Plastic 1.0
Our century-long story of plastic as human-made and managed has been woefully short-sighted.
PLASTIC HAS GARNERED A BAD RAP over the last decades and the ire of us all. It has been piling up, clogging ecological cycles, polluting and contaminating. The consequences of our last century of plastic play is the focus of great consternation and condemnation. While in comparison to species extinction, ocean acidification, and rainforest destruction, plastic pollution may not be the most dire of ecological crises, as we look out upon littered beaches, chocked rivers and whales beached with bellies full of our bags, it certainly causes us the most shame.
However, an awakening has begun.
Around the world we’re realizing where our plastic, oh-so carefully segregated and recycled, is actually ending up. Investigative journalism and scientific study has made the fate of plastic clear. No matter how well we recycle, landfill or incinerate — plastic’s particles and chemicals end up loose in the biosphere. No matter how much we reduce or reuse — plastic production rises unabated. Our observation of the ensuing pollution has evoked a generational despair. It has led to a harsh judgment of both ourselves and of plastic as innately flawed and ecological damaging.
