The investigation revealed that the industry’s and policymakers’ claims that plastic garbage is valuable because it can be cleaned, separated and recycled were, and still are, lies. Plastic waste is not valuable and it never has been and the industry has known this all along, at least since the early 1970s. Of all plastic produced less than 10 percent has ever been recycled.
Pollution
Plastic Problem – Plastic is Everywhere
In “The Plastic Problem: PBS NewsHour Presents”, Amna Nawaz and her PBS NewsHour colleagues look at this now ubiquitous material and how it’s impacting the world, why it’s become so prevalent, what’s being done to mitigate its use, and what potential alternatives or solutions are out there.
Plastic Trash Solution: Produce Less Plastic
Mismanaged plastic trash in dumpsites that is released into the environment presents a range of risks to human and ecological health. Substantial quantities of toxic, greenhouse gasses will continue to be emitted into the environment as plastic trash is openly burned in landfills.
Plastic Pollution: The Circular Economy Myth
Hundreds of millions of tons more plastic pollute our sea, ocean and land environment every year. Plastic pollution is everywhere, killing and endangering wildlife as well as being a serious threat to human health. Plastic particles have been found in soils and sediments, in animal carcasses and in the atmosphere.
Dead Zones in the Oceans, Seas, Lakes and Rivers
Dead zones are exactly that, deadly. They are oxygen-deprived or hypoxic bodies of water. Not much survives in these oceanic deserts as, not surprisingly, marine life needs a constant intake of oxygen to live. Large swaths of ocean habitats that would otherwise be teeming with life become biological wastelands.
Plastic-Free Choices demanded by Oceana
We should not be forced to pollute the ocean every time we eat, drink or go shopping. We need to be given a choice, a plastic-free choice. Our oceans sustain life. An abundant ocean can feed a billion people a healthy meal every day forever. But now they are being killed, filled by throwaway plastics. The equivalent of one garbage truck of garbage is dumped in the sea every minute, 17.6 billion pounds (8 million tons) every year. Plastic is everywhere in our ocean, floating on the surface, mixing in the salt water and sitting on the ocean bottom, miles and miles deep. And once in the ocean it never goes away.
Digital Strategy of the EU is Not Green
The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry is touted to be environmentally friendly. In March of this year the European Union launched its industrial strategy for a green and digital Europe. It is fashionable, albeit unjustified, to couple digital with green.
Climate Change and Mass Extinctions are Ecocide
We should be aware that these small percentage temperature increases, reflecting climate changer, will have disproportionately huge consequences. The 1°C, 1.5°C or 2°C increases hide extreme weather conditions; extreme heat, desertification; extremely cold, glacial temperatures; cyclones and forest fires; floods and rising seas; unprecedented drought and famine; migrations of millions of people fleeing unbearable weather conditions and food and water shortages.
Emissions: The Reality of the Carbon Countdown
We can understand better what these emissions and temperature measures and target dates mean by looking at the facts on the ground. At the end of 2019 we passed the 1°C increase threshold. The increase of 1°C in average global temperature is by definition an ‘average’ and hides the reality of extreme weather conditions.
Carbon Emissions Countdown – The Failure
These convoluted and ambiguous carbon emissions targets that have an inbuilt failure expectation of 34% or even 50% are not targets at all. Whilst being adequate for a scientific study giving the parameters within which the findings are true and to what extent, it is however highly inadequate as a policy objective.