Plastic pollution needs bigger solutions.

Now, considering this video is close to 20 minutes long, I'll do a favor to anyone who's interested but hasn't got the time to watch this.

Sections of the video highlight the fact that recycling is often used as a way to avoid taking action towards removing these temporary and single-use plastics from our production stream completely. It also shows how currently, consumers' recycling habits are used as scapegoats by MNCs to avoid having to take action about plastic pollution. "Recycling" plastic is also very commonly promoted in a way that misleads the public to think that the products that they are throwing into the recycling bin is - as the name suggests - recycled into a product of equal usage value. The "This plastic bottle will be turned into another plastic bottle for someone else to use so that's okay" misconception is very harmful. People need to know that many "recyclable" materials are in fact 'down-cycled'. Most low-value plastics that end up in recycling centres are transferred straight into landfills as they are not economically viable to process. The ones that do get reused in any way typically get processed and made into progressively lower-grade plastics, which will end up at best in landfills and within our waste collection stream, or most commonly in our waterways and oceans.

8:41 - We have no emotional attachment to these plastics and they have no real value to us. Hence the trade-off for temporary use is not worth that material lasting in the environment forever.

Laws that have been implemented which target producers, rather than consumers, have shown to be promising in reducing plastic usage or otherwise increasing the rate at which plastic products and packaging are collected and rejoin the waste stream. However, there are many obstacles into carrying out this action due to lobbyists of plastic and oil industries.

Now as the video suggests, leaving people with a political solution to this would be terrible. So, what people can do as individuals is to vote with their dollars. Engage with local businesses and speak out about how you, as a consumer, want your products made and packaged. Email, call, post about it on social media. Tell them, keep telling them until they listen. All this needs is a lil momentum :)

Here's the full video, explaining much more in detail this problem we face.