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Refuse -- the new 'R'
The '3 R's' are great but sorely lacking a fourth -- 'Refuse.' Plastic Pollution Coalition's launch event featured a S.U.P.E.R. Hero pledge to 'just say no' to single-use plastic. Here's Jackson Brown pledging ...
Wed, Oct 28 2009 at 8:15 PM
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I had my eyes opened to the massive problem of plastics pollution in the U.S. just a few nights ago at a film series sponsored by the Plastic Pollution Coalition called 'Is Plastic Washed Up?'
The event featured footage from the recent expedition to Midway Island where photographer Chris Jordan documented the massive plastic pollution problem in the Pacific Ocean. It also screened the amazing film Tapped, which brings to light the dirty secrets of the bottled water industry. Here's the trailer:
Plastic Pollution Coalition created a S.U.P.E.R. (Single-Use Plastic Emergency Response) Hero pledge that inserts a fourth 'R' at the beginning of the phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" and that word is "Refuse."
The problem is simply too massive to allow a gradual reduction in single-use disposable plastics. Every five minutes, 2 million plastic bottles are thrown away, using 750 million gallons of crude oil per year. In the U.S. only 20 percent of those bottles are recycled.
The Plastic Pollution Coalition supports container laws. States that have a 5-cent container deposit see 80 percent recycling rates, and the one state (Michigan) that has a 10-cent deposit, sees 97 percent recycling rates. But as expected, major bottlers like Coca Cola and PepsiCo are against a national container law for fear that the extra cost will deter consumer spending.
Whether or not such a law goes through, PPC feels it is time U.S. consumers to start saying "no" in the first place to disposable plastics. In addition to the environmental impacts, more reports are coming out that confirm everyone's worst fear -- plastic bottles do in fact leach chemicals into your water. Some of these chemicals are linked to infertility, cancer and autism.
You can sign their SUPER Hero Pledge here and join Jackson Brown in banishing those nasty plastic bottles from your grocery cart.
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goooooody
I never do it, and never will.
I hope you don't have kids because they wont have anything when they are older if you keep this attitude
The US post office should quit subsidizing junk mail, which often winds up in the garbage unread and only multiplies the trash thrown away.
You can get a reusable bottle or use your own cups. There is also a company, Primo, that sells bottled water but they do not make the bottles from petroleum. The bottles are made from plants. I'm not trying to advertise this but if I have to use a plastic water bottle(s), I buy them. Check it out - primowater.com
Blatant advertising + disclamer = FAIL!
With almost 7 billion people on the planet the throaway culture is never going to work, whether disposables are made our of petroleum or, as you kindly put it, from "plants" (GMO corn in most cases, yuk) . Bottled water SUCKS, primo included. Boo!
I always thought that recycling plastic was a good thing. Now you're telling me plastic is bad?? I guess I'll have to go with all those little paper cups instead.
Did you know plastic containers aren't made from new oil at all! They are made from an oil by-product, not virgin oil. That means instead of disposing leftover oil, it's made into useful, light-weight plastic, which has many social benefits and is easily recycled.
it would be, but plastic is alway contaminated with other materials (print, plastic of a different make up as cap or wrapper). this makes recycling impossible. in order to use it (e.g. for making a new bottle) the industry needs its resources to be as pure as possible, otherwise it will not have the desired traits. basically most recycling schemes are a fake operation to make the consumer feel better about their wastefull livestyle, sorry.
Recycle your old cell phones for free! just go to HaveURebooted.com for a mail in label or drop off location.