Plastic - RESOURCES
Reimagining Our Use Of Plastic
The world consumes 60 million plastic bottles every hour. The United States consumes 24 million of them every hour, and less than a quarter end up recycled. A plastic bottle can take up to 450 years to decompose.
Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth four times. The equivalent of a garbage truck of plastic ends up in our oceans every minute.
There is good news. Some forward-thinking communities are part of the pollution solution. They’ve outlawed plastic bags, Styrofoam, and straws.
Europe has banned single-use plastic. It’s a lot cheaper to recycle plastic than to make it from scratch, and in the U.S., we’re starting to recycle more materials, but we still have a long way to go to catchup to the latest technologies.
Let’s do a better job of reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic. We don’t have a disposable planet. Don’t be useless. Use less. Say no to plastic.
“Only we humans make waste that nature can’t digest.”—Charles Moore
People profiting from the creation of plastic must be held accountable for plastic pollution. Let’s initiate EPR - Extended Producer Responsibility - to hold the manufacturers of plastic accountable for the mess they’ve created.
Ban single-use plastic. Ban plastic foam containers. Ban plastic bags.
“We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.”
Here are some excellent organizations working to reduce the use of single-use plastic and encourage better recycling programs.
Plastic Pollution Coalition is a growing global alliance of more than 1,200 organizations, businesses, and thought leaders in 75 countries working toward a world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impact on humans, animals, waterways, the ocean, and the environment. We at Force For Good are proud members of this organization of people dedicated to doing the right things.
Plastic Change is a Danish environmental organization working hard to break the exponential growth of plastic pollution on a global scale.
ECHO Systems is on a mission to make less trash by building a sustainable model run by a network of environmental experts, local businesses, passionate members, and the next generation of community leaders. ECHO systems designs integrative models to replace everyday single use plastic items with convenient reusable options. Their programs are designed to grow on the local level, seed community engagement, increase awareness, and generate solutions. Force For Good has had the pleasure of working with this organization and its founder and CEO, Alisa Shargorodsky.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
Break Free from Plastic is a global movement envisioning a future free from plastic pollution. Since its launch in 2016, more than 11,000 organizations and individual supporters from across the world have joined the movement to demand massive reductions in single-use plastics and to push for lasting solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. BFFP member organizations and individuals share the common values of environmental protection and social justice, and work together through a holistic approach in order to bring about systemic change under the #breakfreefromplastic core pillars. This means tackling plastic pollution across the whole plastics value chain - from extraction to disposal – focusing on prevention rather than cure and providing effective solutions.
Waste Free Advocates is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering and connecting Oregon communities to minimize overconsumption and waste.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE FILMS WE WATCHED TO HELP US CREATE THE INFORMATION IN OUR MUSIC VIDEO:
Open Your Eyes is a compelling four minute video featuring stunning plastic pollution information featuring Jeff Bridges.
The Story of Plastic (Documentary Film) is a compelling two minute video backed by a song by Jackson Browne with plastic pollution information that will inflame and activate anyone with the eyes and ears to let this one sink in.
Don’t Throw it Away (By Keb Mo Featuring Taj Mahal) is an inspiring three minute video encouraging all to refuse single-use plastic.
Breathe This Air, created by Peak Plastic Foundation, is an eight minute documentary that reveals how the costs of polluting refineries inflict the most damage on low-income and color communities.
“Waste is a design flaw.”
Here’s a National Geographic running list of action on plastic pollution. The world is waking up to a crisis of ocean plastic. They’re tracking the developments and solutions as they happen.
Waste Authority has a vision to make Western Australia a sustainable, low-waste, circular economy in which human health and the environment are protected from the impacts of waste.
Total Green Recycling is putting a stop on the flow of electronic waste to landfill. They recover useful materials and redirect them into productive, profitable, green enterprise solutions. They support local communities with purposeful employment and education. They strive to clean our environment and to reduce carbon emissions, one electronic device at a time.
Here’s a great book by Beth Terry titled Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too. Like many people, Beth Terry didn't think an individual could have much impact on the environment. She read an article about the staggering amount of plastic polluting the oceans and decided then and there to kick her plastic habit. Now she wants to teach you how you can too. In her quirky and humorous style, Terry provides solutions and tips on how to limit your plastic footprint.
“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”
An October 8, 2019 game-changing, inspiring TED talk by Andrew Forrest about a way to make recycling of plastic viable.
Living Without Plastic: More Than 100 Easy Swaps for Home, Travel, Dining, Holidays, and Beyond is “An eye-opening guide on how to lessen one’s dependence on plastics. . . . This is a clarion, convincing wake-up call to the scope of the global plastic problem and what readers can do about it.” —Publishers Weekly
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.