Corporations are to Blame for Plastics Crisis

 Corporations have tried to blame consumers....it's really them!

In a recent article in Grist Magazine, we learn again that it's not individuals who are to blame for the plastics crisis. It is the corporations that knowingly continue to produce plastic and pass the debt on to consumer and municipalities. 

Corporations know that plastic recycling is a non-starter, yet they still try to make us believe that plastics are and always have been recycled into useful new items. In fact, less than 8% of plastics nationally are recycled meaning that more than 90% of plastic is just waste that never breaks down. Most plastics are too complicated in their configuration to be recycled in the first place. 


 

Our municipalities then bear the brunt of collecting, sorting, and hauling the plastic waste. Our environment bears the brunt of plastic waste literally everywhere. And we humans bear the health consequences by ingesting plastic into our system every day. We know that plastic is in our bodies; we now know that is in the placenta of pregnant women. Corporations? They get rich from our misfortune. 

OPA and other organizations (e.g., Beyond Plastics, Plastic Pollution Coalition, Coalition for Plastic Reduction) across the country and across the world are seeking to develop and implement legislation and policy that finally slows the onslaught of plastics in our world. 

Corporations have known the truth about the problematic nature of plastics for too long. They've kept this knowledge secret. But they know. 

Now, we all know. It is time to advocate for Producer Responsibility and Bottle Bill legislation that requires corporations to solve the plastic problem.

 


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