Traditional plastics require hydrogen and carbon ‘hydrocarbons’ and today the most common way of accessing hydrocarbons is to extract them from oil. But hydrocarbons can be made from other biodegradable and recycled materials like starch, cellulose, sugars, lactic acid, organic waste, vegetable oils, micro-organisms and more we have not even discovered yet.
First, we individuals need to avoid and dramatically reduce one-use plastics, and then we must demand that only biodegradable and recycled plastics are legal for other applications. The below info-graphic offers some more on the reasons why. Also see Straws, Bottle caps. Polyester. These are the new targets of California’s environmental movement:
“There could be more plastic by weight than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050, according to a widely cited World Economic Forum report. A recent UC Davis study sampled seafood sold at local markets in Half Moon Bay and found that one-quarter of fish and one-third of shellfish contained plastic debris.
A survey comparing 150 tap-water samples from five continents found synthetic microfibers in almost every sample — 94% in the United States. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is at 1.8 trillion pieces of trash, most of it plastic, and counting. The European Commission on Monday proposed new across-the-board rules, including a ban on single-use plastic products “where alternatives are readily available and affordable.
The call to break the world’s disposable-plastic habit is resonating, especially in California. More than half a dozen bills aimed at plastic 
pollution were introduced in Sacramento this year alone — by both coastal legislators and more moderate inland colleagues who see the potential damage not just in oceans but also rivers, lakes and the state’s water supply. No one, they said, wants to drink a glass of water and wonder if they’re also downing a glass of plastic.”
Obviously this is not just happening to California’s beaches and water system, this pollution is global. No one can escape its harmful effects on planet earth. Time to get smarter.
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