Earth Is Drowning in 9 Billion Tons of Permanent Pollution

[lordsummerisle]

Plastic is everywhere. Bottled water, grocery bags, shower curtains, garbage cans and kitchen utensils are just a few of the ways plastic has made its way into every aspect of our daily lives. Our throwaway mentality, bred and fed by the mass production of plastics, has created a pollution problem that now threatens the very future of humanity.

You likely do not directly experience the impact of the garbage you create while going about day-to-day life. Much of what is produced every day is picked up by a garbage truck and “magically disappears.” But, nothing could be further from the truth, as most garbage is not incinerated or recycled but simply relocated to a landfill or makes its way down storm drains into nearby waterways.

Plastic pollution is an enormous worldwide problem. An estimated 4.7 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans each year where wave action turns them into a plastic soup, damaging sea life and marine ecosystems. Millions of volunteers participate in cleaning the beaches across the world each year, recording the garbage they find.1 Of the top 10 items found on beaches across the world, seven are made from plastic.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/08/02/permanent-plastic-pollution-drowning-earth.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art3&utm_campaign=20170802Z1_UCM&et_cid=DM153046&et_rid=1759561

[Squinch]

1. I'm trying to reduce my use of plastic. It's really hard. We are not set up for it,

and people think you're nuts if you do it.

The hardest thing is take out. Used to be you got a tin or cardboard container. Now you get about a pound of plastic with your meal. I've had to stop using some restaurants because there are no plastic-free options.

I've been asking local take-out places to return to the old Chinese food style cardboard boxes. So far only one offers them and only as an option that you have to ask for.

I think about this problem a lot. Every time I throw out a piece of plastic, I can't help but realize it's going to be around a thousand years from now.