In an interesting article by Laura Parker entitled, “The world’s plastic pollution crisis, explained,” presented in February of this year on National Geographic’s website, Ms. Parker states, “Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, (her underlining) as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. Plastic pollution is most visible in developing Asian and African nations, where garbage collection systems are inefficient or nonexistent. But the developed world, especially in countries with low recycling rates, also has trouble properly collecting discarded plastics.
“Plastics revolutionized medicine with life-saving devices, made space travel possible, lightened cars and jets-saving fuel and pollution-and saved lives with helmets, incubators, and equipment for clean drinking water.
“The conveniences plastics offer, however, led to a throw-away culture that reveals the material’s dark side: today, single-use plastics account for 40 percent of the plastic produced every year. Many of these products, such as plastic bags and food wrappers, has a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years.”
How can we help? One way is to recycle the plastic that we can. Schnucks at Butler Hill accepts these recyclable plastic items:
- grocery and retail bags
- clean produce and bread bags
- wrap from toilet paper
- wrap from paper towels
- clean zip-top food storage bags
- air packing pillows – deflated
- dry cleaning bags