The Plastic Problem
I recommend this ‘The Plastic Problem’ video. It is very informative.
- “The Oceans are swimming in it
- Rivers are choked with it
- Coastlines are collecting it
- Landfills are clogged with it
- Our trash bags are filled with it
- And it’s even floating in the air we breathe
- Imagine spreading out 9 million metric tons evenly
- We could cover an area the size of Argentina
- Or of California six times over
- It’s plastic, the material we can’t seem to live without also lasts longer than a lifetime
- Plastic can take hundreds of years to break down and, even then, only into microparticles
- It’s hurting animals, it’s in our food chain
- Plastic is everywhere”
By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. PBS NewsHour takes a closer look at this now ubiquitous material, how it’s impacting the world and ways we can break our plastic addiction.
TRAILER (57 seconds)
By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. It’s an environmental crisis that’s been in the making for nearly 70 years. Plastic pollution is now considered one of the largest environmental threats facing humans and animals globally.
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. This hour-long program travels from Boston to Seattle, Costa Rica to Easter Island to bring the global scale of the problem to light.
FULL FEATURE (54:08 minutes)
The problem with plastic is that it is not biodegradable. It does not rot, like paper or food, so instead it can hang around in the environment for hundreds of years. Each year, 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced and 40% of that is single-use – plastic we will only use once before it is binned.
Source: Public Broadcasting Service
Click to read more articles about plastic pollution