The Path of Plastic

Cheers to another successful year of (fill in the blank). Everyone toasts with their plastic champagne cups, then bottoms up and into the garbage. The staff takes out the industrial size garbage bag full of cheap plastic and tosses it into the dumpster. In the morning, the garbage truck picks up the load and makes its way to the landfill where out slides the bag full of last night’s well-intentioned toast.

A bull dozer pushes garbage around, then dirt (not soil). Better wrap things up, looks like rain. A storm comes and water rushes between the mountains of garbage. Several champagne “glasses” break free from the confines of the garbage bag and they are sent on their way downstream. First to the culvert, then to the rivers to meander down to the gulf of Mexico and out into the oceans abroad.

This scenario is happening right now with an unthinkable variety of plastic products (and their packaging) at a mind boggling rate. The equivalent of one garbage truck full of environmental pollutants per MINUTE is finding it’s way into our planet’s oceans and into the food supply.

How do we stop it? Can we stop it? I don’t know, but I know we can do better than this.

It is true that if we each do our little part here and there, that there will be progress. But how much?

It is difficult and challenging to sell the idea of giving up our creature comforts for the good of the whole. We all have our shopping lists, our go to items, our guilty pleasures. That is not going to stop. Recycling helps (if and when it is done correctly), but it alone is not enough.

I think we need a massive movement toward alternative materials and corporate accountability. The legalization of hemp is a good start. Temporary government subsidies for corporate transitions to sustainable practices would be a good next step. I mean, what are taxes for if not for the good of the people that PAY them?

And we the people, must join in the movement to save ourselves and our home. We need to develop a consumer conscience that rewards businesses that participate, and calls on the ones that don’t to change within a short, but reasonable time frame.

The second part of this problem is to clean up the mess that already exists and turn it into a solution. Plastics extracted from the environment need to be put to permanent uses, like building or insulation materials so they don’t wind up back in the oceans. There is a glimmer of hope in that there already are amazing people out there organizing clean up efforts en masse. Find these people and join their cause, if you can.

There has never been a more urgent problem than the degradation of our home. Please do your part. Thank you for taking the time to read this message.