Plastic Bank

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Pam Lazos

[

PLASTIC BANK

Okay, since this is supposed to be a feel-good blog post, I’m not going to bury you in plastic statistics the way we are ourselves being buried in the real thing, but I will shed a dash of light on it by repeating a few plastics facts you may already be privy to:

  • In the 70 years since plastics entered the consumer market, almost 9 billion tons have been created, 92% of which was not recycled and still exists on the planet in some form;
  • two million single-use plastic bags are distributed worldwide every minute — that have an average working life of a mere 15 minutes — are distributed worldwide every minute;
  • the straw you got with your drink at lunch will live for hundreds of years in the ocean, and 500 million of them are used everyday in America alone, enough to circle the world twice ;
  • one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute and only about 30% of them will be recycled;
  • at our current rate of production, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish, much of it as microplastics which break down from the original due to photodegradation.

The point of repeating these stats is that we can’t cover our eyes any longer.  The overuse of plastics is a global problem that requires immediate attention.  Yes, yes, every telemarketer that ever calls and every advertisement you read says some version of the same thing — that you need to pay attention now or you’re going to miss out; that the sky is falling but you can avoid the avalanche if you just do this; that everything you ever worked for in your life is going to be wiped out if you don’t follow this — but here’s why this time, this warning is for real, maybe not for you right now, right this instant on this exact day, but definitely for your children and their children, and so on.

Why, you ask?

Because water is finite.  We have all we’re going to get.  And if we keep contaminating what we have with plastics and microplastics, it will eventually be game over for us humans.  Scientists have found that microplastics have crossed the placenta barrier, the beginning of a very slippery slope IMO.

So what’s next for the human race?  Technically, it’s our move.  Enter, the Plastics Bank which is revolutionizing plastics recycling by “build[ing] ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities, and reprocess[ing] the materials for reintroduction into the global manufacturing supply chain.”

But wait, there’s more.  “Collectors receive a premium for the materials they collect to better help them provide basic family necessities such as groceries, school tuition, and health insurance.”

And if that wasn’t enough:  “Collected material is reborn as Social Plastic® which is reintegrated into products and packaging. This creates a closed-loop supply chain while helping those who collect it.”

Want to know more about the Plastic Bank?  Go visit their website.

Let’s support that which supports all of us.

It’s the last Friday of the month.  Time to share your good news on the We Are the World Blogfest — #WATWB — a monthly good news trip around the world.  May we all be energized and rejuvenated by such news.  If you’re interested in joining our Blog Hop, the guidelines are as follows:

1. Keep your post to below 500 words;

2. Link to a human news story on the last Friday of each month that demonstrates love, kindness, humanity, support, open-mindedness, all the good stuff, but no proselytizing, preaching or inconsiderateness toward others;

3. Post on the last Friday of the month in sharing the good news.  No story is too big or small;

4. Place the WE ARE THE WORLD Badge on your sidebar and help spread the word on social media using the #WATWB hashtag;

5. Read and comment on others’ posts, play nice, and make friends;

6. To sign up, add your link to the WE ARE THE WORLD Linky List below.

This month’s cohosts are:

https://ericlahti.wordpress.comEric; https://www.godyears.net; http://shilpaagarg.com/; https://gardenofedenblog.com/; https://professorowlsbookcorner.com/.

If you want to share your good news of an uplifting story, follow this link to sign up here: https://bit.ly/3aSG3qL

Thanks for reading!

pam lazos 2.26.21

About Pam Lazos

writer, blogger, environmentally hopeful
This entry was posted in plastics, recycling, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

47 Responses to Plastic Bank

  1. Sustain blog says:
    May 12, 2021 at 3:11 pm

    An excellent post on plastic bank. Thank you 😊

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Ken Dowell says:
    March 15, 2021 at 1:31 am

    The first statistic alone, about how much plastic has been created and how much still exits, tells you all you need to know.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  3. drgeraldstein says:
    March 14, 2021 at 3:03 pm

    Death by garbage hadn’t been on my list of preferred departures. I am shooting for a “clean” get-away!. Thanks for a way out of the mess.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. Pingback: Plastic Bank: Guest Post by Pam Lazos | Three Worlds One Vision

  5. fgsjr2015 says:
    March 9, 2021 at 1:31 am

    BTW, I love the photo of the feline all over the guy’s sleeping head. …

    She laid by his bared feet / at the foot of his bed / though in his dream they’d meet / which they did in his head. // For this sleek black feline / she’d been in there before / such she’d never decline / as that cat he’d adore. // A myth it couldn’t be / that her claws touched his toes / as the dreaming did he / was about that she knows. // The dream she boldly caught / that night she did invade / was the dream she had sought / the dream she’d long delayed. // Within she placed her claws / upon his sleep-bound feet / all performed with no flaws / then and there they did meet. // Though not feeling abused / by prickling on his toes / he still looked down confused / at each of five toes, two rows. // Naught of her did he find / in his dream created / though back to wakened mind / he saw her and stated // ‘Mimi, it’s you—you rascal!’ / yet he still adored her / while finding comical / her response a smooth ‘murr’. // From the thick mattress down / she landed without woes / as he said ‘You little clown— / you leave alone my toes.’ // Thought she, ‘Again we’ll meet / as you dream fast asleep / when the toes on your feet / from my paws you cannot keep.’

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. fgsjr2015 says:
    March 5, 2021 at 3:02 am

    Although I’m awed by beautiful oceans’ blue and green — and especially the life within — the sight simultaneously leaves me very concerned about the increasing plastic entanglement mess hazardously dumped into them. And so much of it is from gratuitous purposes, e.g. plastic from individually wrapped toilet paper rolls. (Why? So the consumer can enjoy opening each roll for its after-dinner freshness?!)

    How does humankind correct its collective addiction to disposability when — regardless of scuba divers’ reports of immense tangled plastic messes (not to mention plastic bags found at some of the ocean’s deepest points) — so much of it is not immediately observable, i.e. out of sight, out of mind, thus misperceived as no threat to us?

    It doesn’t surprise me, as general human mentality collectively allows us to, amongst other forms of blatant pollution, throw non-biodegradables down a dark chute like we’re safely dispensing it into a black-hole singularity to be crushed into nothing.

    And then there’s the astonishing short-sighted entitled selfishness. I observed this not long ago when a Vancouver (B.C.) TV news reporter randomly asked a young urbanite wearing sunglasses what he thought of government restrictions on disposable plastic straws. “It’s like we’re living in a nanny state, always telling me what I can’t do,” he recklessly retorted.

    Astonished by his shortsighted little-boy selfishness, I wondered whether he’d be the same sort of individual who’d likely have a sufficiently grand sense of entitlement — i.e. ‘Like, don’t tell me what I can’t waste or do, dude!’ — to permit himself to now, say, deliberately dump a whole box of unused straws into the nearest pristine water-body, just to stick it to the authorities who’d dare tell him that enough is enough with our gratuitous massive dumps of plastics (the strait, of course, being defenseless against such guys who’d assert such self-granted sovereignty).

    This could be his way of giving the figurative middle-finger at any new government rules. ‘There! How d’ya like that, pal!’

    To this day, his careless mentality still pisses me off!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Pam Lazos says:
      March 5, 2021 at 1:44 pm

      I would be pissed off, too, but that is the way of it in the world 🌎 right now, everyone so damned entitled and “what about me, me, ME” that whenever you say anything about the collective, the commons, the things we should all be caring for in equal measure, you get a label like socialist or something else that half the people don’t even understand the definition of or they wouldn’t throw it around so loosely. On the road to perdition, we are. 😳 it’s only going to get worse from here unless we change course, I fear. Thank you for your thoughtful comment. 🙏

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • fgsjr2015 says:
        March 5, 2021 at 10:32 pm

        Very well said. That’s pretty much the way the consumer mentality is, especially on the Right. Some of the latter group even believe that to be very concerned about the natural environment goes against God’s will!

        The language that big business understands best is one of increased consumerism, economic stimulation and profit-margin growth. The usual tradeoff, of course, is big business’s destruction and max-exploitation of laborers, resources, and natural environment.

        For example, fossil fuel extraction, including the toxic mess it often leaves behind, is euphemistically referred to as the “energy sector,” even by the virtual-monopoly corporate news-media (at least here in Canada).

        And they repeat stupid-sounding catchphrases, like “It’s the economy, stupid”.

        Like

      • Pam Lazos says:
        March 7, 2021 at 6:07 pm

        We could talk for hours over several cups of coffee, I see. ;0)

        Liked by 2 people

  7. theburningheart says:
    March 4, 2021 at 4:55 pm

    I guess as usual we were naïve, not to say totally ignorant!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. Jacqui Murray says:
    March 2, 2021 at 2:06 am

    What really sets me off is people using plastic bottles–passing them out in massive quantities. Can’t we all carry our own reusable?

    We can’t make excuses for abusing plastic just because it suits us.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. hilarymb says:
    March 1, 2021 at 4:25 pm

    Hi Pam – what a great ‘new Bank’ … I like this idea – I hope it’ll catch on over here … there used to be bottle collections after the War – which earned people a few pennies: which would make a difference to their lives. Plastic is much worse … and I hope we can tip the balance back in our and the planets favour … this Bank Project sounds perfect … thanks for highlighting for us – all the best Hilary

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. Michele Anderson says:
    February 28, 2021 at 11:33 pm

    First off, I just have to say I love the picture of your adorable kitties! They are precious. You know me Pam, I completely agree with you on our crazy plastic use. I’m so happy that our governor has banned plastic bags in stores starting in June.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. shehannemoore says:
    February 27, 2021 at 12:16 am

    It is ridic the amount of plastic in the world and how long it takes for it to go…. ANd as you say, how many particles are in everything. I think the bank is a great intuitive. ( If I smile, it is only cos many years back in our last house, the bottle bank had come in and one night the Mr dutifully took ours along. Talking ‘along’ he spoke to one of the neighbours who said it was the only bank he could afford to visit. A week later he was arrested for armed robbery at a bank down in the Borders….) But great post xxxxxxx

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. Yeah, Another Blogger says:
    February 27, 2021 at 12:15 am

    We’re in big trouble, and have been for at least 50 years. I see no reason why just about every product can’t be packaged in biodegradable materials. It would help enormously if they were.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  13. Maggie says:
    February 26, 2021 at 9:11 pm

    Definitely a worthwhile project and great positive news. We work hard to reduce our plastic and recycle everything we can.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  14. Susan Scott says:
    February 26, 2021 at 7:31 pm

    Those stats are SCARY Pam – thank heavens there’s an initiative that pays for collection of plastic material that can be re-purposed. People, wake up … don’t use it if you don’t wanna lose it …

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  15. SpiritualJourney17 says:
    February 26, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    Thank you for sharing. I went onto their website to know more about them. But I do have to say that the photo took me off guard because when I read the title, I thought what does this man/cats have anything to do with plastic bank. haha

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  16. Rosaliene Bacchus says:
    February 26, 2021 at 5:57 pm

    Thanks for sharing, Pam. It’s another great initiative that makes total sense.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.