Lam, M. (2022, November 3). ‘you can’t recycle your way out’: California’s plastic problem and what we can do about it. KQED. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from   https://www.kqed.org/news/11901288/you-cant-recycle-your-way-out-californias-plastic-problem-and-what-to-do-about-it#:~:text=California%20dumps%20more%20than%2012%2C000,recycling%20and%20waste%20management%20agency. 

California’s plastic problem is urgent, dumping more than 12,000 tons of plastic each day. Because all plastic is different, it is difficult to recycle and sort everything. Some laws have been implemented to encourage reusing plastic, but they are not enough. And as more bills are talked about, such as, ​​AB 793 and AB 1371 have failed because of the impracticality. This could be very detrimental to California because plastic use is supposed to double by 2025 due to the e-commerce economy according to state Assemblymember Laura Friedman. Lastly, plastic use can now be connected to passing chemicals to humans, and climate change, meaning the importance of reducing plastic has greatly increased.

This article notes the urgency of California’s plastic consumption and ways to attack the problem. It discusses failures to reduce plastic use and some successes, although little compared to the big picture problem. This article relates to environmental science because it provides readers with the harsh effects of our actions relating to the environment, and how to attempt to fix these problems. I think this article does a good job of showing the importance of recycling and avoiding plastic, but it needs more details regarding the laws that we do have in place.