Plastic Pollution: Its Consequences for Rivers and Oceans, Part 3 of 3

On today’s program, we’ll look at some of the solutions emerging all around the globe. According to a 2019 study published in the journal Science Progress, as many as 90% of all plastic items are used only once and then discarded. Plastic bags are among the biggest sources of pollution, with as many as five trillion being consumed globally each year. When disposed of improperly, the bags clog waterways, pollute oceans, and choke marine life. Many nations have decided that this must stop. As of 2020, more than 90 countries have banned the use of single-use plastic bags, and an additional 36 nations minimize the problem by applying fees for their use. Sadhguru, an internationally renowned spiritual teacher and founder of the Isha Foundation, calls for global action both by individual citizens and governments. “I am talking about one simple solution. This is not a total solution. This is a simple correction step. That is, single use plastic must be banned in all the countries.” Currently, plastic is made primarily from petroleum. But scientists around the world are searching diligently for alternative, more eco-friendly materials from which to make it. For example, polyhydroxyalkanoate, or PHA, is a biodegradable material derived from plant-based sources. Mr. Dane Anderson and his twin brother Mr. Jeff Anderson have co-founded Full Cycle Bioplastics, a company that produces plastic from this more sustainable alternative. “Full Cycle Bioplastics is the company that we founded that has the technology that can turn any organic waste into a compostable and marine degradable bioplastic.” In Chile, an award-winning company called Solubag whose founders are Shining World Invention Award recipients, produces another type of eco-friendly non-plastic bag. The biodegradable Solubag material was created in 2014 from a new raw material made through a synthesis of calcium carbide and natural gas. The company’s environmentally friendly bags completely dissolve in water within five minutes and are being used in major shopping centers in Chile. Supreme Master Ching Hai frequently reminds us about the detrimental impact of plastic pollution on our environment, saying that each of us has a personal responsibility to reduce our use, especially of plastic water and drink bottles. “Plastic bottles have been the cause of suffering for much marine lives because they will float everywhere, in the river, in the lake. And then they flow also to the ocean, everywhere. And they’re not digested with time, even. And sometimes fish, or other marine life, they swallow them and it causes them a lot of pain and sickness. And sometime birds also get caught in them, or eat them and they get sick also. Please take care of the environment so that we can live in a beautiful place. Not just for the animals; it’s also for us.”