Combatting Plastic Pollution

by Daniella Dimitrova Russo

At the end of June, I led a Plastic Pollution Coalition group  that visited Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Guatemala at the invitation of several local environmental groups. On this tour of Central America, we reached over 100,000 people.

In Central America, the plastic pollution problem focuses on single-use and disposable plastics, but specifically plastic bottles and plastic bags. Yet we were so happy to discover a solution that is almost extinct in North America – refillable glass bottles.  In talking with business owners we found out that refilling bottles is more economical as well.

As people in Central America and around the world are starting to realize, plastic pollution is quickly emerging as one of the greatest issues facing the planet today. It represents the nexus of environmental justice, eco-system degradation, public health and corporate responsibility.

We now know that 80% of all trash in the ocean is plastic, land-based sources: straws, plastic bags, plastic cups – single-use, disposable plastic. Plastic pollution has become an ocean emergency.

Around the globe,  we have discovered plastic pollution in the desert, in the air, on land, in our rivers and dams.

Increasingly, there is plastic pollution in our bodies. EWG reports that newborn babies carry toxic chemicals associated with plastic in their blood streams .The Breast Cancer Fund reports new evidence linking chemicals associated with plastic and breast cancer, liver cancer and other forms of cancer. 

Plastic pollution has become a global menace.

But how did we get to this point?

In the last ten years alone we, as a society, have produced used more plastic that in all the past several decades. If we continue that trend, by the year 2050 our plastic production will be at 2 Trillion Pounds a year. Where will this plastic go?

Plastic is a material that the Earth canot digest.

Every bit of plastic that has ever been created still exists, including the small amount that has been incinerated and has become toxic particulate matter.

Plastic poisons our food chain

In the environment, plastic breaks down into small particles that attract toxic chemicals. These particles are ingested by wildlife on land and in the ocean, contaminating the food chain.

Plastic affects human health

Harmful chemicals leached by plastics are present in the bloodstream and tissues of almost every one of us, including newborns.

Disposable plastics are the main source of plastic pollution

Consumption of disposable plastics—bags, bottles, straws and so forth—has spiraled out of control. These items are used for seconds, hours or days, but their remains last forever.

Plastic recycling is not a sustainable solution

Most of our plastic waste is landfilled, downcycled, incinerated or exported to other countries. Recycling of plastic is costly and does not stem the production of virgin plastic product.

What is the answer?

Our relationship with plastic must change.

A material that is lightweight, cheap and durable but toxic must be used in a smart, respectful way – with a full sense of the implications of this use – to the environment, to us and to the animals.

Our attitudes must change.

Our infatuation with convenience, marketed heavily since the fifties, needs to grow into admiration for the beauty of durable objects, produced with pride; objects that we would love to look at day after day.

The change begins today. It starts with every one of us!

  Learn. Take Action. Share with others

http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/