By. Mia Zibello
Our planet is facing a growing waste crisis, and expanding my knowledge on this issue throughout my time in high school is what has fueled my interest and desire to make a
change. As I’ve continued to learn in my environmental and global politics classes over the past two years, I have realized that there are things happening all over the world that might not have a direct impact on my life today, but have inspired me to change my lifestyle to make a difference in the future.
In 2016, Chester County only accounted for 49.02 tons of recycled plastic (Dep State PA). This is far less recycled plastic when considered in comparison to surrounding, similar sized counties, reigning in several hundred to a thousand more tons than Chester. Given that Chester County is a medium to large sized county, relative to Pennsylvania’s other divisions, and considering the current global environmental situation and general waste surplus, their numbers for total materials recycled are much lower than they should be. This demonstrates the need for community based action to responsibly dispose of waste.
I work as a hostess in a locally owned restaurant, where my responsibilities include taking out the trash, restocking supplies, and bussing tables. Having to personally dispose of an excessive amount of waste each night, I became infuriated at the lack of community effort and desire to conserve. This specifically provoked my curiosity into businesses and how their sustainability on a local level can have an incredible global impact.
This school year, all of the global politics students in my senior class took a field trip to the United Nations Headquarters.
While this was an overall incredible experience, one thing I took away from it was that throughout the entire headquarters, there was not one piece of single use plastic: no plastic cutlery, bags, water bottles, packaging, et cetera. This made me realize that an organization does not have to have created the Sustainable Development Goals in order to ban single use plastic.
While this was a monumental action taken by the UN, it is completely attainable on a smaller, community basis, which would contribute greatly to solving this global waste issue. I hope to implement this in my community by speaking with local business owners to encourage a reduction of waste and switch to more sustainable products.
There are countless alternatives to single use plastic that are far more sustainable, and if companies, businesses, and communities can begin to use these substitutes or reduce their consumption and waste, it can have an enormous impact on a global scale. While businesses are focused on profit and plastic is often the cheapest option, I hope to see an overall effort in my community to at least reduce the frequency of single-use plastic consumption. For now, I personally will stick with my reusable bags, food packaging, straws, and bottles. But, I aspire to spark change within my community to consume, produce, and dispose of waste responsibly.
Some disposable alternatives to single use plastic are actually doing more harm than good due to their immense carbon footprint or lack of ability to successfully biodegrade, for instance bamboo straws and products made from bioplastic (Global Citizen). The ideal way to increase sustainability on a personal and local level would be reducing unnecessary plastic products from daily activities. This would include individuals using their own, reusable products such as coffee cups, grocery bags, and water bottles and avoiding the use of things like single-use straws, bags, and packaging altogether. Businesses can lower
their waste and consumption by neglecting to hand out things like straws, cutlery, and bags unless specifically requested by a customer or absolutely necessary. While ideal, this is unrealistic for many businesses, but there are still alternatives that have less of a negative impact on the earth’s ecosystems. Products made from paper, wood, or even pasta biodegrade much more quickly and are not as harmful to plants and animals. An individual and community effort to reduce our collective amount of waste can have a significant impact on a global scale, furthering overall sustainability and correcting the worldwide waste crisis.
We may be in the midst of a global waste crisis, but action can be taken towards improving sustainability.
Sources:
Global Citizen. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/
plastic-alternatives-doing-harm/
2016 recycled materials grouped by material categories. (2019, February 21).
Retrieved from http://files.dep.state.pa.us/Waste/Recycling/
RecyclingPortalFiles/Documents/2016_Recycling_Report.pdf