Earth Day was commemorated worldwide on Sunday, April 22. This year’s theme was End Plastic Pollution, a global problem of staggering proportions.
Environmentalists say that the amount of plastic waste generated each year is enough to wrap around the planet four times. And about 90 percent of the stuff is not recycled.
Swirling clusters of marine debris containing microscopic bits of discarded plastic are clogging our oceans. The so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California, is estimated to measure 1.6 million square kilometers, nearly the same size as Mexico’s land area.
Perhaps local wind and water currents have prevented the evolution of a garbage gyre in Lake Chapala, but you can bet your bottom peso that there’s plenty of plastic waste out there as well.
I’ve developed a deep grudge against big business industries that have foisted consumerism and a convenience mystique upon modern society while flooding the market with plastic.
According to Forbes, people buy one million plastic bottles per minute around the world.Every bit of plastic ever produced is still around. It takes 500 to 1,000 years to decompose.
As someone concerned about the deteriorating state of the planet my children and grandchild will inherit, I have tried to adopt more environmentally responsible habits. I started some years back by stocking up on reusable shopping bags to substitute the give-away plastic ones. Then I prodded the family into separating our household trash.
While organic wastes from the kitchen and garden went to the compost heap, we discovered that a lot of what ended in the rubbish bin was plastic. We sorted it out along with stuff made of aluminum and cardboard to leave out for the local garbage collectors who can trade it off to recycling outfits for some extra pocket cash. We’ve tried to avoid using items made of polystyrene foam, called unicel or hielo seco in Spanish, a product that rates as one of the earth’s worst enemies.
Still dissatisfied with the effort to rid noxious goods from day-to-day life, I recently took on a challenge to see if I go for a full week without purchasing anything in a plastic container. I failed on Day One. Feeling deflated as I walked out of the store with a bottle of dish washing liquid in my earth-friendly tote, I realized it was an uphill battle. Still, there are glimmers of hope.
Creative minds are churning out new ideas to end the plastic scourge. Japanese scientists have discovered a strain of bacteria that gobbles up plastic. Bright entrepreneurs are developing all sorts of disposable products derived from plants such as bamboo, corn, sugarcane and algae.
In San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca the sale of polyesterne products has been prohibited by law. The town earned a 2013 national good government award as the first municipality in the state to implement trash separation and recycling, reducing its load to the waste stream by 80 percent.
Similar results have been achieved in San Pedro de la Laguna, located on the shore of Guatemala’s Lago Atitlán. Plastic bags and straws are banned. The people there are going back to ancestral practices, employing hand-loomed napkins, banana leaves and straw baskets to wrap and carry their groceries.
Let’s all jump on the bandwagon to restore a planet in peril.