I’m an Environmental Scientist, and I Don’t Care If You Recycle
I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you that the world's plastic problem is at a critical level today. From the Stone Age to the Iron Age to the Steel Age, we delineate society’s epochs by their primary material for fabrication. Ours will most likely be called the Plastic Age.
Microplastics and the plastic waste in our oceans, food-chain and even air are harmful to humans and wildlife. In one study, 100% of the mussels tested contained microplastics. And even if you go vegan and only eat organic food, you are likely to breathe in plastic from urban air and drink it with your water.
But the amount of single-use plastic churned out every day is not the consumer’s fault. If you have tried going plastic-free or tried reducing your plastic waste, you know how hard it can be. Sometimes products come in layers and layers of plastic, and we have to go the extra mile to avoid it.
Of the 380 million tons we use every year, more than 50% is single-use. It comes down to roughly 90 pounds per person. And of the 380 million tons, we dump 10 million tons into the oceans every year. If we continue current trends, plastic production is likely to quadruple by 2050.
