DON’T RECYCLE PLASTIC, REFUSE IT
SADLY, WE’VE BEEN “GREEN WASHED” TO KEEP THE MOST TOXIC INDUSTRY ON EARTH RAKING IN PROFITS
By far and away, the single biggest culprit of man-made pollution is PLASTIC!!!
Though recycling makes those of us who do it feel good and feel like we’re making a difference, in reality we’re part of a very small, elite group of earth-conscious, eco-friendly earth dwellers. It’s estimated that only 9% of Americans actively participate in recycling. That pains me to even read and reveals the power of conditioning in a “throw-away” society. I grew up before the pervasive use of plastics where we took our own bags to the grocery store.
I’m going to spend a little time explaining this because there’s more to it than most suspect. An entire exposé could be written on the chemically hazardous properties of plastics. Plastic and its disposal should literally be treated as a toxic, bio-hazardous waste material. Sounds crazy, right? This is not exaggerative.
To learn more read my very comprehensive blog on plastic titled: IGNORANCE, ARROGANCE, NEGLECT AND CONSEQUENCES: THE STORY OF PLASTIC, OCEANS, AND OUR SURVIVAL.
Recycling plastic, in general, is a bit of a sticky subject. It’s an enormous problem because plastic is an enormous industry.
According to the EPA, 79% of all manufactured plastic ends up in a landfill or the environment. There’s almost no where you can go where you won’t see the effects of human neglect on the environment and plastic somewhere. As someone who loves the outdoors, backpacking and day hikes, I routinely find myself picking up plastic in even the most remote natural settings. Plastic is everywhere. Plastic is in our landfills, it chokes our streams, rivers, and oceans (less than 1% of which is on the surface). It’s now found in every fish pulled from the sea that we subsequently eat, and therefore, it’s now in us in the form of microplastics that are routinely showing up in biopsies and blood panels.
Here is what the average citizen of the planet doesn't understand. Plastic is immortal; it never goes away and never decomposes. Once in the environment, plastic only degrades by a process called photo degradation, which is a process whereby UV light brakes down the chemical bonds of the plastic, reducing it to smaller and smaller polymers, but the polymers never disappear. The smaller they get the more they can infiltrate. Every piece of plastic created since the 1950s is still in existence somewhere today. So let’s take a closer look at this subject and why recycling is only contributing to a global catastrophy.
PLASTIC STATS THAT SHOULD ALARM YOU:
Plastic waste generation more than doubled from 2000 to 2019 to 353 million tonnes. If trends continue, by 2050 we'll have produced 26 billion metric tons of plastic waste.
12 million tonnes of plastic finds its way into the ocean every single year. 9.5 million tonnes of this enters the ocean from the land with 1.75 tonnes being chucked into the sea directly from the fishing a shipping industry. There are approximately 51 trillion microscopic pieces of plastic, weighing 269,000 tons.
Only 1% of plastic pollution in the ocean is on the surface. The other 99% stays below the surface.
Over 350,000 marine mammals are killed each and every year by either eating plastic or by becoming entangled in it, including dolphins, whales, sea lions, seals, along with countless species of fish. Approximately 100,000 sea turtles are killed every year by attempting to ingest plastic bags which are mistaken for their main source of food, jellyfish. And over 1.2 million sea birds die every year from ingesting plastic.
If these trends continue, by 2050 we'll have produced 26 billion metric tons of plastic waste, almost half of which will be dumped in landfills and the environment. Because plastic doesn't degrade easily, there will be zillions of tons of the material on our planet by the end of the millennium.
The average American throws away over 500 plastic bags annually and worldwide we throw away approximately 1.7 trillion a year. That’s 1,700,000,000,000 bags a year.
So, what do we do about this? Recycle!!! Right?
Though it’s almost impossible to avoid entirely, one of the best decisions we can make to protect the environment is to refuse to use it or accept it in virtually any capacity and avoid using “single use plastics,” such as water-bottles, grocery bags, retail bags at clothing stores and retail outlets (you can refuse the bag and just take the receipt).
It’s unfortunate. Our concept of recycling is so misguided because the rather malleable public mind has been psychologically conditioned into believing that recycling is preventing, circumventing, or fixing the problem created by plastic waste. That’s because our entire perspective of recycling plastics has been created by the very companies whose livelihood is dependent upon it like Coca-Cola and Pepsi for example, sell the image of caring, and encourage people to recycle, but this is all nothing more than “Green Washing” the public. It’s brilliant marketing, nothing more. It creates a good image for a company that cares about the environment, but they really don’t. How do I know? Because their entire industry is predicated on selling consumers “throw away” beverage containers that preoccupy a large portion of our landfills. Every bottle that is thrown away just means that they have to make more, and they’re all too happy to.
Can you imagine a world where the only Coke or Pepsi (or any other beverage) available to the public came from fountain dispensers and each consumer had to bring their own container or glass? They want us throwing away our plastic bottle so they can sell us more. They can’t sell bottled water to people who use reusable stainless steel or glassware.
Again, recycling is something that makes us feel a little better by doing something “green” for the environment and we believe that as stewards of the Earth we’re doing something good, but all of our efforts are really only slowing the problem, not fixing or avoiding it. We’re just “kicking the can down the road a little further,” (pun intended) postponing the dire consequences of a planet drowning in plastic waste.
Another problem with “recycling” plastic is that very few recycling facilities currently recycle all the plastic they collect. Unfortunately, most facilities can only repurpose about 20% of the plastics they collect for resale on the open market, so recycling is not enough, because even if we are recycling, sadly, about 80% of the plastic we purchase is still going to a landfill.
So, I cannot overstate this. The best decision we can make is to refuse anything plastic, as much as possible. We are allowed to say no at the grocery store when they start putting our groceries in plastic bags. If you are without reusable shopping bags, choose paper bags which are least biodegradable, so that in the event that they would end up in a landfill they will not harm the environment when they decompose. Choosing not to use plastic grocery bags at the checkout counter of the grocery store has an enormous impact on the environment.
As you can imagine from the dismal statistics provided above, every organism in the ocean is affected by the presence of this plastic, in every depth of the ocean, we are finding microplastics in krill and all the way up through the food chain in the bellies of beached whales and seabirds. Even if you don’t live near the ocean, you’re not off the hook (again, pun intended). We’re all contributing to this.
Once making its way to a landfill, wind currents often pick up plastic bags, plastic cups, and plastic containers and carry them for miles with a large percentage of them finding their way to waterways such as streams, tributaries, and rivers that eventually carry the plastic to the ocean.
Because the photo-decomposition of plastic is incredibly slow, depending on the type, it can take between 450 – 1000 years to photo-degrade. In that time frame, one plastic bag can kill multiple marine animals because once ingested, the decomposing body of the animal releases the plastic bag where it can be ingested again killing another sea animal.
If the threat was only to sea creatures, the threat would be bad enough but now the threat is to our own children. Studies performed at the University of California – Santa Barbara, have now found that these microscopic polymers once ingested diffuse into the tissues of fish and other animals, and ultimately are then absorbed by humans who ingest them. These microscopic toxins that are a concentration of approximately 10,000 times the chemical in its natural state, find their way back up the food chain and ultimately wind up back in our bodies as a toxic foreign body in our tissues. Again, to learn more read my blog on plastic titled: IGNORANCE, ARROGANCE, NEGLECT, AND CONSEQUENCES. THE STORY OF PLASTIC, OCEANS, AND OUR SURVIVAL
In addition, these plastics leach oils and chemicals into the oceans that are harmful to marine life and also contribute to the declining numbers of fish populations. Oceanic studies have now identified over 200+ “dead zones” in the world’s oceans where no marine life lives. We are literally creating a biologically toxic planet with plastics.
Environmentally conscious companies are now actively trying to address the issue by creating things like biodegradable package peanuts, garbage bags, cups, utensils, straws, sandwich bags, wrapping paper, plates, toothbrushes, plant-based dish sponges and more with petroleum free products made out of corn starch, seaweed, avacado seeds, bamboo and other natural composites. There are some great eco-friendly options for you if you simply do a little research. To get you started, here are some great company links. Please note that the pictures are just a sampling. Each site sells everything from biodegradable bags to cutery….
GREEN PAPER PRODUCTS:
https://greenpaperproducts.com/biodegradable-cold-cups.aspx
GOOD START PACKAGING:
https://www.goodstartpackaging.com/biodegradable-plastic-cups
ECO PRODUCTS:
https://www.ecoproducts.com/products.html
So if I am to leave you with just one “action item” that would be simple to implement, it would be - CHOOSE TODAY TO STOP PURCHASING PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES!!!!
Instead, use reusable water bottles whether stainless steel, glass, or acrylic. Companies like CLEARLY FILTERED, BRITA, and BOBBLE make reusable water bottles with carbon filters for drinking pure filtered water. Each filter can filter the equivalent of 300-350 water bottles.
But by far and away, the best-filtered water bottle currently available is the CLEARLY FILTERED STAINLESS STEEL water bottle going beyond just a simple carbon filter. Their patented AFFINITY FILTRATION TECHNOLOGY goes beyond any filter. Whereas Brita will filter out chlorine, some pesticides, and antibiotics, only Clearly Filtered removes all heavy metals including even Fluoride. Check out their website here: www.clearlyfiltered.com
Be sure to click on the link below titled, “COMPANIES TO SHOP WITH TO RESTORE OUR HEALTH, HOME, EARTH, AND ECOSYSTEMS” to begin contributing to the restoration of our beautiful home for future generations.
Love and Light to You in your continued Journey of Discovery!!!
David
