We have a plastics problem. Humans, Earth, all of us together, have a plastics problem.
By now, plastics have been found in human blood, in breast milk, in fetuses. 95% of US tap water is contaminated. Microplastics are also found in beer, salt and shellfish. A university research paper estimates that average human consumption is 5 grams/week.
430 million tons of plastics are produced annually, more than the weight of ALL human beings combined. One third of this is for single-use plastics. In Canada, only 9% of plastic is recycled. Approximately two thirds of plastic ends up in landfill. Approximately 20% of landfill material is plastics.
Plastic is cheap, easy to make and profitable. The largest producer is ExxonMobil. Dow, Sinopec and Saudi Aramco are other large producers. 99% of plastics is made from oil and other fossil fuel products.
Recycling is a good idea . Another good idea is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), requiring producers of plastic bottles and packaging to provide funding for management of their materials. Even taken together, not nearly good enough.
The best solution for the plastic waste problem is to PRODUCE LESS in the first place. Tell that to industry and the governments. With increasing numbers of electric vehicles, use of fossil fuels for transportation will decline. Oil companies will look to plastics for revenue. Plastics will be the focus of another information war.
(see MIT Technology Review, https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/12/1081129/plastic-recycling-climate-change-microplastics/)