Drowning in Plastic
According to the EPA, in 2017, the U.S. produced nearly 35.4 million tons (32 million metric tons) of plastic. This is a massive amount of waste and the U.S. doesn’t have the proper infrastructure or policies in place to take proper care of the issue. As a matter of fact, in 2016, the U.S. shipped over half of our entire plastic waste to be dealt with overseas. As the 2nd biggest polluter in the world, the United States needs to take control of their own problems instead of putting the burden on other countries that can’t even manage their own waste. Plastic waste has been a problem for a while now and the fact that there is a patch of garbage in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas shows how big of a problem this issue is becoming.
While this problem is clearly getting bigger and bigger, there are reasons to have hope. In 2020 at the America Recycles Summit, the EPA presented a new plan that aims to increase recycling practices to 50% by 2030. If this is something that the U.S. is actively aiming to achieve, there is a lot that needs to be done. Starting with the individual level, people can change their everyday actions to avoid using plastic. One easy way to do this is to simply choose to refill reusable water bottles as opposed to buying plastic bottles. I conducted a survey through my social media accounts asking my friends and family that same exact question. I was happy to see that only 10% said that they use plastic bottles regularly but some people responded to me saying that they believed that there should’ve been an option for both as well. This is part of the issue on the individual level. People tend to only act in a pro environmental way when it is coinvent for them and that is something that needs to change.
On the national level there is also a lot that needs to be done as well. For starters, policies need to be put in place to help improve waste-management infrastructure so that we can manage our waste at the source instead of sending it overseas making it another country’s problem. Along with that, more funding needs to go into the waste management sector so that these systems can have the economic abilities to be able to run in a more sustainable manner. Stopwaste.org gives a bunch of examples of how various different business can become better at managing their own waste. For example, the Postal Service has a big processing plant in Oakland and they now use reusable containers to prevent waste along with recycling undeliverable mail. This new strategy has saved them over $200,000 yearly. Not only can updated practices reduce waste, but it can also save money as well.
Along with policy and funding changes, the main source of this problem comes from the manufacturers who produce the plastic. These companies aren’t held responsible at all for the products that they make. Germany has done an amazing job at solving this specific problem. In 1991, Germany’s recycling rate was roughly 3% and they were able to increase that number to 56.1% by 2016. This large uptick is due in large part to a 1990 packaging audit to limit the rise of landfills in the country. Policymakers in Germany’s government decided to hold manufacturers accountable for the harmful products that they had been producing. The producer’s followed these new policies by creating “The Green Dot”. The Green Dot is the first recycling system in the world that collects waste from both businesses and households alike. This is a model way to go about solving the issues because the money for funding these projects comes from the producers instead of the government itself.
Overall, it is clear that plastic waste is a rapidly growing issue but there are reasons for hope. Case studies such as “The Green Dot”, adopted by Germany and the Oakland Postal Service adopting reusable materials prove that we can do things to help change the current trend in order to make our lifestyles sustainable for generations to come. There are things that each and every one of us can do whether it be something as small as using a reusable water bottle or as big as canvassing for policy changes. Either way, it’s crucial that all of us come together if we want to keep our beautiful planet clean for our children and our grandchildren as well.
Sources:
From Austria to Wales: The five best recycling countries in the world
https://www.stopwaste.org/at-work/business-assistance/recycling-resources-case-studies/recycling-case-studies
https://www.livescience.com/how-much-plastic-recycling.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/us-plastic-pollution#:~:text=In%202016%2C%20more%20than%20half,properly%20manage%20and%20process%20it.
https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#:~:text=These%20Facts%20and%20Figures%20are,25%20million%20tons%20were%20composted.
