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What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble
causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live
in it after we are gone.
~ Sir Winston Churchill
Persistent Plastic Pollution
In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl encountered floating plastic and oil pollution
in the middle of the ocean in the course of his Kon-Tiki Expedition. By 2015, the
World Economic Forum estimated there are over 150 million tonnes
(150,000,000,000,000 grams - yes, literally trillions) already in the ocean. By
all accounts, the amount of plastic being injected into the environment each year
is increasing exponentially. The impacts on marine life and the (sea)food we
eat are well documented.
If you are looking for a solid background on the generic issue, start with
the Center for International
and Environment Law (CIEL) Reports. For example, they report over 99% of plastic
is made from fossil fuels. They cite the 2016 World Economic Forum report
"Rethinking the Future of Plastics" statement: "the consumption of oil by
the entire plastics sector will account for 20% of the total consumption by 2050."
While we have not yet quantified the impacts of this plastic pollution on
human health, we do know that plastic waste leaches out toxins and carcinogens,
so it simply is not possible that the plastics we ingest in the water we drink,
the food we eat and the air we breathe are not having negative effects on our
health. We have seen the evidence of how waste plastics in water harms, and even
kills fish and seabirds.
It's past time for us to solve the problem, and the solutions need to be more
than greenwashing, empty promises to do better and 'band-aids'.
There are reasons we have not collectively developed effective solutions to
persistent plastic pollution.
plastic is a cheap, easy solution to many design issues
plastic is actually amazing stuff; strong, durable, light, doesn't corrode, non-magnetic ...
(which is also why it doesn't biodegrade in the environment
3-minute YouTube video)
as consumers, we place a very high value on convenience and low initial cost,
and a very low value on the long-term impacts of our actions on our health and
the environment
industry has lobbied hard to prevent regulatory measures to reduce plastic pollution
industry has sponsored effective disinformation campaigns about the impacts of
plastic pollution
'solutions' have been fragmented and dismissed as too small to be effective
or too expensive to be implemented or as having environmental disadvantages of their own
or be inconvenient for consumers, and
plastic pollution really isn't a single problem, just as there is not a single
kind of plastic
Let's spend a few minutes enumerating the problems, then addressing the
quasi-solutions to date, and finally setting out a more comprehensive approach to
reducing the impacts of both existing and future contributions to planetary
persistent plastic pollution.
Spoiler Alert! There could be a positive and happy ending.
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