COVID-19 & Plastic
More plastic waste than ever:
- Personal protective gear
- Online, take out and home delivery purchases
- Less recycling and more virgin plastic production related to contamination concerns
- The increased waste is disproportionately affecting health in poor countries and communities
Solidarity
The global plastic crisis disproportionally affects people of color. The environmental movement must join hands with the movements for Black and indigenous lives! In addition to the 3R’s, we must care about ending systemic racism. Additionally, those with relatively privileged lives have the opportunity to advocate for those who don’t!
"We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates Unity." - Malcolm X
Covid-19 has led to a pandemic of plastic pollution: https://www.economist.com/international/2020/06/22/covid-19-has-led-to-a-pandemic-of-plastic-pollution
Support Love in Action!
Consider supporting initiatives like MudBone Grown, a black-owned farm that’s focused on environmental, social, cultural, and economic impacts in communities.
Check out their “Solidarity Love Shares” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism.
By 2050, the World Economic Forum estimates that there could be more plastic in the oceans by weight than fish.
Global Plastic Crisis
The incineration of plastic creates problems for human health around the world.
GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 800 grassroots groups, NGOs, and individuals in over 90 countries whose ultimate vision is a just, toxic-free world without incineration. http://www.no-burn.org/
Plastic Waste Trade
The Story of Plastic takes a sweeping look at the man-made crisis of plastic pollution and the worldwide effect it has on the health of our planet and the people who inhabit it.
“When China took action to protect its borders from foreign plastic pollution by effectively shutting its doors to plastic waste imports in the beginning of 2018, it threw the global plastic recycling industry into chaos.”
Zero Waste
“Zero Waste is the conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning, and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.” ~Zero Waste International Alliance