Plastic Pollution demands action, Corporations, Cities, and Countries are working on the answers, some are close.

  "End Plastic Pollution" is the theme of Earthday 2018, this is my last article, I have been observing Earthday for a week. Starting with an article on the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", and with my last one looking at what positive steps are being taken worldwide to help with the crisis. There is hope on the horizon, China's ban is most likely a hard to swallow lesson on not only Corporate, Community, and Country responsibility, but for every citizen of the world to accept their own personal responsibility as well. It fits with my tenets of self-reliance, self-awareness, and personal responsibility. 

  China is no longer importing waste from foreign countries, the largest recycling country in the world has delivered to the West a wake-up call. My blogs for the past week have been written using the Earth Day 2018 theme "End Plastic Pollution", Starting in Java with their unbelievable battle with plastic waste clogging up rivers and other waterways to places like Lincoln Nebraska and Australia developing programs to effectively fill in the void left by China.

  One such product would be to use the plastic as boiler fuel, it is a petroleum product and as most people know is flammable and burns hot. Is it possible to send it all to an Electric Generating plant where it can be sent through its system, shredded and fed into a firebox? From my perspective I know it burns, I know there is an almost endless supply, I know tires and garbage are burned in the plants. Sure there are a number of complications such as emissions, and ash disposal, I am confident the ash would be toxic for example. I don't think there are any issues that cannot be overcome, after all, we burn a lot of different materials to produce electricity and all of the challenges have been dealt with head-on with satisfactory end results. I can imagine advantages as well as disadvantages, but electrical generation may be a viable usage stream.
    Another thought I have had is what if the plastic waste were to be made into homes? Pre-fabricated walls of flat plastic complete with interior and exterior walls. The walls could be filled with insulation made of recycled plastics, doors, windows, roofing, and siding all made of reclaimed plastic. Rot resistant, the plastic could be manufactured as flame resistant as well, the entire house with the exception of the glass windows could be constructed of remanufactured plastic. Pre-fabricated in a shop and delivered to the construction site the home could possibly be erected in a matter of a week or two, perhaps days. The major issue I envision is when the home reaches its useful life, we still have plastic, which creates an entirely new problem. When a plastic home is abandoned and it is in a state of ruin who will be responsible for dealing with the plastic waste that is now the house? A house by me burned down 6 years ago, the burned-out hulk is still standing, the owner collected insurance money and is refusing to deal with what is termed "an attractive nuisance", a plastic house would have to be reckoned with.

  As consumers, there are things we can do as well, one of those is we can shop better. What I mean by that is we create a lot of waste when we purchase certain items packaged for individual use, such as applesauce. Available in almost any size container applesauce is bought in individual serving plastic cups, it creates a lot of waste. Instead of making a purchase of small cups it may be not only cheaper but more environmentally friendly to buy it in a half gallon or larger container then dished out in reusable serving dishes. When 8 pints of water are purchased that creates 8 pieces of plastic pollution, if a gallon is purchased it creates 1, a huge improvement. There are a lot of products sold like that, if we keep in mind plastic pollution it just may make us all more environmentally aware shoppers.
  Not only are consumers responsible for the purchase of plastic products we are also the users and disposers. We are in need of a worldwide cultural change, one in which we recognize that we are the creators of the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", and as the creators, if we cannot help in the cleanup we must end contributing to it. It is not isolated to just one or two countries, sure I pointed out Java and I don't have any desire to pick that country out as it is just one of many developing third world countries. The litter problem of the world is just that, the worlds litter problem and the world needs to solve it, the solutions are in the hands of the countries Governments. There are problems with everything, a quote I use all of the time is from the 1960's television program "Leave it to Beaver". Beaver turns to his dad (Ward Cleaver), and says "There is something wrong with just about everything, isn't there dad?" To which Mr. Cleaver replied, "Yes Beaver there is." I have been in meetings where managers will plot and conspire to "deadhead" a suggestion, in fact at one company we made a game of it. What happens is when a suggestion for a project is brought up a person will start to list why it cannot be done, then a second person adds his two cents, then a third until finally the suggestion is beat into the ground. then a committee is formed to investigate the project and report back during next month's meeting as to the practicality of continuing. It happens all of the time, and with a challenge as looming as plastic pollution there are a lot of naysayers, and it can't be done types. These programs need strong leadership, the only place leadership of this magnitude can come from is again through the countries Government. If the Governments do not take the bull by the horns and enact a program, people in third world developing countries will continue to toss the trash in the street in front of their homes. It will pile up and eventually end up somewhere, most likely in waterways when people get tired of tripping over it. It's a completely different story when leadership is strong and dedicated to actually getting the tasks completed, that leadership must be given the authority with laws to back it up. Changing of Cultures is never easy, we saw some of that in the U.S. in the past few years, the one that comes to mind is the unisex bathrooms. A part of our culture in the United States is separate restrooms for women and men, it's been accepted as a part of our way of life. When the unisex restrooms were made into law, some areas accepted them, that's OK, some areas did not accept them, that too is OK. The areas that did not accept them felt an invasion of their culture, "why should the elitist be able to tell us what to do?" or a sentiment down those lines. It is beyond hard to do, I cannot imagine the United States sending a diplomate to a third world Government and tell them how to spend their budget, or to take measures that will change the culture of the Country. Without the co-operation of the majority, enacting laws that change a culture is totally in vain, people will fight it no matter what it is.

More words of wisdom poured out of the mouth's of these two
than anyone, I've ever encountered.

  It's not only Communities, Cities, and Individuals who will be eventually called to task in the war against plastic pollution but Corporations as well. What are they doing if anything to help the situation? After all, they are the beneficiaries of profits from the manufacture and sale of plastic products, that's a good thing because companies need to be profitable. Yes, they do need to make a profit and when that profit overlaps into affecting the life of the planet the Corporations need to throw in with the rest of the world for solutions. I'm not saying they are not, I have come across several that are, they need our support and encouragement, a few examples of Corporations positive steps:

Coca-Cola has recently stated its sustainable packaging goal which is by the year 2030 it will collect and recycle all of their packaging that is reclaimable. Calling the program "World Without Waste", they are taking a look at the entire packaging lifecycle, not only the waste stream but the design and manufacturing of bottles and cans. (It makes me want a coke.)

The Association of Plastic Recyclers has enacted a plan to increase the demand for plastics that are reclaimable in North America. Called the "Recycle Demand Champions", the corporations instruct their vendors to use post-consumer resin they purchase and use in their manufacturing. Companies are signing on, so far Target, Procter & Gamble, Keurig, and Campbell's are the first, in total 10 companies have joined.

There are many others:

Puma's Bring me back program is set up for customers to drop off at any Puma store old or unusable clean clothes, shoes, and accessories, including non-Puma items, by simply tossing them in a bin located in the stores.

Back to Mac program costumers can return six empty MAC Cosmetic containers to either their online store or over the counter at one of their outlets.

Preserve's Gimme 5 Recycling Program, the goal is to save #5 plastics, which include Brita filters and yogurt cups from trashcans, this plastic is not recycled in most parts of the country, this Corporation is standing up and being counted.

No Nonsense Pantyhose Recycling Program giving old pantyhose a new lease on life simply download their mailing label and sent all you have even the ones that have a repair from nail polish on them.

Two researchers have developed a small reactor to turn plastic into diesel fuel, it will become a reality. Follow this Link to discover more about it.

  That is just a few of the Corporation's enacting positive steps to solve the plastic pollution worldwide problem, there are more. We can rest assured with the continuing research being performed by Corporations developing new plastics and products they will now be thinking of plastic recycling as a complete loop. From raw material, into a bottle, recycled, back into a bottle, and in the old days this is where research stopped because the last step up until January 1, 2018, was a one-word solution "China". I predict in 20 years Corporations will be fighting over the plastic floating around in the oceans 5 "Great Garbage Patches", I do believe recyclable plastic will become a valuable commodity, all of it, not just the high quality "stuff", everything.

China is a big country, a lot of people creates a lot of demand.

  Thank you for reading and sharing my blog, this is the end of my series of Earth Day articles, it certainly has been interesting, a lot of reading. A lot of reading in which I learned a lot of amazing facts, the least of which is not the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", I knew it was there. The most alarming was not China's change of policy, ask your self, wouldn't you do the same thing if you were in China's shoes? It's not the realization that developing countries (dangit they've been around for over 10,000 years) have no way to deal with their trash, it is, however, eye-opening. No, the biggest surprise was again the indifference of our fellow citizens of the world and the abandonment of "personal responsibility" for their actions. In our country, the United States, lets all bend over and pick up a piece of trash, then toss it in the bin. Thanks again, leave a comment and share my blog if you like what I have to say. It's time to start on Springtime articles now, plastic pollution will be on my mind for a long while, I will write more on the subject.
jacquesandkate   EmergencyKitsPlus.com