Plastic Planet Unwrapped

If you think this blog is not applicable to you because you recycle, think again. Do you believe that because you live inland, far away from Southeast Asia where much of the plastic escapes land and finds its way into the ocean, that you haven’t contributed to the massive Pacific Garbage Patch? Think again. Do you believe that your individual actions are insignificant given the enormity of the challenges we face? Please, think again.

When we place plastic items in the recycle bin, we treat those items not as waste, but as something positive we have done for the earth. Odds are that your plastic isn’t ending up where you expect and hope it would.

If there is one thing from this blog that makes you stop and reevaluate, let this be it. This is what keeps me up at night… One of the most harmful byproducts of our plastic use is all around us but often too small to see with the naked eye.

It is easy to romanticize the recycling process. We would like to believe that when we discard a plastic item in the recycling bin, we are off the hook, environmentally speaking. What is the harm if my brief use ends with my giving that bottle or plastic berry clam shell another life, to be repeated again and again down the line of users? Odds are that the plastic bottle we place in our recycling bin will never again form another plastic bottle, or even a portion of one.

You may have noticed new products popping up in grocery stores over the last few years with green-sounding labels: ‘biodegradable plastic bags’, and products with ‘plant-based packaging’. Perhaps you too were inclined to opt for these seemingly ‘eco’ alternatives over conventional petroleum-based plastics… The key is to understand which of these eco-sounding plastics actually help to address the plastic problem, and which afford no benefit to the environment and simply perpetuate complacency.

As weeks pass, scientists continue to publish new plastic reports, only adding alarm to the already dire scientific narrative around our global plastic problems. Yet we’re stuck in a loop—a complete cycle of chasing arrows— of complacency, perpetuated by its normality. In this post, I will propose four action steps, things that individuals like you and me can and must do if we are to begin moving toward solutions to our global plastic problems.