“Human convenience is a price the environment cannot afford.” This quote is from Madhavi Venkatesan in an April 21st Cape Cod Times article titled the Pitfalls of Plastic. In 2017 China stopped accepting our recyclables so companies in Massachusetts have been scrambling trying to find how to manage the enormous amount of plastic we discard. Of the 9.1 billion tons of plastic produced since 1950, 6.9 billion tons is considered waste. Only 9 percent has been recycled, 12 percent incinerated and the rest 79 percent is either buried, in landfills or the natural environment including the ocean. Janet Domenitz of MASSPRIG states “Recycling is not the answer… we cannot recycle our way out of the trash problem we are in. We must put the focus back on reduce.” Our coffee hour now has glass coffee mugs and stainless steel cups. How can we in our personal lives reduce our single-use plastic consumption?
