Plastic pollution continues to plague the earth, and it’s getting worse. We are literally drowning in plastic waste! On October 20, 2021, the Sierra Club York River Group met to learn more.
Two speakers talked about plastic pollution trends, sources, and possible solutions. Katie Register is the Executive Director of Clean Virginia Waterways of Longwood University, and co-founder of the Virginia Plastic Pollution Prevention Network. Kim Sudderth is the Virginia Organizing Director of Mothers Out Front, whose mission is to ensure a livable climate for all children.
A major problem is that of single-use plastic items. These are items like soda bottles, plastic bags, and many food containers. They are used just ONCE by the consumer, then they are thrown away and persist in the environment for hundreds of years. The plastics industry is happy, because they make money. The more single-use plastics that are used, the higher the industry profits. But at what cost to our health and the health of our planet?
Some animals mistake plastics in the environment for food. Ingesting it often kills them. Google “turtles eating plastic” if you want to see what can happen. Plastics in the environment also eventually break down into small pieces. These small pieces (microplastics and nanoplastics) can easily get into all food chains, including ours! Microplastics are even found in human infant feces. It’s everywhere! The health implications of microplastics in our food and our bodies are currently not known. Some industries also purposefully create and use tiny pieces of plastic, such as microbeads, which are used as an abrasive or exfoliant, to prolong shelf-life, or for the controlled release of active ingredients.
There’s even more bad news: plastics are also a contributor to air pollution and climate change. Plastics may be poised to overtake coal as a climate driver. Unfortunately, we cannot recycle our way out of this problem. There is simply too much plastic being produced. It is also too difficult and too expensive to solely rely on cleaning up the mess. The rate of plastic being created is simply too great. We need to “turn off the faucet of single-use plastic” instead. In other words, we need to reduce the rate of plastic production, and especially the rate of single-use plastic production.
Fortunately, people are becoming more aware of the plastic problem. But even more awareness is needed, and then people need to become upset enough that they push our lawmakers to pass laws that directly address it. Companies will not fix this problem on their own; there’s simply too much money at stake. As we all know, most companies will put profits in front of environmental and human health concerns.
Did you know:
- Cigarette butts are one of the most common items thrown on the ground. And they are NOT natural, but are made of cellulose acetate, a man-made plastic material. They also contain hundreds of toxic chemicals.
- Plastic bags and food-related plastic items (cutlery, cups, lids, straws, plates, stirrers, vegetable bags, and takeout containers) account for a very large percentage of single-use plastic waste.
What can you do? Clearly, you should support political leaders who will work legislatively to help curb the problem of plastic pollution. Also, according to the Oceanic Society, you should:
- Reduce your use of single-use plastics
- Recycle properly
- Participate in (or organize) a cleanup
- Support bans
- Avoid product containing microbeads
- Spread the word
- Support organizations addressing plastic pollution
There are plenty of resources online that you can look up. For example, for some youtube videos put together by the Clean Virginia Waterways of Longwood University, see: https://www.youtube.com/c/CleanVirginiaWaterwaysofLongwoodUniversity.