Nowadays, plastic is everywhere. Originally designed as a miracle material allowing, for example, to store food in healthier and cheaper conditions than ever before. It is now becoming one of the planet’s worst waste nightmare.

Here in the Pacific Ocean the problem is growing even worse as most of the world’s waste ends up in the oceans, including millions of metric-tons of plastics. Everyone has now heard of the “Great Pacific garbage patch” drifting around our ocean. Every week, marine life is decimated by plastic waste. Plastic waste is literally killing the oceans. Here, in the Pacific, we could say it is burring our home.

Plastic pollution is even threatening human health now, as it has been polluting the environnement for so long and divided, over the decades into micro particles entering the water cycle, and eventually, our food chain.

These last few years, several countries, aware of the growing risks, made moves to counter it. The top priority measure was banning the use of the most problematic one use plastics, like grocery bags.

 Moreover, ocean cleaning processes or biodegradable alternatives are currently designed and tried. Even biochemical approaches are on the way, like engineered genetically modified bacteria that could eat up non-biodegradable plastics.

However, the inertia of the petrochemical industry worldwide and the use of plastic in every aspect of modern life will delay, without a doubt, an efficient pollution backshift… Maybe for centuries.

What can we do to help?  Well, let’s be realistic: most of the to time, turning to a plastic free life is nearly impossible in a modern setting. Each one of us, taken  individually, might think he adds only a tiny weight in the balance to resist the growing plastic nightmare. But the truth is, consumers are the last link in the chain of plastic use. If each concerned human would responsibly consume plastic
in everyday life, in the end the accumulated effect would greatly help. A simple example is to use fabric-made grocery store bags like this one:

Taking action, here, is way more important than expecting results.