<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/12/my-no-plastic-life-i-tried-to-cut-out-single-use-items-for-a-month-and-it-almost-broke-me>
"The scale of plastic pollution is so terrifying, I mostly try to avoid
thinking about it, but some facts stop me in my tracks. According to the UN
Foundation, there is already enough plastic in the oceans to fill 5m shipping
containers – and if production continues at its current rate, by the middle of
this century there will be more plastic in the sea than fish. It is also
indestructible – all the plastic ever made is still here, decomposing into
microplastics that contaminate every corner of the planet – including our
bodies. And it’s not just a case of somehow finding a way to “clean it up”.
“Plastic pollution is now altering some major processes at the scale of the
entire Earth system,” the Stockholm Resilience Centre reported, chillingly, in
November.
In the UK alone, our plastic waste problem is mindblowing: in its 2024 Big
Plastic Count, Everyday Plastic got almost 225,000 people to count their
plastic waste for a week; the final tally was over 4.6m pieces.
Is there anything individuals can do about a problem on this scale? I’m
pessimistic, but my editor wants me to give it a try: she challenges me to
eliminate single-use plastic (SUP) for a month. Uneasily, I agree."
We’re also doing our best, but the underlying issue is the externalisation of
costs. Governments need to stop letting companies avoid the full true costs of
recycling or waste disposal, including environmental protection and/or
remediation. Of course this would mean an increase in the cost of many items -
but those are real costs that we are currently passing on to future
generations. If people can’t afford goods priced at their actual total cost, we
should consider a UBI so that people have sufficient income to buy necessities.
To avoid a premature collapse of our civilisation, we need to achieve a
“doughnut economy” - and concurrently deal with other interlinked issues such
as climate change, diseases and authoritarianism. It’s not easy, but consider
the alternative.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
