Paper: Convenience of Plastics May Not Equal Cost
October 03 2007 | Rise Above Plastics,
by Johnny
" Recycling and sustainable living efforts continue to bump up against our throw-away society, but sometimes it's hard to know if we are making a dent in the nation's garbage dumps.Read the entire editorial here.
Facts and figures, such as: In 2005, U.S. residents, businesses and institutions produced more than 245 million tons of solid waste, which is approximately 4.5 pounds of waste per person per day, don't really register in our consciousness. Not the way, say, the price of gasoline does.
And that's the garbage that makes it to landfills. Pollution, particularly plastics, has been threatening the health of our oceans and wildlife for decades. Only 3.5 percent of plastics are recycled in any way throughout the world. Plastic debris, which do not biodegrade, cause widespread mortality of marine wildlife, according to marine researchers."
