O’Neill, Kate, and Kate O’Neill. “The Plastic Waste Crisis Is an Opportunity for the US to Get Serious about Recycling at Home.” The Conversation, The Conversation, 18 Aug. 2018, http://theconversation.com/the-plastic-waste-crisis-is-an-opportunity-for-the-us-to-get-serious-about-recycling-at-home-93254.

 

In the article, “The plastic waste crisis is an opportunity for the US to get serious about recycling at home” by Kate O’neil, talks about how China’s reduction of foreign imported plastic waste has affected the us and how it shows just how much work is needed to be done to improve our own systems of dealing with plastic waste in the US.  In the wake of the new China mandate where they are no longer taking foreign materials the US is left to reevaluate its relationship with plastic. Since china was the main place our waste got shipped to, now without it, we are starting to realize just how big of a problem we have which has sparked the anti plastic movement. Plastic is very easy to use and hard to destroy, which is it’s appeal, but also its down fall. Not only is it very hazardous to the environment to make, but they are very hard to get rid of as well. Out of the seven different types of plastics used, only 2 can even be recycled and our recycling facilities throw out over half of what they recieve due to contamination. This partially explains why less than 10% of plastics in the US are recycled and over 70% goes to landfill. The rest is usually burned, which is called combustion energy recovery. If we really want to fix this problem we are going to have to implement better systems and policies to stem pollution than just sending it to landfill or burning it. The European Union is planning on increasing recycling and making all packaging recyclable by 2030. The US should consider doing the same.

 

The United States is one of the biggest producers of plastic and we have to take responsibility for our actions. If we are going to use that much plastic we have better got to have ways of disposing of it. Currently what we are doing is not working. Having no place to send our trash after China refused to take anymore of it has left us realizing just how big of a problem we have. Personally I think that the best ways to stop plastic pollution is to first have all packaging be at the very minimum recyclable, but hopefully compostable. We also need to fix our recycling system starting with educating citizens. If something is going to be recycled it has got to be clean, but also the different kinds of recycling needs to be separated. We would also need to increase the size and number of recycling plants in the US. This would prevent some of the recycling from going to landfill or being burned, but not all. In the end we should all strive to create as little waste as possible. The government can’t implement policies as fast as people can change their habits.