We are lied to about its origin, and no one is discussing the dangerous microplastics.
About 75% of the plastic is from the fishing industry, not our garbage. There is a debate about whether this should be cleaned up anyway. Plastic has become part of the ecosystem, and it is colonized. Some species have made plastic their home. It’s often teeming with life.
In other cases, it might be poisoning the ecosystem.
In other words, nothing is settled yet.
Many photos of ocean plastic are photoshopped. Pictures of the two famous garbage patches were taken close to land. They are not representative of what is in the sea.
The Real Problems
Marine debris comes from many sources, and littering is the main excuse for the problem. However, littering is a very small part of the plastic in the sea. It focuses on poor choices instead of systemic problems.
It’s not careless people; it’s a small number of companies that are the problem.
The real problem: 82% of macro-plastic leakage into the environment is from mismanaged waste. Coca-Cola is the number one company responsible for pollution. Only 56 companies are responsible for half the pollution in the sea.
Paint and tires are major problems.
Recycling isn’t the cure.
Watch, this article only covers a third of the video. The Business Insider video is interesting and enlightening:
One of our readers, Canadian Friend, analyzed this very well, and we thought you would like to see what he said:
Interesting, but she skips over a few inconvenient truths.
—She says heavier vehicles cause tires to shed more microparticles (true), then she blames bigger/heavier vehicles such as SUVs (true)… But she does not mention EVs that are usually at least 1000 lbs heavier than an ICE vehicle of the same size (thus 20 to 30 % heavier), and thus wear out tires faster and are bigger contributors to tire micro-particles in the environment…
She conveniently skips over that fact.
— She focuses on the West and totally avoids mentioning that over 90% of the plastic that is floating in the ocean comes from nations such as China, India, and many other nations where people simply dump their trash in rivers that bring the trash and plastics to the ocean.
She is right that we should use less plastic and recycle more, but even if North America stopped using plastics completely, it would have almost no effect because it is not us who are dumping our trash and our plastic in rivers; maybe 2 or 3% of the plastics in the ocean come from us.
Satellite images have proven that only a minuscule percentage of the plastic in the ocean comes from North America.
She conveniently skips over that fact.
— So when she blames companies such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi because a large percentage of the plastic bottles floating around in the ocean are of their products, it is not entirely fair or honest…
If people act irresponsibly and dump their trash and plastic in rivers, it is not Coke or Pepsi that made them do that.
If Coke and Pepsi sold their products in glass, metal, or even wood bottles, those people would still dump their trash in rivers.
In some nations, they have no, or very little, organized trash collection and care little about recycling or about the environment (or are too poor to care, like in Haiti), so people simply dump everything in rivers and forget about it.
Coke and Pepsi are not the cause of that.
The great “Pacific plastic patch” comes out of ONLY THREE RIVERS in Asia, it is NOT CAUSED BY US yuppies driving Ford Explorers in the 80’s and 90’s…(that was ACTUALLY promulgated by the US MSM)
Interesting but she skips over a few inconvenient truths, —She says heavier vehicles cause tires to shed more micro particles ( true ) then she blames bigger/heavier vehicles such as SUVs( true )…But she does not mentions EVs that are usually at least 1000 lbs heavier than an ICE vehicle of the same size ( thus 20 to 30 %… Read more »
Excellent points. Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s we were always told, “Do Not Be A LITERBUG!” If you were caught throwing a candy wrapper on the ground, someone would call you out on it. People today, are slobs.
Also in the 50’s and 60’s we used glass bottles and they were recycled.
You could tell by the grind marks on the side of pop and beer bottles.
We have become a throw-away society.
True, glass bottles were returnable for a nickel a bottle. The milkman delivered milk in bottles that he would pick up and reuse. We had paper drives and most glass was recycled. Diapers were cotton and were picked up and sterilized to be reused. Better times.
Called “carbon black” in HEPA tech. (Once worked for the INVENTOR of HEPA, in the 50’s, he ALSO founded “ServicePro”, in Atlanta, like it never happened….)