Our plastic planet

I can’t stand clutter, but throwing anything away increasingly consumes me with guilt. So my house furnishings are old, décor outdated, and clothes never in fashion — plenty of use left in what we have. The floating islands of our collective trash in the ocean are getting bigger, and bigger. Yet we continue to be “Wrapped in a Sea of Plastic” and other unnecessary waste, even when recyclable alternatives exist.

Yes, Sunday was Earth Day, with its plastic theme. Yes, this is still timely; if we want to leave this Earth in decent shape for young generations, every day must be Earth Day.

Plastic now pervades everywhere. It’s even in our fish and food, so while few realize it, we’re also consuming it. How’s that for a motivator?

Studies have found that 94 percent of drinking water (University of Minnesota) and 93 percent of sampled bottled water (Orb Media) contain plastic particles and chemicals. That’s bad for the body as well as the environment.

Beyond bags and bottles, we use plastics in every part of our lives, in toys and (nylon) toothpaste, computers and clothes, shampoos and syringes. It’s in millions of products. Humans make 8.3 billion tons of plastics annually, most of it disposable, and our use is rising around 10 percent each year since mass production began around 60 years ago. According to the July 2017 issue of National Geographic, a whopping 91 percent of plastic isn’t recycled, left to the ocean and landfills. And it takes 400 years to degrade. The prediction that by mid-century, the oceans will contain more plastic waste than fish.

A University of California, Santa Barbara study found the rapid acceleration of plastic manufacturing, which so far has doubled roughly every 15 years, has outpaced nearly every other man-made material. The biggest category is in packaging, for which there are typically alternatives available. Half of all plastic manufactured becomes trash in less than a year.

The United States ranks behind Europe (30 percent recycled) and China (25 percent recycled) in recycling, the study found. Recycling in the U.S. has remained at 9 percent since 2012.

Know what else we waste more of? Food. Americans throw away 430 pounds of unspoiled food per capita, according to the 2017 Food Sustainability Index. Compare that with leader France, and their 234 pounds food waste per capita. We’re talking edible food here, much of it thrown away by grocery stores so we buyers can buy “pretty” food. Denmark has reduced-price “ugly” food stores to reduce that waste. France has a new law requiring stores to donate unwanted, but edible produce, rather than throw it away.

Recovering just 25 percent of food waste could feed 870 million of the world’s hungry people, almost eliminating world hunger.

For more information and ideas to reduce waste see Earthday.org. Look for tips to reduce plastic use in Thursday’s column.

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.