General News
30 August, 2024
We demonise it but life without plastic seems impossible
A piecemeal approach and endless wailing won't fix the waste problem.
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It probably wasn't the appropriate moment to make an unpopular confession. But when you're being held hostage in a small rubber boat by menacing icebergs threatening to crush its inflatable hull and send you to a frigid watery grave, nerves often prompt outbursts of honesty.
We were sightseeing in one of Greenland's massive fjords when one of the world's truly wild places turned on us. A thick fog suddenly reduced visibility, sending the near-zero temperature plummeting. Then, in the gloom, we heard the ice coming for us.
Within moments a fractured quilt of ice surrounded our craft. It gnawed and grinded against our boat, nudging us toward the jagged sides of icebergs, some the size of two-storey houses, others with the heft of apartment blocks. I glanced at a woman near me. She looked horrified. But it wasn't the prospect of being pulverised that was worrying her.
"My God," she said, sniffing with disdain. "Look over there."
We followed her accusatory finger. A metre away on a chunk of ice lay a plastic blue bottle cap. "How disgusting!" she uttered. "Grab the bloody thing."
The offending item was scooped up and handed over. At that moment, as she studied it scornfully while I nervously monitored another iceberg with bad intentions approaching, I blurted out my confession. "I love plastic," I announced. "Where would we be without it?"
The woman gasped. Others stared, some in pity, some incredulous. I might as well have expressed admiration for al-Qaeda's humanitarian values. Sure, my timing was a little out. These people had come to see one of the most remote and pristine places on the planet, only to encounter another reminder of humanity's wastefulness.
But is there ever an appropriate moment to have a rational discussion about plastic? That despite its ubiquitous presence and its starring role as the symbol of our polluted planet - microplastics now circulate in our blood, have devastated sea life and formed large islands of refuse in our oceans - not all plastic is bad. That it has helped save hundreds of millions of lives.
Plastic in planes and vehicles makes them lighter, requiring less fuel. Plastic cleans drinking water. Plastic in clothing keeps us cool and warm. Plastic improves construction material, reducing costs and boosting insulation savings. Plastic in medicine - from heart valves and syringes to blister packs, prosthetics and dentures - has enhanced and saved lives.
Despite the contempt in which it is held, it is impossible to imagine modern life's benefits - toothbrushes, televisions, smartphones and computer keyboards - without plastic. But that doesn't mean we should stop trying to mitigate its adverse effects.
One problem in Australia, like elsewhere, lies in the shambolic state of our recycling system. It is, literally, a mess. Not a single target set by the federal government over the past decade - including a goal to recycle or reuse 100 per cent of plastic waste by 2040 - has a chance of being met. The collapse two years ago of the REDcycle program, which saw more than 12,000 tonnes of soft plastic secretly stashed in warehouses across the country, has only worsened our capacity to recycle.
This weekend South Australia will ban single use "barrier bags" - the soft plastic bags used in supermarkets to pack fruit, vegetables, raw meat and deli items. Single-use coffee cups and plastic tags on bags of fresh bread are also out. Next year will see the phasing out of plastic fruit stickers and millions of tiny plastic soy sauce fish dispensers.
A good thing, too. But South Australia's progress only highlights the piecemeal approach we take. Why is one state moving ahead when others lag behind? Why is it so hard for our politicians to develop a single unified national strategy? Why is a European Union-style tax on plastic packaging, expected to generate more than $15 billion a year to combat the problem, not under consideration?
Instead, the government bragged this week about a miserly $15 million grant to fund the diversion of 43,000 tonnes of soft plastic from landfill, another small approach from politicians desperate for us to know they are "working with industry on tough new packaging laws that will mandate the share of recycled content".
More gibbering and empty rhetoric. It's only been 50 years, after all, since the toxic effect of plastic waste became noticeable.
Human ingenuity created plastic, profoundly altering our lives. But demonising it and wailing naively about the trashing of our planet won't alter anything. Achieving real change requires unstinting cooperation, that rarest of human qualities.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you try to minimise your use of plastic? Should Australia introduce a tax on plastic packaging? Do you have faith that the contents of your recycling bin are actually repurposed? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au.