Earth Day seeks to highlight and promote efforts dedicated to the protection of the environment. As we enter the 21st century, we face many environmental crises including global warming, deforestation, endangered wildlife, shortages of potable water, and widespread pollution. These crises negatively affect our planet’s resources, and they pose serious risk to our long-term lifestyles and health.
The following is cited from EarthDay.org:
Planet vs. Plastics unites students, parents, businesses, governments, churches, unions, individuals, and NGOs in an unwavering commitment to call for the end of plastics for the sake of human and planetary health, demanding a 60% reduction in the production of plastics by 2040 and an ultimate goal of building a plastic-free future for generations to come.
Plastics extend beyond an imminent environmental issue; they present a grave threat to human health as alarming as climate change. As plastics break down into microplastics, they release toxic chemicals into our food and water sources and circulate through the air we breathe. Plastic production now has grown to more than 380 million tons per year. More plastic has been produced in the last ten years than in the entire 20th century, and the industry plans to grow explosively for the indefinite future.
More than 500 billion plastic bags—one million bags per minute—were produced worldwide last year. Many plastic bags have a working life of a few minutes, followed by an afterlife of centuries. Even after plastics disintegrate, they remain as microplastics, minute particles permeating every niche of life on the planet.
100 billion plastic beverage containers were sold last year in the United States. That’s more than 300 bottles per inhabitant. A few of them will be converted into park benches; none of them will be made into new plastic bottles and 95% of all plastics in the US won’t be recycled at all. Even the 5% of plastics being recycled are “downcycling” to inferior products or shipped to poorer countries for “recycling”, leaving the demand for virgin plastic undiminished.
People seldom think of water when they think of plastics. But making a plastic water bottle requires six times as much water as the bottle itself contains. Wow!
The fast fashion industry annually produces over 100 billion garments. Overproduction and overconsumption have transformed the industry, leading to the disposability of fashion. People now buy 60% more clothing than 15 years ago, but each item is kept for only half as long.
So, what can you do?
- Sign petitions: The Fashion Industry Must Change and End Plastics
- Sustainably shop for clothes: Buy fewer clothes, donate your clothing, sell unwanted clothing, shop sustainable brands, buy organic clothing, and buy clothing made with natural fabric fibers instead of synthetic fabrics. Natural alternatives to synthetic fabrics include cotton, linen, bamboo, flax, jute, silk, wool, and alpaca. Also look into low impact materials such as Modal and Lyocell. Avoid polyester, nylon, spandex and acrylic. These materials are made from petroleum, a high-emission fossil fuel.
- Care for your clothing: Wash clothing only when necessary, observe care labels, use earth-friendly detergents, avoid ironing, line dry outdoors, and thing twice about dry cleaning. raditional dry cleaning means soaking clothes in a petroleum-based solvent called Perchloroethylene (“PERC”) highly toxic to human health and to the environment. If it’s necessary to dry-clean your clothing, chose a dry cleaner that uses environmentally-friendly cleaning solutions. Bring your own reusable bag and return your hangers to further reduce your impact.
Native American Proverb
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.