Plastic Pollution: The Road Ahead That Must Be Taken

 

Billions of people use plastic daily, which includes how their food products are packaged. Billions of people live in developing countries where there are no infrastructures to collect and properly dispose of plastic trash and other harmful waste products. As a result, billions of people dump their plastic trash and other harmful trash into rivers, coastlines, and elsewhere. Or they openly burn their plastic trash, exposing themselves and the environment to cancer causing, lung and other organ damaging toxins.

Plastic pollution will only worsen unless proper waste management becomes universal. 

Universal proper waste management must be the priority. Everything else is secondary.

Recycling, jewelry made from ocean plastic, beach cleanups, river and ocean cleanup devices and projects, plastic straw bans and all else achieve little to nothing as long as the lack of proper waste management continues. All of the worldwide beach cleanups, river and ocean cleanup devices and projects, and all other plastic trash removal projects combined collects a smaller amount of plastic trash annually than the amount of plastic trash newly entering into rivers and oceans daily. This does not mean ending those projects. It does mean ensuring these projects do not divert attention away from the critical need to establish universal proper waste management. Removing small amounts of plastic trash from the environment while massive amounts of plastic trash pour into the environment will not save rivers, oceans, wildlife, and the environment at large. 

Recycling and disingenuous anti-littering campaigns have been used by corporations to shift the responsibility for plastic trash to consumers and away from themselves. Corporations must bear at least some of the financial burden and responsibility for where plastic trash ends. They must stop being let off the hook. 

Recycling is often not economically feasible and doable. Even if recycling was completely efficient and doable, which it is not for a variety of reasons, it does nothing to address the fact that most plastic trash is not recyclable and needs to go somewhere.  Recycling does not stop the huge amounts of plastic trash that enters rivers and oceans daily because billions of people have no other alternatives but to dump their plastic trash into the environment. 

The concept of zero waste as the answer, in which plastic gets continually used and recycled, is great on paper but not in reality. It does nothing to address the fact that millions of kilos of plastic waste pours into rivers and oceans daily and that nothing is being done to stop this. Maybe one day most plastic can and will be recycled, but waiting for this to happen while the world continues to drown in plastic is lunacy. The reality in front of us is that most plastic waste is not recyclable. Most plastic waste is not disposed of properly and ends up in rivers and oceans. Most plastic that can be recycled is not being recycled for a variety of reasons. We cannot properly recycle the plastic that can be recycled, and we are far away from the day in which most plastic is actually recyclable. We must deal with the hand of cards that we hold, and not with the hand of cards that we wish we held. 

The damage to the environment from plastic trash is now in the trillions of dollars, of which corporations have not been liable for a single penny. Many corporations have made fortunes from plastic, without bearing any responsibility for what becomes of that plastic once it is trash. 

Bioplastics may be the answer one day, but that day may never come, or it may be too distant of a day to even matter. Bioplastics as an alternative to plastic must be pursued aggressively, but it cannot be at the expense of establishing universal proper waste management. Waiting for bioplastics to save the day while rivers, oceans and more continue to be polluted by plastic trash is sheer insanity. The unfortunate trend is towards the greater production and use of plastics, not less. 

The use of plastic based materials in clothing and elsewhere, such as polyesters, acrylics, nylon and so forth, and the trillions of micro fibers they release through washing and routine wear, is only increasing as the human population increases and depends more on these synthetic, nonbiodegradable materials. Proper waste management is nonexistent in most of the world. Where it does exist has yet to meet the challenges of preventing plastic microfibers from clothing and elsewhere from entering into the environment.  Reducing dependency on synthetic oil based clothing and textiles, and keeping micro fibers out of the environment from clothes and other sources are important goals. Universal waste management must be established, along with better waste management systems that captures micro particles of plastic. 

Plastic trash already in the environment damaging coastlines, mangroves, forests, and more must be removed. Every day that plastic trash is not removed is another day in which these habitats are further degraded. Employing people in need of work to remove plastic trash already in the environment is a straightforward way to combat poverty and help the environment at the same time. This has yet to happen on any meaningful scale. But even this will achieve little if there is not proper waste management keeping new plastic waste out of the environment. 

Proper waste management worldwide may seem expensive, but it is not nearly as expensive as allowing plastic trash to keep contaminating the environment. 

If humanity is content with not employing people that need work, and with letting plastic trash destroy human health, mangroves, coastlines, coral reefs, forests, sea grasses, marine life, birds and other wildlife and more, then leave things as they are. Keep ignoring the fact that every single day means the entry of millions of kilos of new plastic trash into rivers and oceans.