Happy Earth Day! As we celebrate our complex and beautiful planet and reflect on the importance of sustainability, our focus is on the production and consumption of single-use plastic. Humans purchase one million plastic bottles every minute and consume up to five trillion plastic bags every year. We use half of all plastic produced just one time and throw it away.
Most plastic items never fully disappear; they simply break down into smaller pieces. They circulate through air, land, and water, and, once small enough, they can enter fauna through inhalation and absorption and accumulate in organs. Microplastics have been found in human lungs, livers, spleens, and kidneys. A recent study detected microplastics in the placentas of newborn babies.
But, we don’t have to let plastics take over our planet and bodies. Here’s five things we can do to reduce plastic in our lives:
- Shop sustainably: Next time you are out shopping, choose food with no plastic packaging, carry a reusable bag, buy local products, and refill containers to reduce your plastic waste and effect on the environment.
- Travel sustainably: When you are on holiday, try to watch your single-use plastic intake. Refuse miniature bottles in hotel rooms, take your own reusable drinking bottle and use reef-safe sunscreen without microplastics.
- Dress sustainably: The fashion industry produces 20% of global wastewater and 10%of global carbon emissions. That’s more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. “Fast fashion” is so last year; consider sustainable clothing lines and vintage shops, and repair your clothes when possible!
- Clean a beach: The ocean sheds some of its plastic onto its coastlines, giving us a brief chance to remove it for good. If you live near a coastline, join beach clean-ups in your area. Or take your family along on a beach walk and start your own clean-up!
- Be an advocate for change: Ask your local supermarkets, restaurants, and local suppliers to ditch plastic packaging. Refuse plastic cutlery and straws and explain why. Pressure your local authorities to improve how they manage waste.
As environmental compliance, disaster resilience, and sustainability experts, Cloudburst’s work integrates climate considerations into domestic and international programming and builds oversight capacity of communities across the globe. These efforts have enforced the importance of ensuring that indigenous, vulnerable, and marginalized populations and communities are prioritized in efforts to integrate environmental sustainability into resiliency planning and disaster response and recovery.
Cloudburst is driven to achieve sustainable environmental development through a diverse portfolio of projects that promote climate mitigation and adaptation. We lead domestic and international efforts to ensure environmental compliance and foster adaptations needed to respond to climate change. We provide training on environmental regulations, help guide policymaking, and review processes to help our clients comply with environmental laws through in-depth analysis of the physical, biological, and social impacts of their interventions.
Together, through our collective environmental sustainability efforts, we can work to reduce plastics and restore the health of the planet and its people!
Resources:
To learn more about plastic impact on the planet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP-iIilHQsU
To host a cleanup: https://www.earthday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-The-Great-GLobal-Cleanup-Toolkit-.pdf
To learn more about Cloudburst’s environment and climate resiliency work: https://cloudburstgroup.com/services/environment_and_climate_resiliency/
Sources: https://www.unep.org/interactives/beat-plastic-pollution/