Just 1 cigarette butt can pollute 500 litres of water.
80% of the litter found in the oceans, rivers and waterways is from land.
By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea.
Plastic never disappears, like seriously never, but it can take upwards of 450 years to become invisible to the naked eye.
Humans are consuming the equivalent of a credit card’s worth of plastic every week, be it actual fragments or through residue built up in meat or soil.
Plastic particles, whether from our waste, and products or industry pollutants, exist in micro and nano sizes, meaning we are also drinking it and breathing it in. None of this is new.
Yet we keep going. We keep buying. We keep throwing. We keep consuming, effortlessly giving our power away. And for some reason, none of this is being taken that seriously, by anyone concerned. Or if it is, it is often read from a fear and judgement perspective that is useful to nobody but those already benefitting richly.
The dominating world we have built continues to exploit humans, animals and our very planet. When will we stop allowing the plundering and exclusivising of natural resources for the benefit of a small few over the many?
We mine oil to spew out petroleum-based plastic to continue poisoning what is left of our natural wellbeing. What exactly are we hoping to leave for our children?
We keep buying plastic stuff, over-wrapped and over-packaged in… plastic. Our clothes are plastic, our products are plastic, our food is plastic. We put plastic in our bodies through necessity and choice, to stop us from bleeding publically or to make us look like a pre-defined ideal of beauty that we didn’t choose. We wash with it, we drive around in it, we literally sleep, breathe and eat plastic.
So when will we demand change? When will we realise we are the ones we’ve been waiting for? When will we start actually making the small changes that catalyse the big ones? When will we stand for what we believe in?
Nobody is going to do it for you. Start by asking more questions.