To the editor,
With Earth Day just behind us, it’s a good time to discuss our use of plastics. Nowadays, the amount of plastic, both single- and multiple-use that humans consume every day is astronomical, with about 335 million metric tons of plastic being produced by humans every year. At the rate we’re currently going, the ocean will soon hold 1 pound of plastic for every 3 pounds of fish — and the coming years are important to the way we as a species tackle this issue.
While cleanup projects and other similar initiatives are indeed helpful, reducing the amount of plastic we put in to the environment is a more pressing issue. Plastic that makes its way into our oceans quickly breaks into many smaller pieces of plastic and sinks deep into the ocean, rendering it nearly impossible to collect in clean-up operations. Instead, a more effective course of action is to take steps in your own life to reduce the amount of plasticware you consume.
Cutting down on plastic use and supporting bans on various types of single-use plastic does reduce the amount of plastic produced every year, and at the moment is the most efficient method of reducing plastic pollution.
Sincerely,
Diego Macarrulla
Bennington, Vt.
Macarrulla is a junior at Bennington College.
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