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What we did... ?
How we allowed this to happen... ?
When did we become so greedy beings thirsty for money and profits only... ?
How we allowed the whole planet to suffer because of our greed and indifference
Where we go ?
For the past 10 years we have produced more plastic than for the whole century before
Half the plastic we use is only used once
Only Americans dispose of 35 billion bottles of mineral water each year
One million plastic bags are used every minute worldwide.
90 percent of all trash that floats on the surface of the oceans is made of plastic.
One million birds and over 100 000 mammals are killed any year from plastics pollution.
It takes between 500 and 1000 years to degrade the plastic.
At this moment we recycle 14 % of all plastics we produced.
Soon no one will remember what the world was before plastic pollution
It was a time when the beaches were clean, the animals lived peacefully in the nature, the nature that was not yet poisoned by the chemicals and the rubbish with which we poured it
But then we began to produce uncontrollably any plastic products.
We started to deceive ourselves that we did not do anything wrong
We've poisoned our planet ... We've poisoned our oceans ...
But still ... is everything lost? ... have we poisoned everything around us irretrievably? ... is there any hope of reversing the process?
Yes ... every year technology will advance and invent on modern and quality ways to process plastics
But it will never be enough if we don't understand the problem and don't start the change by ourselves
Stop using disposable plastic.
Stop buying water in plastic bottles.
Cook more.
Purchase items secondhand.
Start recycling by yourself
Support a bag tax or ban
Buy in large quantities
There is still hope ... but everything is in our hands ... I believe we will be able to win
I actually sailed across the Pacific Ocean with the Ocean Cleanup project to take samples of the plastic out in the gyre. The hope was to find out if the particles were still large enough to be collected.
It turns out they are, but we need to move quickly as a species if we want to keep our oceans alive.
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Additionally theres some really cool work being done with a fungus that eats plastic and then renders the byproducts edible to humans.
It's not something we would unleash on the ocean, but in terms of collecting and disposing of our plastic it gives me hope
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Wow, thats really good to read! The Ocean Cleanup project will be running soon right? Lets hope its still in time.
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You are doing a great job there in the ocean, mate
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Over here in Indonesia, the beach cleanup groups and my team have developed an open source technology called Ecobricks. Its one way to move real fast and solve plastic personally. I'll be posting more on it in my Steemit. And check out www.Ecobricks.org
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It's a complete disgrace. I should make more efforts towards change. I'm really glad my city bans plastic bags and you have to pay for paper. I have had multiple customers ask for bags for items as small as lipstick, chopstick, or gum. Come on!
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It is precisely ... to change the world first we have to change our habits
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This is serious. How we going to fine alternative for this. I think it is time for us to brainstorm in order to fine solution to this else ths generation to come will suffer.
Thanks for sharing
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The problem is really serious and is getting worse... Ty for your support and resteem the knowledge
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Over here in Indonesia, we Ecobrick our plastic. My home is pretty much zero-waste now. :-)
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Wow how do u do u do it. Can shows us now??
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en que momento perdimos el camino? espero lo encontremos pronto upvote
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y espero encontrarlo
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Woah. Might I suggest becoming a donor to American Rivers?
https://www.americanrivers.org/
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Great project... every citizen has to support his national rivers
In my country we have a day in the year in which we all unite and go together to clean rivers, beaches, mountains, and so on from the trash (mainly plastic) thrown over the rest of the time.
We collect tons of waste
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Re-steeming this. Thank you for a great post. This has long been an issue of concern for me and I am so happy to see that more and more people are starting to see the damage -- it's utterly sad.
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Thank you for your support
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When I buy something small at the grocery store I ask them to not put it in a bag. I get the craziest, confused looks from the cashier when I do. WTF, it's not like I rode in on a llama. I just don't want a bag.
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Yeah... same here... when I am capable to carry all my stuff from store I never use bags
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The thing that I noticed is, that people would rather have convenience and 'receive now, pay later' than taking the time to do the right things which take longer but are more meaningful. We have only seen some effects of this and unfortunately the rest of the bill is on its way
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The bill will finally be paid by our children...
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Hey there, Sir3nal. Thank you for your concern with plastic. YES... there is still hope. In the words of BIll Molison, one of the founders of permaculture, the problem is always the solution.
Here in my home in Indonesia, my neighbors and I, clean, save and segregate our plastic then pack it into PET bottles to make a building block called an Ecobrick. I use Ecobricks to make my furniture and for the bedding-benches in my garden. Ecobricks are a super simple way to keep plastic out of the Industrial Recycling system and the biosphere. As you so well point out, whereas in the Industrial recycling system, plastic gets bounced around the globe and only reused a few times, Ecobricks enable indefinite local cycling of plastic. When applied properly, an Ecobricks can be used over and over again in one construction after another.
Here in Indonesia the government and industry just aren't aren't solving plastic-- so we gotta take care of our own plastic ourselves! Ecobricks are what I call a deep solution. I will be posting more on this on my Steemit.
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That's great... There is many ways to keep plastic out... As I said earlier It all depends on us
I hope more and more ppl to start doing similar activities like you
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very good article and important topic! we need to get awareness for this problem! that's why I also made an article, hope you read it!
greets,
caspar
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