Plastic
Plastic is a wonderful material with limitless, amazing and important uses. However, it must be employed thoughtfully, as it comes with a great cost at each stage of its lifecycle and our life cycle.
Extracting and refining fossil fuels into plastic resin releases toxic chemicals into the air - contaminating nearby communities and directly harming industrial workers. These toxins include acid gasses, dioxins, lead and mercury. As plastic degrades, it spreads throughout the environment and has knock on effects throughout the food chain.
In 1950, we produced 2.3 million tons of plastic a year
In 2015, we produced 448 million tons of plastic a year
By 2050, a projected 900 million tons of plastic will be produced each year.
It is also projected that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in our seas!
Currently, eight million tons of plastic goes into our oceans annually. What does that look like?
Well, imagine each square foot on every beach around the world stacked up with five plastic bags full of plastic! If nothing changes, you’ll need to imagine 10 plastic bags full of plastic per square foot on every beach in the world in just a few short decades.
Plastic breaks into micro particles which are consumed throughout the oceans’ food chain and which disrupts liver and reproductive functions of sea animals. More directly, big pieces of plastic are consumed by turtles, seals and birds which directly kill millions of animals each year. The problem is enormous. Plastic gyres, some much bigger than Texas, swirl in every ocean on the planet.
Most plastics are designed for one time use, but that one-time-use-plastic bag/fork/straw... will persist in the environment as microplastic for at least 400 years. So, one plastic bottle of water - consumed in a mere moment - equals at least 400 hundred years of environmental damage!
This short video gives a big picture of the problem: Why We Need to Stop Plastic Pollution in Our Oceans FOR GOOD | Oceana
Possible starting points for individuals:
Stop buying plastic bottles of water and instead use reusable bottles. (More options.)
Buy what you can from the grocery bins: nuts, oats, pasta, rice and bring reusable bags.
Say “no” to plastic straws and say “yes” to reusable straws or, better yet: Refuse: no straws!
Use your own takeaway coffee cup.
Learn what the numbers on the bottom of plastic containers mean. Post this chart on your fridge!
Stop smoking. The trillions of butts are mostly plastic… and they leach arsenic, lead and nicotine!
Refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle (The 5 R’s), or consider the 7 R’s.
Possible starting points for collective action: