How can we escape Plastic Planet?
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A Plastic Planet: The Price of a Bargain?
I read Gordon Laird's new book, The Price of a Bargain: The Quest for Cheap and the Death of Globalization, in the mindset of a Planet Green writer and thus, one word stood out: plastics. The book is a must-read for the excellent job Laird does of laying bare the price we all pay for retail bargains (read an excerpt here)—but for greenies of all shades, it's hard to not focus on the harsh environmental cost of global consumerism.
WATCH VIDEO: Blue August: Plastic is Forever
In a chapter called, "All is Plastic: The Small World of Hydrocarbons," Laird explains that global demand for basic petrochemicals and plastics has increased about 4.5% per year since the 1980s and Americans now consume "roughly 100 billion plastic bags annually; producing these bags requires approximately 12 million barrels of crude." Laird continues:
"The fruits of the world's industrial carbon chain—polymers, styrene, methane, nitrogen, paraffins—are the lifeblood of the twenty-first century, reflecting an economy increasingly dominated by the likes of Wal-Mart, Exxon, Dow, and Monsanto."
The links to that "industrial carbon chain," however, are not as solid as they first appear. In fact, they can crumble without the participation and tacit support of everyday people like us.
5-Step Program to Address Plastic Planet
1. Read The Price of a Bargain to gain some perspective on our personal choices
3. Try life without plastic
4. Get plastics banned in your city or town
5. Get active and hold corporations accountable for poisoning our planet