(2023, August 14th). The rich world’s plastic addiction has a social impact. Impact.economist.com.
https://impact.economist.com/sustainability/social-sustainability/the-rich-worlds-plastic-a-ddiction-has-a-social-impact
One of the biggest issues when it comes to plastic waste is how countries will export their waste to other countries. For example, EU countries will export their waste to Turkey or countries in Asia or from the US down to Latin America and Mexico. Even if this plastic waste gets to a recycling center, the centers are not clean, and plastic particles continue to enter the atmosphere, directly affecting the workers at the center as well. One way to solve the social problem of plastic waste is plastic credits, where businesses can buy plastic credits from projects that use “waste-pickers” that would be able to benefit from recycling the waste. This program was tested in different countries, one of them being Colombia where they were able to recycle plastics and clean up coastlines to make recycled plastic kayaks.
With only around 9% of plastics being recycled currently, it is annoying to see bigger countries export their waste to other countries that might not be able to properly, or safely, recycle plastic waste. This exportation of waste is directly related to environmental science because of how improper disposal and recycling have affected the environment. However, the solution proposed in the article could benefit a lot of people in smaller countries where waste is exported, like Colombia. Unfortunately, with these programs, people still need to make sure these programs are actually being implemented and not just taken advantage of by major corporations to say they are doing something to help the environment. This solution might be able to help, if the system is appropriately controlled by a third group that would make sure companies actually follow this program. With the impact that plastic waste is having on the environment, this could be a quickly put-in-place solution that could be the start to recycling plastic waste. Nevertheless, the actual end to plastic problems has to start at the root of the issue, like banning all single-use plastic products, which can make a direct difference on the Earth.
I find it interesting that the countries who emit the most greenhouse gasses and use the most plastic are the same countries that export the most plastic. It seems as if the richer parts of the world are placing an unfair burden on the poorer parts of the world by requiring them to recycle plastic that they didn’t even produce. What do you think we can change to lessen our plastic usage? Countries like India, with 1.4 billion people, have staggeringly low greenhouse gas emissions. This makes me wonder what they are doing that we aren’t.
I totally agree that we need to find a quick and easy solution for the removal of plastic as it greatly affects our environment. Your solution of implementing a rule of banning single-use plastic would be efficient, but would society actually obey the law since there are many examples that demonstrate civilians disobeying the law. If it’s a useful solution, why do you think we haven’t implemented anything?