Fifty years ago, “plastics” was a keynote to anyone wishing to invest in what was supposed to become the technology of the modern world, giving us everything we touch in a day.
I brush my teeth with a plastic brush with paste from a plastic tube. I open a bag of granola in plastic. I pour milk in my coffee from a plastic bottle. Clean my dishes with liquid from a plastic container. I take a shower and use shampoo and antiperspirant encased in plastic. I comb what is left of my hair with a plastic brush. Shave with a plastic razor. Put my empty food packaging into a plastic garbage bag in my plastic garbage container. I take a supplement from a plastic vial. And I’m ready for the day in my new plastic faux-turtle-shell glasses. This is how my life is trapped in plastic. And yours!
Today, we have the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” (not a Disney Movie) – a plastic-ridden trash vortex between the West Coast of North America and Japan. It is twice the size of Texas (but without the political clout). Sadly, many whales and dolphins are turning up with gruesome bellies full of plastic garbage bags and other plastic waste.
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