SAVING MOTHER EARTH ONE STEP AT A TIME

PLASTIC vs THE PLANET

Hello Everyone and Welcome back to the Blog.

In honor of April, the month of renewal, and EARTH DAY which we celebrated earlier this month, today’s Blog is devoted to our beloved MOTHER EARTH and her health and wellness.

In the 1960s a movie called “The Graduate” was released. In this classic film, the main character who has just graduated from college, receives advice about choosing a career. A man approaches the recent graduate, puts a hand on his shoulder and says, “One word. Plastics.”

Why? Well, because going into the business of plastics would secure this graduate’s career forever. Why? Because plastics were considered a “wonder material.” Why? Because plastics last forever. Literally.

The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory – known as the NREL – has stated that 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters our planet’s oceans each year. This is creating huge man-made islands of garbage, the mass of which is estimated to equal the mass of fish in the ocean by the year 2050.

In fact, according to a three-year study published in Scientific Reports last month, there is an enormous pile of trash in the Pacific Ocean that experts have dubbed the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Growing faster than expected, this pile of refuse appears to be three times the size of France and more than twice the size of Texas.

Let’s add to this a few more facts:

• We have produced more plastic in the last ten years than in the last century.
• Fifty percent of our plastic is used once and then thrown away.
• Worldwide, more than one million plastic bags are used every minute.
• Ninety percent of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface is plastic, with about 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.
• One million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed each year by plastic in our oceans.
• Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth four times.

And yes, that’s the bad news. But here’s the good news.

A few years ago, researchers from NREL and Britain’s University of Portsmouth were studying a natural enzyme they found in a waste recycling center in Japan. Their intent was to simply study the structure of this enzyme, but they accidentally engineered an enzyme with the ability to “eat” plastic.

Known as Ideonella Sakaiensis 201-F6, this enzyme consumes polyethylene terephthalate or PET, a compound that was patented in the 1940s and is used today in millions of tons of plastic bottles.

This enzyme also can degrade polyethylene furandicarboxylate or PEF, which is being used as a replacement for glass beer bottles. But even though PEF plastics are bio-based, they are not biodegradable and still end up as waste in landfills and in the oceans.

The researchers are quick to point out that while the ability of this tiny enzyme to reduce plastic waste is modest, the implication of the discovery is enormous.

Just imagine how an army of plastic-eating enzymes could reduce our carbon footprint on the planet and move us closer to a viable recycling solution for the ever-growing and monumental mountain of plastic waste.

And, in the meantime, here are a few simple ways we can do our part to reduce plastic waste and help heal our planet:

• A GO-TO MUG FOR YOUR GO-TO PLACES

Bring your own mug to the coffee shop, restaurant or smoothie salon to reduce the use of plastic cups, straws and lids.

• CHOOSE TO REUSE

Cloth bags and metal or glass containers are reusable, inexpensive and locally available.

• IT’S A WRAP

Forget traditional plastic wraps and bags in the kitchen. Keep food fresh with one of the new biodegradable products made from plant material and essential oils.

• BROWN BAGGING IT

Pack that PB & J and juice in a reusable lunch bag or box replete with a thermos.

No one could have predicted 60 years ago that the use of plastic would result in millions of tons of waste choking our planet and its waters. No one knew that the “wonder material” of the 20^th Century would become the ecological nightmare of the 21^st Century.

But, now that we know, we need to do something about it.

The scientific community that created the plastic problem, of course, must now use the same knowledge and technology they used to create the problem to solve the problem.

And we as individuals, the inhabitants and caregivers of this planet, also must do everything within our power to reduce our use of plastic, limit our daily production of waste and decrease our carbon footprint.

REMEMBER, THERE IS NO PLANet B.

Together, we can change the world.  Not all at once, perhaps. But gradually — one day at a time. Step by step. Knowing that each small step matters and SMALL STEPS LEAD TO BIG CHANGES!

Thanks again for joining me everyone. Until next time, stay safe, stay in GOOD HEALTH and . . .

TAKE THE COURSE AND TAKE CHARGE!