How to prevent plastic pollution: factors making this world cleaner

Each holiday in the US we observe the following picture: happy customers go shopping, the range of products is expanding and so is the variety of plastic packaging you can find in the trash after that. Of course, we would wish all this garbage would turn into something new, but the reality is that all the waste left after the holidays and parties is more likely to end up in the landfill or just be burned. 

Until 2019 the US and a number of other countries were successfully foisting their waste to China not worrying about its environmental damage. Now, China refused to be the world’s dumping ground of plastic waste bringing a law in order to protect its citizens. However, even before the law took effect, it was calculated that the US recycled only 9% of plastic which is too much to handle even if you carefully sort all the plastic waste. So what is the option? Do not create waste. Whether you need to write an essay on pollution you can rely on BuyEssayFriend.

Plastic pollution effects

One of the advantages of the Chinese ban became the conversation needed so much to improve the recycling processes inside the country and the markets, forcing both public and companies to re-estimate the packaging and damage they cause and consider those products that were previously identified as recyclable. The ban was also used as a wrongful excuse for burning this waste in incinerators that became popular in the US in the late 80s.

They proved to leave a bad impact on the environment and people in the industry and failed the experiment: it is also worth noting that this impact still has serious consequences. That is why manufacturers should limit the production of plastic in such large quantities to prevent increasing asthma rates in the country and just because such incinerators cost the country too much: they are twice expensive than production of solar, wind and nuclear energy.

Recycling options

As one of the recycling “methods” were used incineration schemes: people were told to sort the garbage into orange bags which then melted making fossil fuel that can burn. It is called pyrolysis and widely used by the American Chemistry Council and others investing in the current massive use of plastic production. This form is absolutely the opposite to recycling and gives a false sense of safety that single-use plastic can be used further. The easiest option to prevent plastic pollution is to make less plastic: obviously.

An interesting fact is that many American cities have already started fighting with single-use plastic products making laws that forbid their usage. In addition to bans and fines, the cities also force companies to pay for the waste made by their products motivating them to change the processes and minimize it. So the best gift shops can give their customers is the range of products that will not end up in plastic products in a recycling bin.