For many years much of the plastic in America thrown into garbage bins was shipped off to China who was desperate for raw materials.
In 2018 China had a massive shutdown on their trash pollution intake leaving the United States with piles of plastic and nothing to do with it.
From 1964-2014 plastic production increased by 296 tons which equates to over a 2,000 % increase in plastic waste.
Most stuff people throw into recycling bins is actually going to waste instead of being recycled. The amount of plastic waste recycled is only 10% the rest is thrown away.
People are okay with using plastic because they know it can be recycled but that’s not the case for all waste. With the amount of waste we are producing we need to change this mindset so we can do better for our planet and future generations.
Many people know plastic takes a long time to break down, but how long does it take?
Aluminum cans take from 80 – 200 years, glass can take a million years if at all, and normal plastic waste such as water bottles or food wrappers take up to 1,000 years.
With over 99% of plastic deriving from oil, natural gas, and coal. The amount of increase in plastic pollution has left the U.S. plastic problem becoming many other countries problems.
Since the U.S. can no longer send plastic to China, it turned to sending waste to countries like Turkey, India, Senegal and others. This is a problem because much of their plastic is highly mismanaged.
These countries now find themselves surrounded by plastic leaving them to illegally burn or dump plastic in other areas like the ocean.
This is not only crucial because of the air pollution it is causing but, because of the amount of microplastic that is being found in our drinking water and food. Not to mention the additional harm it is doing to the oceans ecosystem we heavily rely on.
Some of the biggest names responsible for plastic pollution in recent years are Coca-Cola, Nestle, PepsiCo, P&G and many more.
Countries like China, Bangladesh, and India are trying to combat the amount of plastic waste by implementing taxes on plastic or putting partial bans on it.
Regardless of how people are combatting plastic most agree that it is a problem that needs to be dealt with and that recycling is not helping with the problem.
We need to stop this comfortability with recycling and thinking that recycling plastic is enough, because it’s not and it’s only making environmental damage worse.