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