For decades, major oil companies and the American Plastics Council (now the American Chemistry have led consumers to believe that their plastic containers could be recycled. However, over the years the truth has been seeping out. This investigation from the Centre for Climate Integrity is important because it has uncovered the full extent of the lies, but recycling companies have tried to explain the difficulty of recycling plastics or any materials for that matter. With this investigation we now have definitive proof that recycling plastic is ineffective and impossible. These lies have led to decades of needles waste when we could have changed our product distribution systems earlier to eliminate plastic waste.
These companies and corporations from Big Oil and the plastics industry should be held accountable for the waste that they have contributed to. They should be required to come up with ways to mitigate, and if possible, eliminate the waste that they created for profit. These companies have knowingly trashed our planet because of their greed. We are all now paying the price because of them.
What can we all do to eliminate plastic waste? We have to stop purchasing single use plastics.
Don’t buy:
Single-use water bottles
Plastic takeaway bags
Plastic baggies for lunch
Small plastic containers of products (yogurt cups, K-cups, fruit cups)
Do buy:
Glass water bottles
Use cloth bags for store trips
Use glass containers
Choose the larger container and not individual cups for instance or purchase whole, unprocessed foods
We also need to push manufacturers and retailers to adapt to a refill system which would eliminate a majority of our waste from products. If we went to the store and filled our own containers while at the store for the product we need, it would shift our waste consumption to nearly nothing. Nearly everything can be refilled. If we go to the store, we need yogurt and simply bring our container to the store and fill it for the yogurt we need. If we need salad dressing, same thing, bring your bottle and fill it up. This would reduce the need to restock items.
The concerns would be of the spreading of illness if someone brings a dirty bottle, but we could have a cleaning process between each use like a wipe down. Also, we don’t want anyone to lose their job so retailers could shift the people who stock the stores to man the refill stations and help out people who need assistance, that would reduce a lot of issues. This would also reduce theft of items tremendously.
Retailers could even offer a bottle/container washing service for a small fee but this would ensure that the containers from customers are clean.
Will this take more effort from the public? Yes. But one big benefit to the public besides reducing plastic waste is that removing the plastic from each product and the packaging would reduce the cost. All of our products would be cheaper as a whole because the burden is on the consumer to bring a receptacle for each purchase.
What Big Oil and the Plastics Council has done is conditioned the public to rely on plastics as our containers for products when we could have been transitioning to a refill system. They deserve jail time for what they’ve done and how they’ve profited from their lies.
Scientists are working on ways to effectively break down plastic like the huge discovery of a plastic-eating bacteria, which does break down plastic but not at the scale that we have created.
The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee comprising of 162 nations is creating a global initiative to end plastic use.
Hopefully, retailers and manufacturers will begin to offer refill systems so we can effectively tackle our plastic waste and overall waste. It’s going to take demands from the public and from all governments changing laws requiring a green refill process in all stores.
We all need to start making changes in our day to day life so we are not using plastic and purchasing plastics.
We all need to reach out to our favorite products, food goods, and merchandise and demand that they eliminate plastics from their products. If we work together, we can eliminate plastics and initiate a sustainable refill system.
Free our world from plastics.
Boycott
Support green products
Buy reusable
Please extend your energy to countries and people facing atrocities and genocide- Palestine, Sudan, Congo, the Rohingyas, Armenians, and the Uyghurs.
Articles for reference (please read and share)
Gryst: Petrochemical companies have known for 40 years that plastics recycling wouldn’t work
Time: Alternative Bioplastics Are Still Mostly Garbage
The Guardian: ‘We are just getting started’: the plastic-eating bacteria that could change the world
NPR: Is Plastic Recycling A Lie? Oil Companies Touted Recycling to Sell More Plastic