Navigating a plastic polluted planet

How is our plastic addiction impacting our planet? It’s time to face the hard plastic facts. They're all taken from two articles—one on plastic pollution and another on recycling and ocean trash. Both are fairly short reads from National Geographic, so check them out for yourselves! 

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You’ll learn that:

• 👎 Plastics are used and abused. Single-use plastics account for 40% of plastic produced every year. Think about the next time you open a straw, get a plastic grocery bag, or use a Ziploc.

• ⌛ Plastics have not been around for long. Half of all plastics EVER manufactured have been made in the last 15 years.

• 🏭 Plastic production is increasing exponentially—it was 2.3 million tons in 1950. In 2015, it hit 448 million tons, and production is expected to double by 2050.

• 💀 Plastic is immortal (almost). Some plastic additives cause their lives to extend tremendously - some take over 400 years to break down.

• 🌊 Microplastics have macro effects. Once microplastics (think teeny tiny broken-down plastics) enter the ocean, they get into aquatic species' systems and are essentially impossible to recover. Microplastics are much harder to see and are difficult to clean up. 

• ♻️ Recycle, but know that 91% of plastic isn't recycled. This doesn't mean we should stop recycling, but it DOES mean we should stop pushing the demand for plastic.

• 🚮 79% of plastic is accumulating in landfills or hanging out on the streets like a litter thug. Guess where it goes eventually? Hint: it rhymes with potion.

• 🌆 Plastic state of mind: By 2050, it's estimated that there will be 12 BILLION tons of plastic in landfill. That's 35,000x as heavy as the Empire State. Maybe it'll be the tourist attraction of the future.

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It’s no exaggeration that plastics are impacting our ecosystems and are leading to macro problems. However, there are much more caveats to the issue. 

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Cheers to more plastic facts! Here’s an episode from Science VS on plastic, starting with a simple question about a plastic straw. Listen and save a turtle here!

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This episode's lovely host, Wendy Zukerman, asks four questions that originated with all the buzz around straws:

1. How big of a problem, really, are plastic straws in the ocean?
2. How much other plastic is actually out there?
3. What happens to plastic objects once they're in the ocean?
4. Are these plastics (specifically microplastics) going to make marine life and us sick?

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You’ll learn that:

• 🥤 Straws are the plastic poster child. Sure, there's more plastic in the ocean than just straws, but they all collectively harm our planet. We can see the damage our garbage is doing to innocent wildlife, and it's so undeniably traceable to us.

• 🚽 Don’t flush tampons (and other junk) in the toilet—and not just because your toilet will clog. A significant cause of ocean plastic is sewers that get overwhelmed by products like the ones mentioned above! 

• 🌎 Go global or go home. The US (and North America in general) is not actually the biggest offender. Two-thirds of plastic comes from rivers in Asia because of poor or irregular trash collection. We can't solve this problem by pointing fingers. We hope we take our role as a global leader to boost other countries' processes for things like trash pickup. Plastic does not discriminate based on location. 

• 🤠 Everything's bigger in Texas…other than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's 2x the size of Texas and only getting bigger. 

• ⏰ MICROPLASTICS, MACRO PROBLEMS! As the name suggests, microplastics are tiny fractions of plastic and they inevitably end up in our oceans, even in places with no long-standing civilization like Antarctica. We can't escape it anywhere on Earth. We thought we could buy ourselves some time to figure this out, but it turns out that microplastics take as little as eight weeks to form.

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Although the plastic problem is growing substantially,  we have SO much power that we often forget about. It’s not too late! 

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Here are some tips to ultimately remove plastic from your daily life. It’s ok to start small—action is better than inaction. 

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1. Wrap your food with the good stuff.

We’re selfishly starting with food-wrapping-related plastic because we’ve realized we use an outrageous amount of Ziplocs and Saran wrap. Three suggestions: put your food in reusable containers even if it's an awkward half-lemon, buy beeswax food wrap like Beeswrap, or use reusable silicone wraps like the ones Stasher sells.

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2. Stop getting produce bags at the grocery store. 

This is the low-hanging fruit of eliminating plastic from your life. You really don't need produce bags unless you're buying in bulk. If that's the case, Ecobags to the rescue!

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3. Try the two-bag rule. 

ALWAYS have grocery bags in your car. If you don't have a car or you live in a city, try the two-bag rule (yup, we made it up). Take two reusable bags to the grocery store and keep them at arm's reach from your front door. This means you never have to spend mental energy calculating bags, and it’ll encourage you to reduce food waste and only buy what you need.  If you do forget your bags, use paper during checkout! P.S. Ecobags also has some really cute tote bags.

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4. Bulk up. Especially if you cook a lot, buy in bulk! 

You might be thinking of Costco, but you can also check out your local co-op or organic store. Buying in bulk helps reduce packaging!

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5. Ebay vs. Amazon... 

Amazon is notorious for its single-use plastic packaging. Consider buying on Ebay (especially since you can get great deals on pre-loved stuff), Etsy, or these sustainable alternatives to Amazon. 

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6. Get a cute water/coffee bottle. 

There's tons of brands you can choose from that sell reusable bottles. Benefits: you save money, time, the Earth, AND you look way trendier.

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7. Buy a safety razor. 

We found these razors that range in different body types and budgets. They're metal and it looks like they're a lot more financially sustainable than disposable razors too. You can get one anywhere from $20 to $100 ..

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8. Swap out your toiletries. 

Lush has shampoo bars and other toiletries that are also made with natural ingredients, but a general Google search will give you lots of options for plastic-free self-care that works for you.

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Any action taken to promote a plastic-free future can go a long way,  even if corporations aren’t following suit.

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Before we go any further, it's time for you to pledge your commitment. It takes less than 30 seconds to pledge and we can bother you about it in a friendly way, so we can hold each other accountable. Pledge here!

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🎯 Action step 4 of 4: REFLECT — what can you commit to? What fresh perspectives can we look at?

The burden goes far, far beyond our decisions as individual consumers. Increasing our sustainability choices makes a huge difference. However, the blame is not largely on us. We're battling against corporations with power, resources, and influence that often exceeds us. This article talks about how deeply ingrained plastic is in our lives, how we got here, and how this environmental calamity has been kept a secret by large corporations for decades. Spooky. 

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You’ll learn that:

• 📜 There's a bill that makes companies pay. "With new legislation, the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2020, [New Mexico Senator Tom] Udall is attempting to marshal Washington into a confrontation with the plastics industry, and to force companies that profit from plastics to take accountability for the waste they create."

• 🚫 Plastic doesn't last when you need it to. "Unlike aluminum, which can be recycled again and again, plastic degrades in reprocessing, and is almost never recycled more than once."

• 👀 Out of sight, out of mind doesn't mean the problem is gone.  "Americans who believed they were diverting plastic from the trash were, ironically, fueling a waste crisis half a world away. It is easy to find American and European packaging polluting the countryside of Southeast Asia..."'

• 💰 "Big Plastic" funds a nonprofit called Keep America Beautiful (KAB) to pin the burden of plastic cleanup on consumers, not corporations. "To help keep pollution out of sight, the top companies of Big Plastic have continued to fund KAB, which organizes volunteer labor to pick up trash on land, as well as the Ocean Conservancy, which sponsors volunteer international coastal cleanups. Since 2017, the top 10 categories of trash collected in the beach cleanups have been made of one material: plastic."

• ☣️ We have to understand the relationship between plastic, natural gas, and fossil fuels. "American fracking is literally fueling the global surge in plastics. The glut of cheap natural gas here has sparked an explosion in new plastics infrastructure. Since 2010, according to the ACC, U.S. companies have ramped up “334 chemical and plastics projects cumulatively valued at $204 billion.”'

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While we aren’t the ones entirely to blame, we have the power to be conscious of our consumption and hold these corporations accountable. 

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‍🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 4 of 4: REFLECT.

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Check out our membership community for more resources like free weekly events with social justice experts, sustainable product discounts, pre-written email templates, a social impact job board, and in-person hangouts with new friends. Thanks for taking action with Soapbox Project!