Plastics...again

I'm readng this book right now called "The World Without Us" which is this kind of cool thought experiment about what would happen to civilization if humans just disappeared today. What would happen to buildings, roads, farms, power plants, oil refineries, etc.

One chapter was about polymers, what will happen to plastics. Right now...nothing would happen to them. There is no mechanism to break them down. They can get smaller and smaller, but they never go away. As they get smaller, animals eat them at all levels of the food chain. Some particles are so small that krill and plankton eat them. Some companies make facial "srubs" that contain tiny plastic beads...these wash directly into waterways where the smallest members of the food chain eat them.

The worst thing in that chapter was about how much plastic is in the ocean...right now there is a floating "ocean" of plastic debris the size of the African continent in the middle of the pacific ocean. You can see it from space. Isn't that the most sickening thing ever?

Whenever I hold a piece of plastic in my hand...I can't help but think about where it came from and where its going. What did it take to make this, and what will happen to it when i throw it "away". Will it end up in the ocean, where some animal will eat it and die? Or will it just go to a landfill where it will likely remain for the next million years until some bacteria evolves to digest polymers? What toxins were poured into the air and water during its manufacture?

I want to stop consuming plastic, i really do. Is it even possible? What do we buy that comes in plastic, and is there an alternative?

Cleaning products
soap (like castille)
laundry soap
dish soap
shampoo/conditioner
food that comes in plastic containers like bottles of oil, etc.
food in plastic bags such as crackers, etc
bread bags
occasionally shopping bags

i think we can start getting shampoo, conditioner, and laundry soap in bar form. i'm looking into it.

food...we just need to recommit to not buying a bunch of packaged crap. sigh. its hard!