


Terry Cullen
Mar 14, 2023
Global
Categories:
Plastic, Environment, Recycle, Environmental Degradation, Micro-Plastics, Health, Solid Waste
Plastic consumption is creating a problem for everyone worldwide. So little of it is recycled, and much is not recyclable, so we are using it and throwing it away in record amounts, according to articles from The Guardian Newspaper and Iberdrola.
In 2021, Americans disposed of 51 million tons of plastic, with only 5% recycled. By the math, that is +48 million tons that went to landfills or landed in rivers, the ocean, or the atmosphere. According to Earthday.org, humanity disposes of enough plastic each year to equal the weight of all people combined.
To say that plastic waste is a growing problem is an understatement. It is now an environmental and health issue too. According to Beachapedia, an estimated 5.25 trillion plastic particles are in the oceans today, ingested by marine life and sometimes eaten by us.
Plastics are everywhere and in every aspect of our life. Your clothes probably contain plastics, and each time you wash your clothes, plastic particles wash out with the wastewater. Your tea bag likely contains plastic too.
About 50% of our plastic consumption is single-use plastic. Did you know the average lifespan for a single-use plastic item is 12 to 15 minutes, but it can take up to 500 years to decompose? On average, a plastic toothbrush takes 500 years to break down, a plastic cup up to 100 years, a drinking straw 200 years, and plastic cutlery 400 years.
There is hope, and it comes from two sources. One is you, the individual, and our power to make different choices. The other is scientific breakthroughs to find ways to decompose plastics faster. Let's focus on the first, our choices. The second is a subject for a separate article.
We can significantly decrease our plastic consumption by making different choices. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Skip the single-use plastic straw. That's easy enough.
2. Bring cloth bags and boxes to the grocery store for shopping. Or ask for paper bags at check-out. Bring the paper bags back again to reuse them for another shopping trip. If you cannot avoid plastic bags, then commit to recycling them. Many stores offer that. Or, choose another store to shop where they don't use plastic bags. Let the store manager know your preferences.
3. Buy more bulk food. Avoid single-serving items which have disproportionate amounts of plastic. Think of plastic water bottles.
4. Use glass and steel containers to carry your lunch instead of plastic storage containers.
5. Cosmetics can contain microplastics. Be informed which ones don't and get them instead. Likewise, for cosmetic brushes. There are natural products that are biodegradable available.
6. Re-purpose your plastic containers when possible.
7. According to activesustainability.com, chewing gum is 80% to 90% plastic. Yes, chewing gum is bad for the environment, and humanity puts 105 metric tonnes of it into the environment each year. If you chew gum, you may get micro amounts of plastic in your body. And if you must chew gum, please recycle it (with plastic waste, not food waste; yes, you read that right).
Make a difference in your community and ask your merchants to support reducing plastic waste. Support the businesses that commit to reducing plastic waste. Help to raise awareness of the problems created by the over-consumption of plastic. Create and support clean-up drives for discarded plastics in your community. Support creative ways to reuse plastics, such as arts and crafts. Consider starting with your schools and getting your community's children involved. They are the ones most at risk from our over-consumption.
Demonstrate the power of your choice. It does make a difference.
Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash.
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