So, turns out that my country, the USA, is the world’s top producer of plastic waste. Knock me over with a feather.
ARE YOU ALL AS FED-UP AS I AM?
What can we all do to refuse plastics today?
Post your pledges and successes!
And when the plastic-refusal going gets tough, consider this fact reported in the above-linked article: “If the current rise in plastics pollution continues, the world by 2030 will be putting 58.4 million tons into the oceans each year, or about half the weight of the fish caught in seas“.
My pledge:
- I’m not getting any more takeout food unless it’s packaged in cardboard or other backyard-compostable packaging; or they let me use my own container. (I already refuse paper napkins and plastic utensils, have been doing that for years.) I enjoy takeout and supporting local restaurants, so this will take a lot of willpower on my part, but I am totally up for it!!! Enough is enough!
- I’m not ordering any more mail-order anything, unless it is shipped directly from the maker of the product, and I can talk directly with the maker/shipper to ascertain they don’t use plastic in shipping. (A little bit of tape is ok.)
- I will look into ways to pressure the manufacturers and other originators of this disgusting mountain of plastic.
- I will find ways to make my neighbors more aware of what a crisis our thoughtless acceptance of plastic bags, bottles, etc., is causing.
From the article linked above:
“America needs to rethink and reduce the way it generates plastics because so much of the material is littering the oceans and other waters, the National Academy of Sciences says in a new report.
“The United States, the world’s top plastics waste producer, generates more than 46 million tons yearly, and about 2.2 billion pounds ends up in the world’s oceans, according to the academy’s report.
“If the current rise in plastics pollution continues, the world by 2030 will be putting 58.4 million tons into the oceans each year, or about half the weight of the fish caught in seas, the report said.
“Recycling and proper disposal alone aren’t enough and can’t handle the problem …
““One of the major barriers for recycling is the economics of virgin plastic and subsidization of the fossil fuel industry,” Spring said. The American Chemistry Council, which represents plastics manufacturers, lauded most of the academy’s report, but it blasted the idea of limiting plastics production.”
— My comments:
Actually one thing I really think we need to do is a full-on boycott! It may be impossible to boycott SUP packaging entirely but we can boycott bottled water, for example. Plastic bottles were the biggest single source of trash in a recent WaterGoat trash-catching net’s count!
We could post about our plastic-refusal successes and encourage each other, post the stores & restaurants that are good about letting customers avoid SUP, etc.
Killing the oceans with plastic junk is not a thing that I want our country to be known for!
Refuse junk plastic! Hit the manufacturers in their wallets!
Another thought: Ask governments to heavily tax single-use plastics. (Thanks for that idea Rebecca!) It would be more than appropriate to tax this junk, given the true costs, which are not only environmental but economic as well!
USA – plastic nation — is this who we want to be?
CREDIT: “Go Drastic On Plastic” is a campaign phrase and general rallying cry that was coined awhile back by DREAM GREEN VOLUSIA, an environmental organization in my bioregion that has worked tirelessly to raise public awareness, clean up the disgusting evidence of our plastic addiction that litters the beaches and waterways, preserve local ecosystems, and more. You can visit their website here (stand by, I’m checking to see if they have a website); and their Facebook group’s page here.