If time travel were possible, how far back would we need to go before the era of single-use plastics?
I'm talking about before milk was in high density polyethylene jugs, drinking a Coke meant a 6.5-ounce glass bottle and motor oil came in 1-quart fiber cans.
The Age of Plastics started in 1907, when Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented Bakelite. But for the next five decades, plastic was primarily used to mass produce durable products like radios and telephones. In the 1950s, that started to change, as plastics started to successfully replace paper, glass, metal and even cork in single-use packaging.
I got a reminder of that era before plastics were synonymous with single use from a June 9 NPR Weekend Edition report, "Creating a throwaway culture: How companies ingrained plastics in modern life."
I love the historical perspective, and one of the gems in this report came in a footnote. It's a copy of a speech that Lloyd Stouffer, editor of Modern Plastics magazine, gave a Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. conference in 1963. Stouffer wrote about how the industry had been steadily lowering resin prices and improving materials and processing methods to get to a point where plastics could compete with glass, metal and paper.
"The happy day has arrived when nobody any longer considers the plastics package too good to throw away," he wrote.
Stouffer predicted that packaging was on the way to becoming the second-biggest market for plastics, after the building market. It turns out he was on the money, and now packaging is No. 1.
That's a sad story, according to the NPR report, which made some good points about the role plastics had in creating America's throwaway society and the pollution problems that spawned.
"The plastics industry pitched disposability to make more money," NPR noted.
You might be thinking, 'Isn't that the point of being in business?'
At first I thought it was odd that Stouffer gave a speech to the SPI group with his blueprint for industry growth. But then I reconsidered. Isn't that exactly what I do on Plastics News' editorial page? My 2024 audience is quite a bit different than his in 1963 — and so is my message. In fact, in my editorial agenda column, every year I say that sustainability needs to be a priority, recycling encouraged and container deposits implemented.
Stouffer argued "the future of plastics is in the trash can." I'd argue instead that the future has to be circular and that some plastic products aren't going to make the cut.
When I joined PN in 1991 as a staff reporter covering plastics packaging and recycling, all the experts were saying that plastics were poised to take market share because they help brand owners package their products safely and conveniently.
If plastics hadn't come along in the 1960s, then all of the paper, glass and metal packaging would be just as big of a problem today as plastics packaging has become, just with a higher carbon footprint. Plastics didn't create the demand for cheap, disposable packaging and foodservice products. They filled a need.
Don Loepp is editor of Plastics News and author of the Plastics Blog.