Over the last year, there has been a surge of interest in the problem of ocean plastic pollution. The media drumbeat began with the now-infamous turtle video, continued through National Geographic’s year-long “Planet or Plastic” series, and hit a new high with the BBC release of "Blue Planet ll."
It’s about time we took this problem seriously.
Charles Moore brought back the first reports of the "plastic garbage patch" in 1997. Since then, we’ve learned that 150 million tons of plastic are in the ocean, much of it from countries taxed with processing exponential levels of plastic with little or no waste management systems. The number has increased by 8 million tons each year as developed countries focus on eliminating single-use plastics such as straws — which represent less than 1% of ocean plastic — rather than systemic change.
In 20 years of working on environmental sustainability issues, I’ve never seen a topic or interest exponentially spike like this. However, all of this increased attention is not without increased risk. If people feel that they’ve done their part by sharing a Facebook post endorsing a straw ban, will they take similar action in giving up food in convenient (and non-recyclable) multilaminate plastic pouches? If politicians take a stand with single-use plastic regulation, will they also support policies that enable investment in recycling infrastructure?
This crisis demands public, nonprofit and private attention — but I believe it is solvable. It won’t be easy, but it can be done if we can harness the momentum and put aside tendencies to divide.
Recent news shows governments and corporations investing in solutions. In September, Norway announced that it will spend $200 million over the next four years on waste prevention efforts, anticipating a series of commitments that will be revealed at this month’s Our Ocean conference, where last year $8 billion was pledged — and where we’ll be sharing news about Circulate Capital on October 29th.
We’re wasting time like we’re wasting plastic. Let’s stop both.
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