Recently while making an effort to drink more water 💦 I noticed that I was using alot of plastic bottles as they are readily available in convenience stores, supermarkets and vending machines. I also noticed that as a result of me taking home the bottles we had a huge bag of PET bottles to discard each week.
After talking about it with my wife I decided to start walking with my own drink bottle for hot and cold beverages. As a result, not only have we been saving money by not buying water, I also have significantly reduced my contribution to the creation of plastic waste (in the form of PET bottles at least.)
Recently I found out that Japan is the second largest contributor to plastic waste per capita, second only behind the USA.A significant portion of this waste comes from packaging for the products we consume.I also learned that if the current trends in plastic usage and disposal continues worldwide, by 2050 we could have more plastic in the ocean than fish 🐟.
Since 1950 global plastic production has increased from 15MT to 367MT in 2020. Plastic is cheap, easy to use and convenient. Unfortunately at the end of the process, a significant portion ends up in landfills and the ocean. Bearing in mind that plastic takes years to break down, the product that was once a huge help has now created a massive environmental problem. There is some general agreement that it’s time for a change but of course change takes time and will power.
Who are the drivers of change?
Is it consumers like you and me, businesses, the government or a combination of all three?
What can we do collectively to reduce our consumption of plastic? How can we manage disposal so that it never reaches the ocean?
