The Plastic World Around Us

Plastic waste is a growing issue around the world, one that Europe is currently trying to mitigate. There are ideas out there such as burning waste for electricity, or burying it, "underground to “mine” back when recycling becomes more sophisticated"(Reuters); seemingly, the answer to all man's issues. Plastic was commercialized in 1965 and use expanded in the 1980's when grocers realized they could save $6 dollars on 1,000 plastic bags as opposed to their paper counterpart(The Atlantic). Now, plastic is found in almost every single household product, permanent and disposable, and once these items are thrown away, they are introduced into the environment in less obvious ways that just being in a landfill. Recent studies found that of 90 individual animals sampled near the bottom(11 km deep) of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the worlds oceans, every single one of them had ingested these man-made materials.(The Guardian) It is terrifying to me that major news outlets do not report more frequently on this issue, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, which could easily- and only within a few generations- cause this planet to be uninhabitable for many living things. We are reaching a critical tipping-point where any remedial actions may be to late to stop the catastrophic ecosystem and food-chain collapse that will happen if solutions are not found and implemented. Although consumers have very little power in the special-interest-controlled world, refraining from the purchase of disposable plastic products is a step in the right direction.
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