you already know about them?

To be clear, I’m not saying that we need to stop using these things entirely, especially seeing that some of them are good alternatives to plastic bottles – like aluminum cans and Tetrapaks.

I hope that this list further demonstrates how deeply plastic has been embedded into our lives. I hope it’ll encourage you to look closer at the impacts such items can have on the environment and our bodies.

We’re so used to the presence of plastic around us these days. But we can’t afford to stop thinking about it. Maybe it doesn’t harm our health, but it harms the environment.

There are 7 billion of us on earth. If we each reduce our plastic use by 50% or 30% or even 10%, we’ll be cutting plastic waste by millions of tons! Never underestimate the power of individual action – even if it seems insignificant or imperfect.

After all, we can’t win the climate crisis without fighting the plastic crisis!

• Read about how plastic and climate crisis are connected