Like many of you I used to believe that I could continue to buy plastic and everything would be fine as long as I recycled it. I recently found out that this is very far from the truth. Only 9% of plastic that had ever been made has actually been recycled, that’s pretty scary! But why is that the case? Most plastic has the recycling symbol on it, so why isn’t it being recycled?

Problem #1:

One of the largest problems there is with plastic is that there are thousands of different formulas for each plastic item. This means that when you have, for example, a sandwich meat #2 plastic container and different plastic container, let’s say a spinach #2 plastic container, it doesn’t mean they can be recycled together. These two packages could be made up of entirely different formulas that when mixed together create a more toxic plastic. You also can’t recycle different colors, weight or textures of plastic together, so the limitations on recycling plastic are huge. A majority of our plastic waste ends up sitting around in recycling plants until there are enough matches to recycle together. So now you may be thinking, “If a bunch of these plastic items are just sitting around, then aren’t these recycling plants overflowing and overwhelmed?”. And the answer is YES!!

Problem #2:

Not long ago we used to send the majority of our plastic waste to China, but in the past few years China has stopped accepting our waste since they could no longer keep up with it (this is also because they are having a hard enough time maintaining their own plastic waste). Most of the plastic waste that is created in the US, UK, Australia and Japan are now getting shipped off to the Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. These countries have also become overwhelmed with all the waste being sent to them, and they have ended up having to dumb a large majority into their lakes, rivers and oceans.

Yeo Bee Yin, the Environment Minister in Malaysia, has been working hard to reduce the plastic waste in her country. She has helped to pass a law that will outlaw single use plastic from Malaysia by 2030, and also outlaw plastic straws by 2020. Even though these are good steps forward it is not enough to help save their country entirely.

Problem #3:

The largest problem starts with us. We need to start paying more attention to the plastic that we use in our everyday lives. We need to look at what we really do need and what we only use for a short while before throwing it away. The impact that plastic has on the environment is to large to ignore, and we can’t continue to falsely believe in a system that doesn’t work. It’s important to look around your home and notice all different items you have that are either made out of plastic or packaged in plastic. Then as you become more aware of the impact you have on the earth you can begin making changes. If you need help on how to begin making some of these changes I’ll be posting a new blog soon titled “Tips on Reducing Plastic Waste”.

Here is a quote that is important to keep in mind that has helped me,

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” - Maya Angelou