It’s time to face up to the ugly reality of plastic
Finally, some countries are considering forcing a reduction in global plastic production, aiming to cut it by 40% within 15 years, based on 2025 output. The aim is to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement and protect not only the environment, but our health.
Plastic is an enormously versatile material, hence the adjective plasticity. But that versatility, together with how easy it is to make, has produced one of our greatest environmental disasters. Between 1950 and 2017, no less than 9.2 billion tons of plastic were manufactured, of which more than half was produced since 2004. It is a growing, almost exponentially, problem, which leads us to consider the capacity of the planet to absorb a practically indestructible product, which remains in ecosystems for hundreds of years. There’s plastic everywhere, from the clouds to the bottom of the oceans, and even in our bloodstream.
The tragedy here is that plastic is not even essential to our well-being, on the contrary, it’s a danger to our health, but every attempt to ban single-use plastics have resulted in increased output, due to companies’ ability to find ways around the restrictions. It’s the same with fossil fuels, and the same kind of lies: 56 companies are responsible for more than half the plastic waste in our environment, with Coca Cola leading the way with 11%, and…
