Our relationship with plastic is toxic; the UN wants to end it
The United Nations is considering a global agreement to eliminate plastic pollution by 2030. A huge problem with few easy answers, and that cannot start with the total elimination of the manufacture of plastics. Instead, the idea is to work on suitable substitutes for the functions of a technology that has shaped our world, in addition to abandoning the idea that plastics can be thrown away. Plastics pollution is now a global emergency; we can only applaud this initiative to start addressing it.
Single-use plastics are linked to unsustainable habits, and consumers cannot be expected to change those habits on their own. Initiatives in China to ban single-use plastic bags and accessories have reduced the presence of such plastics in the ecosystem, but they are quickly replaced by other types, such as bottles. In practice, as long as a $500 billion-plus industry continues to generate 400 million tons of pollution in the form of plastics each year, little can be done. At the moment, up to 4.5% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the manufacture of plastics.
If we also take into account that plastic recycling initiatives are basically a bad joke that will never work, and that for decades, the only thing industrialized countries did was to send their garbage and plastics to poorer countries, the reality is that the…
