Not breaking: American exceptionalism is alive and well.
America's Finest News Source nails it with this recent article:
'How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?' 30 Million People Wonder
WASHINGTON—Wishing to dispose of the empty plastic container, and failing to spot a recycling bin nearby, an estimated 30 million Americans asked themselves Monday how bad throwing away a single bottle of water could really be.
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"Not a big deal," continued roughly one-tenth of the nation's population.
All agreed that disposing of what would eventually amount to 50 tons of thermoplastic polymer resin wasn't the end of the world.
This graphic shows where people are simply chucking things away, and their justifications for doing so, such as "it'd be different if I didn't care" and "it's just one little plastic bottle, that's all it is."
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Little do such people seem to grasp, one bottle times 107 =
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For more detail on what the world looks like when people are too lazy, see this diary I wrote about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) posted last year:
Plastic Island: Twice the Size of Texas & Growing
Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles – the raw materials for the plastic industry – are lost or spilled every year, working their way into the sea. These pollutants act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. They then enter the food chain. "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It's that simple"
However overwhelming the problem may seem, there is good news if you look for it.
Around the world, people everywhere are learning that money can be made by re-using and recycling what has heretofore been seen as "useless waste plastic". As our populations grow and resources become more precious, human ingenuity takes over.
The movie Addicted to Plastic by Ian Connacher recently exposed me to a lot of these hopeful stories around the world.
The film details plastic's path over the last 100 years and provides a wealth of expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability. These solutions - which include plastic made from plants - will provide viewers with a new perspective about our future with plastic.
The trailer really does not do it justice, but here it is anyway:
On that note, there is lots of great news about new recycling efforts around the world.
h/t Magnifico
Blain, Minnesota company's twist on recycling
While cities say, "No, you can't" recycle plastic caps, people nationwide say, "Yes, we can," and Aveda Corp. leads the way.
Every day, thousands of plastic bottle caps arrive at Aveda Corp. in Blaine.
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The bottle caps -- from water, soft drinks, shampoo, it doesn't matter -- are turned into new caps for Aveda's hair-care products. And the process can be repeated indefinitely, Miller said. They won't be thrown away. Indeed, just last week, about 30,000 pounds of caps left Aveda to be recycled.
By most measures, Aveda's four-year-old cap recycling program is a ringing success.
TO RECYCLE PLASTIC CAPS
• Drop them at one of hundreds of Aveda stores nationwide, including four in the Twin Cities: Mall of America, Southdale, Minneapolis or Blaine (addresses are at www.aveda.com).
• Take them to participating schools, offices and Aveda salons.
• Mail them to Aveda Caps Program, 4000 Pheasant Ridge Dr., Blaine, MN 55449.
And if you're like me, they have begun to accept plastic bags in your curbside recycling boxes. I still prefer to bring them to the big bag bin in front of my supermarket. Maybe I'm being superstitious, but I think they will do a better job of dealing with clean, dry separated bags there.
There's more to the story as well; this does not start and end with recycling.
Likewise, had they not been so tired, and busy, and stressed, citizens making up the equivalent of three major metropolitan areas told reporters that they probably wouldn't have driven their minivans down to the corner store.
Sure, one person's actions cannot destroy the world, unless perhaps your name is C. Montgomery Burns or George W. Bush.
But it is the sum of all of our actions that comprise the mess that we find ourselves. If we all try to do a little bit more, we can begin to fix our collective problems.
Or at very least we can begin to arrest the worsening of them.