Along with climate change, the plastic pollution issue has become a worldwide movement for more than a decade. And this, for one simple reason: the situation is degrading exponentially, and we need to act now and quickly. Fast-moving plastic products and the chemicals that make them up are flooding our lives, our air, our soils, our streets, our oceans, our mountains, our food, and our waterways. Plastic production is forecasted to double by 2030, and this mainly due to the increasing demand for single-use and fast-moving plastic products.

I understand the issue may be hard to embrace in our affluent community as the problem is not as present or “obvious” as in underprivileged and developing communities. Our South Bay cities have a good waste management system in place along with street cleaning, our residents are educated about littering and recycling, and they are more conscious about their environmental impact than lower income communities. Yet there is still plastic trash laying around our schoolyards, on our streets and on our beaches. In other words, we are not immune to plastic pollution. And there are things we can do about it.

The problem with plastic is beyond the product itself, it is a system’s problem. And when you know that production is going to double over the next decade, we have all the reasons to feel worried and try to change the system as soon as possible from a linear strategy to a circular one where plastic never becomes waste but instead remains in the system.

Nowadays, there are solutions and innovations that would allow us to reduce our single-use plastic consumption, and to make sure that after use, the plastic is properly put back into the system. However, with solutions also come challenges that go beyond our will for a cleaner planet:

• Lack of overall education
• Lack of product availability (so many products are packaged in plastic, even when bought local and fresh!)
• Social/Environmental injustice
• Consumers’ will to change and adapt
• Waste management programs within cities
• Corporate profit and shareholders’ accountability
• Fossil fuel lobbyism
• Product design and the recycling issue that often arises from a poor design
• Current culture of excessive consumption

Let’s take a quick look at some popular plastic topics that will help better understand the problem along with the solutions available to us.