Global Plastic Consumption On the Rise, While Recycling Lags Far Behind (Theresa Tremblay)

Plastic is everywhere. We buy it, use it, and then just throw it away.  From toys and packages to

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch located in the Central North Pacific Ocean. 

Source:https://gentlegreen.wordpress.com/

 batteries and textbooks, even the scissors needed to open the things we want to consume come with plastic on them.  The Worldwatch Institute recently evaluated the trend in worldwide plastic consumption.  According to the UNEP, the increasing production of plastic in the past half a century led to almost 299 million tons of plastic being produced in 2013, with at most 43 percent of that plastic now residing in landfills.  The problem will keep growing with countries like China, who currently only consume 20 kilograms per year of plastic (one-fifth the amount of the average American), are predicted to continue to grow in population and wealth.  We have successfully created an effective product but have not found a way to recycle it in a sustainable or environmentally friendly manner.  Worldwatch estimated that plastic causes about 13 billion dollars in damage to different ecosystems, as well as losses to tourism and cost of cleaning coastline every year.  

            This problem of increasing plastic consumption relates to our “Principles of Ecology” class because of the discussions of ecological footprint and overshoots as well as sustainability.   We have defined an overshoot to be when waste is created faster than the waste can be turned into resources again.  According to the United States Parks Service it can take up to 450 years for plastic to biodegrade naturally, and considering that the United States only recycled nine percent of the plastic it used in 2012, our planet has a considerable amount of work to do to clean up after us.  The growing use of plastic is only a small piece of our ecological footprint. However, using technology to create products that biodegrade faster or choosing to use less of the products that do not biodegrade at a sustainable rate can have a lasting impact.   

            I find this problem to be very interesting.  As a developed country we do not always see the physical side affects of our consumption behaviors.  We use products such as water bottles and food containers with no thought of how or where it will be disposed of.  Fortunately it is not our rivers that are overflowing with garbage and waste.  As a developed nation we have the option to send it to countries like China with limited environmental standards to be “disposed of”.  Maybe if we had polices that forced us to deal with the waste we produce we would consume at a more sustainable pace. 

As plastic continues to become a substitute for other products such as glass and metal, steps need to be taken to ensure that our use is both efficient, in that we can create it with as little waste as possible either by recycling or creating cleaner plastic energy, as well as sustainable.

Sources:

Gourmelon, Gaelle. "Global Plastic Production Rises, Recycling Lags: New Worldwatch Institute Analysis Explores Trends in Global Plastic Consumption and Recycling." Worldwatch Institute. 28 Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2015. <http://www.worldwatch.org/global-plastic-production-rises-recycling-lags-0>.

"Time It Takes for Garbage to Decompose in the Environment." U.S. National Park Service; Mote Marine Lab, Sarasota, FL. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. <http://des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/water/wmb/coastal/trash/documents/marine_debris.pdf>.