Workers, Not Technology, Must Be Priority In Plastic Pollution Fight

Technology receives far too much attention and funding to the exclusion of basic employment.


The cleanup portion of the plastic pollution crisis must expand far beyond volunteerism and reliance upon technology into actual employment. Millions of impoverished people the world over desperately need work, and the environment is in critical need of having plastic pollution removed. Employment must become the core element of the plastic cleanup effort. One small nonprofit organization employs disadvantaged people to do plastic cleanups. It can set the spark and be an example of what needs to be done, but this employment effort has to be embraced by larger nonprofits, for profits and government entities. There is far too much plastic pollution already in the environment, with millions of kilos more entering daily. Volunteers and technology can supplement what must become a massive anti poverty/environmental project. There is no technology or volunteer effort that can ever come close to removing the plastic pollution that employed people can remove. Every day in which people are not employed to remove plastic is another day in which enormous amounts of plastic that could have been captured and removed from the environment never will be.

People need work, and the environment needs to be cleaned. Instead of seeking technological miracles, people that truly care about the oceans, wildlife and the environment need to get serious about removing plastic pollution by providing actual employment. There is no technology that can come anywhere near removing the amount of plastic pollution that employed people can remove - especially in developing countries, where there is massive poverty and plastic pollution, and where few can afford to be volunteers. Employed people can remove enormous amounts of plastic along coastlines and other areas that no technology or volunteer effort can ever come close to removing. Technology can be utilized in areas where human grit and labor cannot go, such as in the middle of the ocean. But even then, the plastic that technology can pull from the oceans will never come close to removing what humans can remove from coasts and other areas. Plastic accumulates along coasts, brought in from lands, rivers, and from the oceans themselves that return plastic to the coasts through waves, tides, currents and storms. The more plastic removed from coasts and other areas, the less plastic goes into the oceans or return to the oceans. If plastic is not captured along coasts and other areas by human labor, it will break down into smaller plastic pieces that can never be recovered. Hoping for technology to rescue oceans, wildlife and humanity from the plastic pollution disaster may make people feel good, and it certainly attracts funds, donors and celebrity attention, but it will not rescue oceans, wildlife or humanity from this disaster. Employing disadvantaged people to remove plastic pollution from coasts and other areas needs to be front and center. Helping people rise out of poverty by providing employment while cleaning the environment from plastic pollution makes sense. Why this simple, workable and most productive and effective way to remove plastic pollution from the environment continues to be ignored is disgraceful.