We need a monumental mind shift to end plastic complacency
Someone posted a plea for advice on a Zero Waste forum recently. They were desperate for suggestions about how they could reduce the plastic wastage from the medical syringes they needed to use every day – and I thought, enough is enough.
On my drying rack at that moment was the usual swag of rinsed plastic bags and containers – some yoghurt pottles, a Doritos packet from last night’s nachos, various cracker wrappers, a sliced ham container.
I feel guilty about every single piece of rubbish that I send to landfill, and until recently, recycling had completely soothed my conscience. I heralded the arrival of soft plastic recycling with the delight that some people reserve for the release of the latest iPhone.
The rubbish drum that services our family of four is now emptied about every six weeks – it used to be each fortnight – and this is in large part due to my irritatingly vigorous recycling regime. I’m the crushing bore who plucks things out of rubbish bins, stating in passive-aggressive tones that ‘‘this can be recycled as well, you know’’.
Despite this, my smug environmental facade is starting to crumble. As more and more information about plastic pollution slides into my awareness, I’m starting to understand that recycling isn’t a solution – it’s just deferring the problem.
The new king of the recycling chain is refuse. That’s re-FUSE, to be clear – quite different to REFuse.
There is an increasing call for consumers to choose products, and their packaging, more carefully from the start, or avoid buying them altogether. Beyond that, the packaging hierarchy is headed by glass and cans (both readily and infinitely recyclable in most areas), and then paper and cardboard, with plastic languishing at the bottom of the list.
The fact that some members of our communities are feeling wretched about the plastic that is a byproduct of their medical conditions, while most of us are unthinkingly loading our supermarket trolleys with polyethylene, should give us a reason to pause and look harder at the habits we have and the things we buy – just because they are there and we can.
It would be helpful if big businesses took a greater role in heading the charge, but those profit-driven wheels turn very slowly, and the problem is worsening too quickly to wait.
I was heartened when I learned that supermarkets and petrol stations were starting to phase out plastic bags at their checkouts, but then I took a peek inside my reusable shopping bag with its alluring graphic print, and had to admit that it is routinely and complacently filled with little plastic-wrapped items anyway.
Trying to go plastic-free at a supermarket is a Herculean task, and the challenges begin as soon as you enter. I’ve been known to take a few minutes to scowl at the glossy apples sitting loose on the produce shelves, cross with them for being more expensive than their bagged but otherwise identical counterparts.
Beyond that first aisle? Forget it. Unless you arrive with a tight game plan and a battery of your own containers which may or may not be accepted at the deli, it’s over before it begins.
It’s not being made easy for us, but there are all sorts of alarming statistics out there that we need to start getting our heads around.
An estimated eight million tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans each year – a rubbish truck’s worth a minute.
Fifty per cent of consumer plastics are single-use.
There has now been plastic debris found in every one of our oceans, even the Antarctic, and by 2050 our seas are forecast to contain more plastic than fish. These facts must make environmental scientists weep.
Sometimes I hunt down this data, determined to be prepared for the future, and sometimes I watch OnDemand episodes of Love Island, because I’m anxious to forget.
Plastic is a wonderful invention which has meant huge advances for vital industries like medicine, electronics, construction and transport. Without it, I wouldn’t have my cellphone, my car, my electric toothbrush, my house insulation, the clock on my kitchen shelf. Plastic is cheap and durable – and that is why it is environmentally disastrous in our single-use society.
We’ve become completely comfortable and complacent about its benefits – we rely on them heavily – but so far, we haven’t really needed to deal with the pressure cooker of mounting environmental problems.
Plastic Free July is approaching, and I’ve decided that doing my bit needs to become a little more urgent than separating out my family’s recyclables.
Last year, with a few missteps, I mastered the Big Four – straws, water bottles, coffee cups and shopping bags. Now it’s time to start damming our household’s constant stream of single-use plastic. It’s time for a mind shift, because although this stuff is recyclable, in the end it’s just more rubbish.
Trying to go plasticfree at a supermarket is a Herculean task.