Meloche, M. (2020, May). [Story Map] What is the extent of Plastic Pollution? Retrieved November 14, 2020, from https://earthchallenge2020.earthday.org/app/a80a28bab7f64bd7b9b8f6c9a6080aaa
A million plastic water bottles are purchased every passing minute and 5 trillion plastic bags a year. Only 9% of all plastic has ever been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and the remaining 79% has ended up in landfills or the environment. Plastic waste can actually be a segway for increase in disease, as it clogs sewers and creates grounds for breeding in mosquitoes, malaria, and more. To get a good grasp on the extent on plastic pollution, a company paired up with 3 citizen science projects. They had citizens survey their local areas and post pictures to an app of plastic trash. A map with the results shows extremely heavy trash waste on coasts specifically in Northern and Western Europe, Eastern America, and China. Another map allows viewers to see the top 10 types of plastic waste in whichever country or city.
I thought this was a very interesting Earth Day research project on plastic pollution. It brought together different environmental groups for research on plastic production and its real effects on our ecosystems and life on Earth. It surprised me that such a small minority of all plastic has been recycled. The article brought up some really interesting points about the less talked about effects of plastic, such as how they spread diseases like malaria, and the production of plastic itself , before it reaches waterways and nature, releases CO2 in manufacturing. I had not yet considered these effects as much as the commonly looked upon need for coastal plastic cleanup. I liked looking at the interactive maps and discovering the most popular plastic waste in the Bay area, and other countries, and how they differ.
I think one of the reasons the map shows more trash by coasts rather than areas like the midwest is because of population density. The low rate of recycling plastic is more than people not having access to recycling locations because even people who can recycle will still not do it out of laziness. Overall there are many problems to fix in order to address the issues that plastic causes.
Thanks for your comment, I agree! Population density is a factor, as well as “laziness” or the lack of will people have to better their actions for the environment.
This was very interesting to read because I did not realize how much plastic was being consumed, and the fact about a million plastic water bottles a minute stood out to me. I also agree that we need to find more ways to recycle more plastic. How do you think we can recycle a higher percent of plastic?
I agree that statistic is concerning. I think we can recycle higher amounts of plastic by using strict sorting policies. A lack of proper sorting is often what causes the plastic to have to be sent to landfills, instead of being recycled, so if we can change that it is a start to a better path.