Plastic Soup

Plastic Mafia

Yesterday was an important day here in Santa Monica. At least, it should have been. A vote should have taken place for a bill that would ban plastic bags in the city and allow people to pay for their paper bags (to encourage people to bring their own bags in the future). But at the last moment, the vote was called off: the plastic bag industry threatened to sue …

It makes you sick when you take a minute to look on the Internet to see how the plastic industry tries to sabotage the ban on (or even the deposit charge for) plastic bags, and how it opposes the recycling industry. Lobbying agencies are being hired to go from door-to-door to collect signatures against “green” decisions. Not only do these lobby agencies receive huge amounts of money, but those who recruit signatures also receive an additional two dollars per signature. Matters are taken to court to financially exhaust the opponent. Threats are uttered. Bribes are paid. Everything to continue the production of polluting disposable articles which are only used for a minute by the consumer. And not only in the United States. It’s just as bad in Canada, Asia, and within the countries of the European Union, including the Netherlands.

Too much is at stake for the oil industry to drop disposable plastic. What is more profitable than to produce something that can be carelessly produced in large quantities and that can be discarded just as carelessly?

Whoever considers that on a global scale, one million plastic bags are produced every minute and 2.5 million plastic bottles are discarded every hour, can draw their own conclusions.

What are we talking about, people? Do we really have to start thinking about alternative kinds of plastic, such as bioplastic?

In my quest, I came across a shocking calculation. I was already opposed to the use of corn for the production of plastic. But who can be in favor of this when you consider that in the US, 13.5 billion plastic bags and packaging are being discarded annually; if this were bioplastic, it would be the equivalent of food for some 61 million people.

Let’s just STOP producing disposable plastic. Right away, that would be the first step towards cleaner oceans!

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