Much of what you’ve heard about plastic pollution may be wrong. Instead of a great island of trash, the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of manmade debris spread over hundreds of miles of sea—more like a soup than a floating garbage dump. Recycling is more complicated than we were taught: less than nine percent of the plastic we create is reused, and the majority ends up in the ocean. And plastic pollution isn’t confined to the open ocean: it’s in much of the air we breathe and the food we eat.
In Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis, journalist Erica Cirino brings readers on a globe-hopping journey to meet the scientists and activists telling the real story of the plastic crisis. From the deck of a plastic-hunting sailboat with a disabled engine, to the labs doing cutting-edge research on microplastics and the chemicals we ingest, Cirino paints a full picture of how plastic pollution is threatening wildlife and human health. Thicker Than Water reveals that the plastic crisis is also a tale of environmental injustice, as poorer nations take in a larger share of the world’s trash, and manufacturing chemicals threaten predominantly Black and low-income communities.
There is some hope on the horizon, with new laws banning single-use items and technological innovations to replace plastic in our lives. But Cirino shows that we can only fix the problem if we face its full scope and begin to repair our throwaway culture. Thicker Than Water is an eloquent call to reexamine the systems churning out waves of plastic waste.
A practical guide to help business leaders identify circular opportunities and design business models that create, deliver and capture value. Focused on the circular economy, this guide provides steps and templates for businesses to navigate opportunities to minimize waste and maximize value. Created by PA Consulting in conjunction with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and University of Exeter.
Millions of people around the world have taken action to stop plastic pollution, and momentum is building! Soon, world leaders will gather to start negotiating a global plastics treaty—and we need to make sure it will be strong.
When representatives gather in Nairobi in late February for the Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5.2), the decisions they make will set the stage for how a new global plastics treaty will develop going forward. This is a critical moment to tell world leaders to support the Peru-Rwanda resolution. This resolution is the best foundation we have for a global plastics treaty that will cover the whole life cycle of plastics.
Add your name to tell world leaders to support a legally binding global treaty on plastic pollution that addresses the entire life cycle of plastics, including extraction, production, transport, use, disposal and remediation.
Sign now, and share this urgent call to action with your friends!
Break Free From Plastic is calling on the top polluters highlighted in the Global Brand Audit Report 2019 report to lead the way in revealing how much single-use plastic they use, setting clear, public, measurable targets on how they will reduce the quantity of single-use plastic items they produce, and finally to completely reinvent their product delivery systems in order to avoid creating more plastic pollution.
Break Free From Plastic is calling on the top polluters highlighted in the Global Brand Audit Report 2018 to lead the way in revealing how much single-use plastic they use, setting clear, public, measurable targets on how they will reduce the quantity of single-use plastic items they produce, and finally to completely reinvent their product delivery systems in order to avoid creating more plastic pollution.
