Plastic in our Environment

Think about it… all of the oil that is spewing out of BP’s open underwater well can be compared to all the plastic we throw out in the environment every single day…  Go to a take out restaurant and take a look at the garbage cans. The amount of disposable plastic in there multiplied by millions corresponds to the amount of plastic that is discarded every day in the world. It is estimated that there are at least 200 billion pounds of plastic in the ocean.  We look in horror at the gushing oil well, but we contribute to just as much pollution collectively every day by consuming and throwing out so much throw-away plastic.

An article by Daniella Russo, executive director of the Plastic Pollution Coalition entitled “The other, bigger ‘oil spill’: Your use of disposable plastic” made me reflect on the fact that we contribute every single day to the pollution of our environment through petroleum-derived objects we throw out.

21 June 2010 — Think about it… all of the oil that is spewing out of BP’s open underwater well can be compared to all the plastic we throw out in the environment every single day…  Go to a take out restaurant and take a look at the garbage cans. The amount of disposable plastic in there multiplied by millions corresponds to the amount of plastic that is discarded every day in the world. It is estimated that there are at least 200 billion pounds of plastic in the ocean.  We look in horror at the gushing oil well, but we contribute to just as much pollution collectively every day by consuming and throwing out so much throw-away plastic.

(Photo: seacat.wordpress.com)

An article by Daniella Russo, executive director of the Plastic Pollution Coalition entitled “The other, bigger ‘oil spill’: Your use of disposable plastic” made me reflect on the fact that we contribute every single day to the pollution of our environment through petroleum-derived objects we throw out.

“We are simply using too much disposable plastic for the small percentage that gets recycled to even make a dent. And, unlike paper, glass, or stainless steel, most plastic can only be “down-cycled,” or used for increasingly fewer purposes. All the recycling, like using a teaspoon to empty the ocean, simply can’t stem the tide of plastic engulfing us.” (…)

“The most powerful thing people can do to clean up the oceans is to refuse to use “disposable” plastics in the first place. Let’s add “Refuse” to the list of R’s: Refuse-Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. Until we reduce our use of plastics wherever possible, real change will not happen. Recycling or cleanup projects alone won’t cut it.”

It takes a lot of will power to plug that gushing well of disposable plastic production. Just as every small plastic-use gesture contributes to creating it, every small gesture can also help plug it.

Chantal Plamondon, Co-Owner
LifeWithoutPlastic.com

This is a very short video showing how easily plastic bits can be mistaken for zooplankton by marine mammals and fish. It is quite astounding. This video was put together by 5gyres.org and the water sample was taken from the North Atlantic plastic gyre… Did you know five of those plastic gyres have now been discovered. Yikes! 

20 October 2009 — Rachel Cernansky, reporter at Planet Green recently wrote that “a brand that claims it is helping the environment by manufacturing recyclable products is not doing much more than greenwashing”  (seeRecyclable Is Not Recycled: Why Recyclable is the Greenwashing-est Word Around).  She gives plastic as an example of a product that is bad before, during and after its life cycle as a product. She is absolutely right. Only about 6.8% of all plastics are actually recycled. With such a small “success rate” you can safely say that in all practicality plastic is not really recyclable. Plastic is only marginally recyclable. In that context, taking pride of the fact that the plastic product you buy is green because it is recyclable is absolute greenwashing. I could not agree more.

3 March 2009 — Jay and I are involved in reducing the amount of single-use plastic bags being consumed on our little village of Wakefield (La Pêche), Quebec, Canada. In 2007 we became the first Fair Trade town in the province of Quebec, second in Canada (see www.fairtradevillage.ca), and now we want to tackle the ever expanding problem of plastic bags. So we formed a little committee with the objective of having something concrete to announce next May when we celebrate Fair Trade Month.

While researching what other towns in the world are doing to address this problem, we discovered that many towns (Leaf Rapids, Manitoba), large cities (San Francisco, New York), States (Texas, Colorado) and even countries (Ireland) around the world are also trying to reduce the use of carryout plastic bags. This is extremely encouraging. But we also found that the plastic bag industry will not hesitate to use hypocritical means to annihiliate these community efforts.