The Palisadian-Post has partnered with locally founded environmental organization Resilient Palisades to deliver a weekly “green tip” to our readers. This week’s tip was written by Lisa Boyle.
If you’ve been to the beach this summer, you may have noticed Zendaya pitching bottled water on billboards affixed to our lifeguard stations.
Plastic bottled water uses three times the amount of water in the bottling process than is contained within the bottle, according to Pacific Institute. (And by the way, we’re in a historic drought.) On top of that, anyone who has participated in a beach cleanup knows that plastic bottles are the second-most found item of trash on our beaches—second only to plastic cigarette butts, according to Ocean Conservancy data.
A recent study published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science shows that the U.S. is the top plastic polluter on this planet. Plastic-pushing corporations have pushed recycling as a fix, yet in 2021, the EPA reported that U.S. recycling rates have dropped almost 50%.
Although plastic bottles are turned in for recycling more often than other plastics thanks to bottle bills, recycling for all plastic has declined from 8.7% to less than 6%. Half of the plastic going to landfill is single-use plastic bottles, with Coke, Pepsico and Nestle named as the top polluters worldwide.
When it comes to plastic, “recycling does not work, it never will work and no amount of false advertising will change that,” said Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator.
Even the 6% recycling figure may be high. Plastics expert Jan Dell of The Last Beach Cleanup stated that plastic recycling wastes a significant amount of the collected plastic material. Facts provided by the beverage and plastics industry show that 30 to 36% of collected polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are wasted in the recycling process due to contamination and process losses.
The American Chemistry Council, the plastic trade association, is busy pushing legislation to increase incineration of plastics as a solution to the failure of recycling, euphemistically calling incineration “chemical recycling.” Of course, “chemical recycling” releases greenhouse gases and toxic pollution.
There is one real solution to plastic pollution: Bring reusable bottles filled with fresh tap water to the beach.
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