I spend a lot of time travelling in third world countries, that are albeit moving up the scale in the global economy. While countries like Canada are starting ever so slowly to reduce, reuse and recycle...this is not the case in developing nations.
Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. Plastic pollution is most visible in developing Asian and African nations, where garbage collection systems are often inefficient or nonexistent. But the developed world, especially in countries with low recycling rates, also has trouble properly collecting discarded plastics. Plastic trash has become so ubiquitous it has prompted efforts to write a global treaty negotiated by the United Nations.
Every minute, the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into our ocean.
Plastic pollution is a global problem. Approximately 7 billion of the 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic produced from 1950-2017 became plastic waste, ending up in landfills or dumped.
Plastic pollution can alter habitats and natural processes, reducing ecosystems’ ability to adapt to climate change, directly affecting millions of people’s livelihoods, food production capabilities and social well-being.
UNEP’s body of work demonstrates that the problem of plastic pollution doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The environmental, social, economic and health risks of plastics need to be assessed alongside other environmental stressors, like climate change, ecosystem degradation and resource use.
The first synthetic plastic — Bakelite — was produced in 1907, marking the beginning of the global plastics industry. However, rapid growth in global plastic production was not realized until the 1950s. Over the next 70 years, annual production of plastics increased nearly 230-fold to 460 million tonnes in 2019. WOW baby we have come a long way in 125 years! Not in a good way mind you. Have a look at this data to see who is the biggest contributor to this PROBLEM.
Well, that's about it folks. Happy hump day, and let's try to be a little more mindful of the consequences of using to much plastic. We won't get rid of it very soon, but every little bit counts!
CHEERS!
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