by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here)
If you have any doubt that we are drowning in plastics or that this is a problem, peruse my last column before continuing. I saved the solutions — such as they are — for this week. The good news is, cleaning up plastic isn’t an intractable problem.
For one, there are no naysayers. No one doubts the ubiquity of plastic and few imagine this is a good thing. Plastics manufacturers don’t want the blight of beaches and highways littered with their logo-bearing discarded plastic.
Solutions are emerging from many different sources, to varying success.
Californians worked on a grassroots campaign for eight years to achieve a ban on single-use plastic bags. Nine million tons of the stuff end up in the ocean annually: the equivalent of five plastic-stuffed plastic grocery bags on every foot of coastline around world.
The ban was achieved in 2014, but two years later, plastic-bag makers spent $6 million in an unsuccessful effort to persuade voters to overturn the bag ban.
It went into effect in 2016; since then, the amount of single-use plastic bags collected in California Coastal Cleanup days has gone down by 60 percent.
Drinking-straw legislation similar to the plastic bag one is now under consideration. It doesn’t take many photos of wildlife with straws irretrievably stuck in their orifices to realize straws can’t be allowed to escape “into the wild.”
Nevertheless, I wonder if these individual bans may serve to falsely assuage our guilt when a bigger fix is needed.
How do we get away from something that’s proved so useful and versatile? One way is to look at alternatives.
My husband just bought sustainable food wrap from Etee reusables. Made from cotton muslin infused with beeswax and tree resin, they wrap a sandwich or leftovers and clean easily in soap and water.
Other simple ideas include using bar soap in place of plastic dispensers and providing your own doggie bag when you go out to eat.
Until I read June’s issue of National Geographic, I thought biodegradable products were the wave of the future.
But the United Nations Environment Program warns they don’t reduce the amount of plastics reaching the ocean. Their 2015 report concluded that the “biodegradable” label may actually encourage littering.
Further, degradable plastics mixed into recyclable ones creates a recycled mixture that may no longer be remoldable into a durable plastic.
The fundamental problem is our throw-away culture. Think of diapers.
My kids’ generation, now in their 30s, was the first where arguably the majority of babies wore disposables. Our Tajiguas Landfill is now dumping our kids’ kids’ plastic-enshrouded dumps about 200 feet above theirs.
Scientists estimate 500 years will pass before they’re decomposed.
This administration will not keep the U.S. in the forefront of environmental issues. We are ceding clean technology development to the rest of the world. The British firm Polymateria, for example, is developing chemical additives to help biodegrade even synthetic plastic more quickly.
What we can do is redouble our personal lifestyle efforts. Even more importantly, we can support local, regional and state efforts so that when this time has passed, we are ready to again lead the charge for the health of ourselves and our planet.
Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
Karen Telleen-Lawton is an eco-writer, sharing information and insights about economics and ecology, finances and the environment. Having recently retired from financial planning and advising, she spends more time exploring the outdoors — and reading and writing about it. The opinions expressed are her own.