How We Can Beat the Plastic Pandemic

put a finger down

if you’ve ever been out and about felt a

little thirsty

so you grab a plastic water bottle at

the store to quench your thirst

then you toss it in a recycling bin like

a responsible adult

when you recycle a plastic bottle you

get a warm fuzzy feeling

the mental narrative goes a little

something like this

i know plastic is bad it’s clogging the

oceans and hurting cute sea creatures

but

at least i recycled i’m a good person

and i care about the earth

this idea has been drilled into all of

our heads

from the time we are young our parents

and teachers tell us that

if we care about the earth we should

recycle and

if we all just recycle our trash will be

magically transformed into new items in

an

infinite triangle of reincarnation

it’s a good story unfortunately it’s a

lie

but here’s a twist it’s not actually

your fault

the story goes back to the 1950s at a

plastics industry conference

the keynote speaker got up on the mic

and exclaimed to the attendance

your future is in the garbage these

plastics companies realize that if they

can get people to throw away

they will have to buy more stuff so

more and more things were made into

single-use containers

and as a result more and more bottles

were ending up on the side of the road

as litter

vermont being the ever progressive state

that it is

saw this trash build up on the roadways

and passed a single use bottle ban

this really freaked out the bottle

companies they knew they needed to do

something quick

before the legislation spread across the

united states

so they created the keep america

beautiful campaign

the advertisements featured an iconic

native american with a tear in his eye

and the line people start pollution

people can stop pollution in a flash of

brilliant marketing the beverage

companies shifted the responsibility for

the waste that

they create from themselves onto us

the consumers it gets even crazier

the recycling system is not just broken

its mere

existence actually spurs us to create

more waste

than if we were just throwing our trash

away

ah the mythical land of a way

that’s right recycling actually

increases waste

in 2017 boston university professors

published an interesting study

they designed a clever experiment where

they instructed people to wrap gifts

half of the participants were in a room

that had a trash can

and the other half had both a trash can

and a recycling bin

it’s counter intuitive but participants

in the room with the recycling bin

used way more paper than those with only

a trash can

just the passive suggestion of recycling

caused an increase in waste 33 percent

more

this effect is called the moral

licensing effect it’s the subconscious

phenomenon

where choices that boost our self-image

allow space for actions that we would

otherwise consider

unethical good acts offset the bad

behavior

like the great karmic scale evening

things out

running for an hour then pounding a

cheeseburger moral licensing

taking a 40-minute shower because you

have a low drip faucet

more licensing traveling more because

you buy carbon offsets

moral licensing it’s how we justify

undesirable behaviors after we do

something we consider

good the idea here is that if you intend

to recycle a plastic bottle

you don’t feel bad about grabbing one or

five

out of the gas station cooler in the

first place but our wastefulness is

not our natural state it’s a learned

behavior

all of earth’s creatures including

humans are involved to be

as efficient as possible ever see an

eagle’s nest with a four-car garage

no eagles can’t drive but they’re still

efficient and humans used to be too

but the systems we have built are not

and if we mean to survive

we need to fix those systems we all know

plastic is a problem

there are trash islands in the middle of

the ocean plastic is clogging rivers

polluting waters and contaminating our

food and plastic production is only

increasing

remember plastic has only existed for

about a hundred years

but half of all the plastic that ever

existed was produced in just the last 15

years we’ve created a disposable culture

based on convenience a global system of

wastefulness

in the blink of an eye but two years ago

it started to feel like we were making

progress

in 2018 we all saw the viral video of

the sea turtle with the straw lodged up

his nose

that turtle sparked a movement which was

followed by

sweeping legislative bans and voluntary

corporate participation

being seen with a plastic straw became

taboo celebrities wouldn’t

dare post a picture with a plastic straw

it was the perfect time to launch the

world’s first collapsible straw company

and i’d spent the previous four years

studying for a masters in sustainability

at harvard

while working in the pollution

prevention department at los alamos

national laboratory

things were headed in the right

direction if only incrementally

then 2020 happened single-use waste

skyrocketed and we seemingly forgot

about the plastics issue

there was a huge surge in food delivery

waste as restaurants shifted to take out

only models

and people stayed indoors to social

distance

coffee shops stopped taking reusables

stores wouldn’t allow

reusable bags single-use masks became as

common as kleenex

all of a sudden the plastic narrative

that was dominating the headlines

fell into the shadows of covid and a

reality tv show about

tigers we’ve lost a decade of progress

in the last nine months

our plastic waste is only as good as the

systems we’ve devised to handle it

so what are those systems well we used

to send all of our recycling to china

because the u.s doesn’t have widespread

domestic plastic recycling

infrastructure

but in 2018 china said no thanks

and politely declined our waste because

it was highly contaminated with

non-recyclable material

in the u.s we tend to wish cycle

throw things in the recycling bin that

we wish were recyclable

moral licensing in full effect here

coffee cups

not recyclable ziploc bags

not recyclable plastic straws

not recyclable with china not accepting

our trash and no plastic recycling

industry available here

the majority of plastic you put in a

recycling bin

ends up in a landfill of the nine

percent of plastic that does get

recycled

yeah ninety-one percent does not less

than

one percent is recycled more than once

this

is called down cycling because the

resulting material is much lower quality

and has

little commercial value plastic is not

like aluminum which can be infinitely

recycled over and over

because of the additives and colorants

plastic can only be converted into less

valuable products it’s like blending a

matcha latte and a shot on mezcal and

then trying to separate them again

doesn’t work as a whole plastic is not

the problem

it’s how we use it plastic is an amazing

material that has allowed

for unimaginable scientific medical

technological advancements

and it lasts forever which is a blessing

and a curse

plastic never biodegrades instead

when exposed to light plastic breaks

down into lots of tiny little pieces

that enter our food stream

ninety percent of sea salt tested in a

recent study contained microplastics

so next time you’re eating sushi know

that with

every bite you’re also getting a little

sprinkling of microplastics

yum so what’s the plastics industry

doing about these issues

they when created the alliance to end

plastic waste

sounds charitable right not quite

though the alliance to end plastic waste

has committed 1.5 billion to cleanup

efforts

they’re also spending 204

billion on creating new petrochemical

facilities

if your bathtub was overflowing would

you drain it with a teaspoon

or turn off the tab for the most part we

all know we need to do

on an individual level but i’m going to

take the next bit and give a few quick

reminders

the first is rethink be mindful of your

consumption

your relationship with things and your

relationship with the earth

it’s all connected the next is refuse

only use what you need say no to

single-use straws

cups bottles cutlery bags really all of

it

when you call and order takeout ask

specifically for no bag and cutlery

this leads right into reduce use less

do a waste audit at your home and take a

peek into your trash can

and that drawer where you keep all the

plastic bags look at what you’re

throwing out

one super easy switch is to replace

ziploc bags and plastic wrap with

reusable alternatives

this goes right into number four which

is reuse and repurpose

buy high quality items that are designed

to last

in the long run i promise it will save

you money

when you can buy used i stopped buying

new clothes a year and a half ago and

instead

shop at consignment and thrift stores

this entire outfit

is used and it’s super cute

the next is repair university of youtube

can show you how

get down with your inner fixer and

please if your mom and dad didn’t teach

you

learn how to sew it’s really easy the

next is responsible

carry your reusables with you take

responsibility when you leave your bags

in the car

and just go get them train yourself to

always have what you need you definitely

have a reusable water bottle

probably quite a few but do you carry a

reusable spork with you

let’s be more responsible consumers give

better gifts

please no more of these useless

tchotchkes are low quality junk that

breaks in a couple days

let’s give sustainable presence that

have a purpose and support companies

that have a deeper mission and give back

these are big jobs to tackle but it’s

possible

by modeling these behaviors on an

individual level we can start to

influence the larger systems at play

here are three ideas for systemic change

that would dramatically move the needle

the first is changing government

subsidies the oil industry is subsidized

to the tune

of 5.3 trillion dollars a year

which makes plastic appear to be

artificially cheap around the globe

and chokes off research and development

for reusables and bio-based alternatives

the next is legislation 32

of plastic waste ends up as litter

that’s kind of like dumping one dump

truck of plastic in the ocean

every minute we need to hold companies

responsible for the waste that they

create

they should pay for the damage they

cause this is called

extended producer responsibility epr is

a policy approach that puts the

responsibility

both financial and physical on the

producer to deal with the waste that

they create

so not only do they have to collect sort

recycle or dispose of the waste

they also have to pay for it right now

this financial burden lies on you and me

the taxpayers

to deal with the waste these

corporations are generating taxpayers

cover more than

90 percent of the cost of recycling and

we are essentially paying twice

once for the bottle and then again for

its disposal and cleanup

meanwhile the beverage companies don’t

have to pay a dime for the cleanup

shifting this model to make producers

financially responsible for the waste

that they create

provides a larger incentive to work

towards reducing waste at the source

the third and final point is

environmental equality

a healthy environment should be a basic

human right

2020 opened my eyes to the idea of

intersectional environmentalism

intersectional environmentalism is where

social justice and sustainability

meet it’s an inclusive type of

environmentalism

that advocates for both the protection

of the people

and the planet and it amplifies the

discussion around how race and culture

impact who

experiences environmental injustice

low-income communities are statistically

more likely to be impacted by toxic

waste

landfills food deserts and have limited

access to green space

saving our earth is an opportunity to

unite the division between people

it’s the one thing we should all agree

on

regardless of your political spiritual

or social beliefs

earth is the only planet we have like

there are others

but unless you’re elon musk and have a

spaceship you’re not going to end up

there

so we should probably start treating it

that way and not burn down our own house

the choices we make as individuals

change the people around us

and the surrounding systems we need to

stop

taking half measures moral licensing is

allowing us

as a society and even as a planet to

believe

that the teaspoon can keep up with the

tap i know

times are a little scary right now and

it may seem like these small individual

changes are pointless given the scale of

the existing devastation

but your voice is more important now

than ever

many of you are already taking some

steps to change your habits

but we need to take the final step

together and

vote on these issues we have to change

our individual actions as well as policy

so please vote well saying no

to a plastic straw save the world no

but it creates a ripple effect and the

social impact that collectively adds up

to values and social norms

remember when it felt weird to wear a

mask in the supermarket back in march

now it feels weird to shop without one

social normalization

leads to systemic change waste is just a

design flaw

the good deed of recycling is an

illusion and our systems for managing

waste are in need of

major reboot but we can do this

our voices matter companies are

literally listening to you

and what you want if you stop using

trashy products

they’ll stop making them so speak up

spread the ripple educate your community

and for fork’s sake

use less plastic