Our Planetary Plastic Pollution Problem

I was recently at the airport, spending copious amounts of time scrolling through Facebook while waiting for my flight. While doing so, I was struck by the number of posts along the scrolling all about plastic pollution.

Now I will say, for full disclosure, I do follow a lot of environmental organizations an Facebook, so it isn't a surprise I'd happen on these types of posts. But, I also follow news and other organizations too... along with edtech and educational groups. So I follow a lot about a lot. Given that, I was struck that there was far more on this one topic of environmentalism than usual.

It feels like the situation with China no longer taking our plastic (as it's done for over 2 decades) is really starting to take traction. Sometimes it takes a crisis situation to really help open our eyes. (We have all certainly seen that in many ways--take the horrific mosque attack in New Zealand and how that was pivotal for making a change in their gun laws.)

As long as China was taking all our trash over the years, we could bury our head in the sand. Case and point: why have I been writing about the overabundance of pollution (among other things) for nearly 10 years? During all that time, there was no real headway. Now with onset of  plastic bag bans, straw bans, and systems having to overhaul their recycling programs due to there being nowhere else for it to go, perhaps now... NOW is the time to make a positive move. For that, we should be both hopeful and thankful as it is long overdue!

To check our some of the articles that were poignantly striking me, check out my list below:

• People Magazine's "Internet Users Are Getting Their Hands Dirty with the #Trashtag Challenge: 'Way to Go, Humanity!'"

• These people are giving up plastic for Lent and it's all because of 'Blue Planet II'

• NPR's "Where Will Your Plastic Trash Go Now That China Doesn't Want It?"  

• Treehugger's "Whale Dies with 40 Kilograms of Plastic In Its Stomach"

• Irish Examiner's Plastic Production is the Problem, and Not Plastic Waste

• Plastic Pollution Coalition's "157,000 Shipping Containers of U.S. Plastic Waste Exported to Countries with Poor Waste Management in 2018"

• Forbes' "The European Union Just Voted To Ban Single-Use Plastics By 2021"

• Bored Panda's "Man Creates A Way To Reduce Plastic Packaging And 25 Famous Companies Join Him (Terracycle's Tom Szazy & his upcoming reuse innovation The Loop)

• Project Learning Tree's "10 Hands-On Science Projects To Teach About Pollution"

• National Geographic's "Is Burning Plastic Waste a Good Idea?"

• USA Today's "Foam Cups and Food Containers Could Be Banned in Maryland, Making It The First State To Do So" (Way to go, Maryland!!)

• Yup's "All It Took To Clean Up This Beach Was A Fish Sculpture Named Goby

• HR Green's "Plogging – Where Jogging Meets Litter Pick-up" (and I have discussed Plogging in the past)

• Ecowatch's "Straws Made of Seaweed Could Replace Their Plastic Nemesis

• The Grist 50 2019: Because The World Needs Fixers (many of whom are tackling the solution problem)

Images from https://www.cawrecycles.org/recycling-news/3p93l3t3k8plh8tctw6a23y4t5fjsz and https://storyofstuff.org and https://www.facebook.com/punksagainstlittering/ and http://www.golfian.com/plastic-pollution-by-numbers-thrown-away35-billion-plastic-water-bottles-a-year-in-the-us/