The Low Down on Plastics

John Oliver gives the facts, the truth, the details of plastics in our world and in our lives on his TV show "Last Week Tonight" on HBO. Note: some expletives. And here we thought most plastics were recycled. And even recyclable. We're killing ourselves. By killing our own world. As I wrote here some time ago and as this video proves, I think, unless or until we finally require all people and companies, corporations to recycle everything, nothing much will happen. The consclusion? We're doomed. Whether it's with guns or plastics or whatever, we humans are going to simply kill ourselves, honestly.

With All This Plastic In Our Oceans...

I keep seeing, day after day, video on all the plastic in our oceans and on sea life, choking, killing them. Maybe you've seen some of them.







So with all this, is anyone asking what the cruise ships are doing with their waste from onboard?

Are they still dumping? Indiscriminately?

Shouldn't there be laws, international laws, all making this illegal?

Can we not all agree on that?

The Only Way We'll Stop Polluting the Planet

I've worked at a couple huge, national corporations and noticed a continuing, repeated thread running through them.

Corporations and all the employees that work for them throw away and waste a great deal of plastics and papers and cardboard and aluminum cans and glass.

Corporations, with all those people, create and then throw away all these materials.

And they do it daily. Weekly. Month after month. Year after year.

And they have no desire nor motivation to reduce the amount of waste and wastes and what ends up as pollution, landfill.  It's what gets us these results:

Plastic Garbage Patch Bigger 

Than Mexico Found in Pacific

'Plastic in All Sizes' Found Everywhere 

in Once Pristine European Arctic

Nasa animation shows how ‘garbage islands’ have taken over the seas in the last 35 years

Corporations are all about profit and profits, of course. Because of that, they're also about cutting costs. They're about cutting costs at all costs. Recycling requires commitment. It requires spending. Those are costs they don't want to assume or commit to.

So let's face it. The only way we, as a nation and planet, can get them to start recycling and at least reduce, if not end polluting will be for government and governments, state by state and nation by nation, to require them to do so, to start and keep recycling.

Think about the waste.

Think about how much paper and plastic alone each McDonald's restaurant throws out. Daily. Then think of the entire company.

AT&T

GE

Alcoa

Dupont

Bayer

The list goes on. Company after company. All over the nation, continent and world.

We must do this. We must require this. We have to call them out on this. They won't do it on their own.

An upside to all this, besides that we'll clean up our planet is that it will also create jobs. Those are two huge wins for humanity and the planet.

The thing is, it must come from us, from the people.

Links:

Just 100 companies responsible for 71% 

of global emissions, study

Just 90 companies caused two-thirds 

of man-made global warming

Just 90 companies are to blame for most climate change

The Toxic 100: Top Corporate Air Polluters 

in the United States

The Oceans Are Drowning In Plastic -- 

And No One's Paying Attention

And it's not just the oceans, of course.

Landfill photos from six cities that highlight 

the global waste problem

Landfills: Are we running out of room for our garbage?

The Time Has Come for International Recycling

I've held this opinion for quite some time that all cities in the US need to require we recycle.

Think about it.

All the paper, plastic, glass and aluminum we use?

Right now, far, far too much simply goes into wastebaskets first, then dump trucks, then into landfills.

How does that make any sense?

And the ones the worst at it?

Chain restaurants.

But all of us need to do this.

Then, I got thinking bigger and more broadly. I got to thinking statewide. Then, why stop there? We need this nationally.

But again, I got thinking bigger yet.

We need all nations, all people around the world to recycle. It only makes sense.

We don't have the room to just dump all this waste. And the fact is, it doesn't have to be waste. We can reuse it. And we know we can. Some of us have recycled for years.

Now? We all need to.

And like "Obamacare", Americans won't like being told what to do. They won't like it even if it's the next president in the White House and not this one. Being told what to do just goes against our grain. We're far too proud for that.

But in the meantime, take a quick look at what all this waste of paper, plastic, glass and aluminum is getting us. I saw this article yesterday. It's from ABC News:

Startling Images of the Tons of Trash in the World's Oceans

It just makes no sense to continue as we have until now. There's more here, this time on those waste dumps we've created, all around the world:

Community, Globalization, and Tons of Trash

The time has come.

This makes too much sense. It makes far too much sense. We even need to do it just for ourselves but we need to do it for our children and grandchildren, as well, certainly.

And heads up, folks. It would create jobs, too.

Let's get this party started.

McDonald's could be a much better corporate citizen--quickly and easily

 

A friend of mine goes to McDonald's each and every morning for breakfast and I've joined him at times (for the oatmeal, hold the brown sugar, thanks very much) so I've been reminded lately who they are and what they do. It had been some time--years, really--since I'd been in.

And a few things occurred to me.

The first is that how much each of them, separately, and then all of them, together end up putting into the waste dumps in the country and world daily and yearly.

Then, a great, easy, intelligent solution to it all also occurred to me.

All the McDonald's across the country need to institute plastic and paper recycling programs and as soon as possible.

If you think about it, everything they generate, from their meals, is either plastic or paper, right off those trays.

If they were to recycle all that, can you imagine the millions of pounds of both they could recycle each year?

It would be fantastic.

And the great thing about it is that it would be simple and easy for them to do.  Think about this. They have all those waste receptacles, already in their restaurants (using the word very loosely, no disrespect meant).  If they were simply and inexpensively labeled "Plastic" on one and "Paper" on the one next to it, the patrons could--again, quickly and easily--dispose of each in the respective container. Then, the employee whose job it is to keep up with the dining room could pull out those bags from the containers, collect them and have them placed in the restaurant for pickup.

So simple.  No additional cost, either, with the exception of the small signs needed.

Then, for McDonald's, what a public relations boon for them. Total win.  They could advertise that the people could come get the same food they always did and now, with this, it could also be a far greener experience.

Will it happen?

I doubt it.  I hope it but doubt it seriously.

It's got to start somewhere. 

This would be a great time and place.

Simplify! Simplify!

With a nod to Henry David Thoreau.

On a business flight today, I read an article in the in-flight magazine about a new trend in for runners and their running shoes.

The trend stems from research that finds that, since the 1930's, our speed runners have been running slower and slower, first, and second, virtually all runners have been experiencing more and more injuries. (For more information, see Christopher McDougall, "Born to Run").

What's that tell you?

It seems the running shoe companies have been making our shoes more and more complicated, technical and expensive with the result that it's worse for us and our feet.

Crazy.

Fit in with our current economic downturn, it seems we've come upon a time where we're to simplify. My Mom would have loved this if she were here.

So, herewith, are some thoughts on how we could and should, possibly, simplify further:

--How about we take all the chemicals out of our food? For thousands of years, we've and eaten our our food without them. It's only been in the last 50 years that we've introduced them to our food and lives and it hasn't been with good results. Can we agree on that? Does cancer mean anything to these corporations?

--How about taking our cattle out of the mud and feces-loaded feed lots, with the idea that we'll have less deadly e coli in our food?

--Could we take BPA out of our plastic food service pieces (utensils, cups, etc.). It's thought--strongly--to cause problems with our children's develpment, at minimum.

There's a few thoughts.

There are a lot more, I'm sure. Stay tuned.

Link: http://health.usnews.com/blogs/on-fitness/2009/04/28/born-to-run-christopher-mcdougall-says-humans-evolved-to-run-like-the-tarahumara.html