The landfills are filled with POPs, or persistent organic chemicals, as what don’t we throw away here in T&T;? Those old plastic bottles of dishwashing liquid, cooking oil, car polish, half empty bottled drinks, empty paint and pesticide containers, they often get dumped with the rest of the household garbage. Petrochemicals are found in these and thousands of manufactured products that are composed of or contain input chemicals derived from crude oil or natural gas. Pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides (for controlling rats), and fungicides, these too fall into the category of POPs and are almost all man-made. What these substances have in common is that they share a carbon-hydrogen ‘backbone’, making them ‘organic’ substances. Lipsticks, body lotion, detergents, fabric (polyester, nylon), and cleaning products are all common household items which have a prominent organic base component. The ‘persistent’ part comes about when the molecular structures are so stable and new to the bacteria and fungi (the planet’s waste processing organisms) that there are few or no naturally occurring mechanisms that allow their breakdown, making them xenobiotics. Some of these ‘new’ man-made chemicals can also cause harm to humans and to other organisms that are exposed.
Several POPs can build up inside the body (bio-accumulate) and cause cancer, neural diseases, reproductive issues and put strain on our livers, kidneys and immune systems. Plastics are made from a string of repeating organic molecules eg styrene or vinyl chloride, which are linked in a molecular level (resulting in polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride-PVC, for example), with additives that give the structure, colour and form suited to their purpose. Though designed to be durable, plastics are still subject to physical breakdown processes (eg erosion via the movement of waves in the sea, or wind action) making the bits of plastic smaller and ever smaller. This durability can lead to the build-up of microplastics everywhere. Evidence is mounting that microplastics are harmful to human health.