Plastics industry needs policing

  • 📰 mailandguardian
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 60 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 27%
  • Publisher: 92%

United States News News

United States United States Latest News,United States United States Headlines

COMMENT: Governments urgently need to invest in better waste-collection and processing systems.

Plastics have become a hot topic. News stories about plastic on beaches and in the oceans abound, and policymakers have begun to respond with bans or limitations on single-use plastic items.

The plastics industry has been selling us a false narrative: the plastics crisis is much more than a waste-management problem. The real story starts as soon as oil and gas are extracted from the ground, and continues long after plastic waste enters the ocean and other ecosystems. Not only is plastic production a major source of greenhouse-gas emissions, it also releases a wide range of other chemicals, many of which end up in our lungs and stomachs.

To keep global warming within an acceptable range, we absolutely must reduce the amount of plastic we produce, consume and discard. This is not a problem that we can recycle our way out of. Less than 10% of all plastics ever produced have been recycled. In the case of the United States, less than 10% of plastic waste is recycled; the rest is incinerated or dumped in landfills.

Some of these measures are already being adopted. In Asia, entire cities are moving toward zero-waste solutions through decentralised, community-led initiatives, bans on single-use plastics, and lobbying against waste incineration. Many of the solutions remain to be discovered and developed, but Asia is proving to be the engine of change.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 2. in US

United States United States Latest News, United States United States Headlines