Billions Of People Plastic Dependent And Why Plastic Pollution Worsens

There is a massive failure to properly dispose of plastic waste in many developing countries. People in far too many places openly burn or dump their plastic waste. Proper waste disposal is critically missing from much of the world. 

Until, and unless this is addressed, plastic pollution will keep pouring into rivers, oceans, mangroves, and elsewhere. Plastic trash that is openly burned will continue contaminating the environment and harming people and animals.

The small  number of places that properly dispose of their plastic trash in many developing nations are far outnumbered by the many cities, municipalities and elsewhere that openly burn or openly dump their plastic trash. 

The massive failure to properly dispose of plastic trash in the developing world - home to billions that use plastic daily - is almost completely ignored.  

The absence of proper waste management ensures the plastic pollution nightmare continues. 

Recycling has become an excuse to continue ignoring this enormous failure, even though recycling in and of itself has failed. Furthermore, most plastic trash, even if there were 100 percent efficient recycling, cannot be recycled.

Recycling efforts, plastic straw bans, beach cleanups and everything else must not obscure the fact that billions of people in developing countries are as plastic dependent and plastic addicted as are people in the developed world, but completely lack ways to properly dispose of their plastic trash.

Millions of pounds of plastic trash pours into oceans and rivers daily, adding to the trillions of pounds already in the oceans. There is little chance, despite all the existing combined efforts and technologies, that all but small amounts of it will be recovered in the absence of proper waste management.

Proper waste management worldwide must become the goal. 

As long as billions of people in the developing world are as completely dependent on plastic as are people in the developed world, but lack proper waste disposal, the plastic pollution nightmare will continue and worsen.