We often talk about reducing or changing our habits concerning plastic consumption, and lay the responsibility on the consumer. As a consumer you are asked to use a reusable shopping bag or recycle your plastic purchases, yet not much is asked of the producers. Some producers are interested in changing their ways, like Ikea who has committed to phasing out single-use plastic products by 2020, but most are quite happy to keep on churning out billions of plastic products.
The National Geographic - Planet or Plastic? campaign has some interesting numbers on plastic production, specifically the article 'We made plastic. We depend on it. Now we're drowning in it.' I will share a few statistics from this article, so that you get an idea of the magnitude of the crisis we are currently experiencing.
The total global plastic production in 2015 was 448 million tonnes. To date humans have produced 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic - equivalent to the weight of 1 billion Elephants.
Plastic Packaging accounts for half of all plastic waste and 40% of this is disposable.
Plastic, especially micro plastic, can be found everywhere on earth, including your food.
Half of the plastic ever made has been made in the last 15 years. Coca Cola alone makes 128 billion disposable bottles a year.
More than 40% of all plastic products only get used once. Half of the global plastic production is made in Asia, 29% in China alone.
I don’t know if you have noticed that the world seems to be getting hotter? Global warming? Maybe you have heard that term. According to The Carbon Majors Report, 100 companies have been the source of more than 70% of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions since 1998. Over half of these emissions are from 25 corporate or state owned campiness, including the likes of Aramco, State owned Coal in China, Exxonmobile, Pemes, BP, Shell, etc. Greenhouse gases contribute to global warming, along with massive global deforestation, livestock production, the growth of cities, reduction in freshwater and numerous other issues. The same companies that are responsible for a large portion of global warming through greenhouse gas production (although of course they deny these facts), are also responsible for most of the global plastic production. Why, because plastic comes from oil and gas, petroleum. So, how much responsibility do these companies take for producing products that are causing mass environmental damage? Or do they even care?
Consumers in Asia, where most of the plastic is made and used, do not have access to the recycling facilities of the West. Over the last fifteen years the waterways of many Asian-Pacific countries have become infested with plastic. China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam are dumping more plastic into oceans than the rest of the world combined. Take Indonesia’s Citarum River for instance, blackened by debris beyond recognition, and now the most polluted river in the world.
If I was to produce a product that was a major contributor to global pollution I personally would not feel that great about it, would you?
A few years ago, Steve Jobs the founder of Apple, one of the richest people on the planet, died of cancer. With all his money and technology he still wasn't able to stop the cancer. Right now there is cancer ripping through our society, and that cancer is a lack of respect.
We have leaders and company CEO’s who seem to have a total disregard for the environment and a culture that promotes the $$$$ bill over all things. We seem to be stuck with outdated, foresight strapped individuals, who seem to have no care for the environment. What matters most is how much money you make, and forget how you make it, if you make it, you are king. We have so called leaders that care more about their own little pile than the big picture and the big picture is coming our way, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. When you can’t drink water, breathe air, or grow food, money won’t matter.
Where are the wise people? Where are the people that understand, first you take care of your health. Its health first and then prosperity. In Cornwall, a place in the south of England, not long ago, when a couple got married, the local community came together and built a house for them, it may have been small, but people had a respect for what was needed. Are we leaving the future in the hands of a few people, companies that seem to have no accountability for the products they make?Profit is key and we are all on board. We’ve bought this ideology hook line and sinker, and while we look at our phones, our environment gets filled with trash, in the sky, on the land and in our water.
The change that needs to come is not from a technological standpoint its from a human centric view, to realize and understand that the greatest thing we can do as a human being as part of a society, is to become a steward. To become a steward of the planet so that we may thrive and enjoy the beauty of nature. For nature holds everything we need, we must respect nature, as I hope you respect your own temple, your own body. We all know that smoking kills, so when we want to get better from the results of smoking we have to do one thing first and that is - stop smoking.
We have to stop producing environmentally polluting products. Until we can move away from everyone playing the money success game we will not change, we will not cool the earth, because believe me we need to cool the earth. If the oil and gas people want to keep burning things they will, and we will keep buying them. Or can we change, can we change the dynamic, shift our evolution and move towards a more human centric environment based society, where we take care of our essential needs. How much longer can we keep ignoring reality, the reality that we need to respect our water, air, and land.
Plastic producers will keep producing until they are surrounded by a sea of plastic, living in mansions surrounded by walls, hiring people to clean their private beaches full of plastic, day and night and by the way we are already there - just go to Tulum, Bali or even Hawaii. Money only gets you so far, eventually we all end up in the same place, how do you want this place to look like when you leave?
Seeing nature flourish brings me an immense amount of joy, and to be a part of the wise humans that understand this is my goal. I want to be part of the generation that turned the table and evolved beyond the current societal model of success. Success for me would be to see the rivers flow clean, the trees grow green and the coyote run wild.