The average adult ingests about 2,000 microplastics each year through table salt, a study estimates. That’s because the same study found that microplastics were present in 90% of table salt brands sampled worldwide. It’s next to impossible to avoid adding plastic to your baked potato when you sprinkle it with salt. [1]
Plastic pollution is so prevalent that there’s nary a place on earth that is untouched by it, and the problem goes far beyond unsightly beaches and parks. A new study has found that flying insects contribute to plastic contamination by eating microplastics in polluted waters and carrying them through the air.
The first statewide refillable bottle system has come to Oregon, where 7 breweries now offer beer in returnable, refillable bottles. The program cuts down on plastic waste and lets people enjoy an ice-cold adult beverage without BPA and the other harmful chemicals that can leach out of the plastic lining of aluminum cans. [1]
Joel Schoening of the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) explained:
German sportswear giant Adidas helped keep plastic out of the mouths of fish and off the world’s beaches in 2017 by selling 1 million shoes made from ocean plastic. [1]
Last year, Adidas teamed up with environmental initiative Parley for the Oceans to create its UltraBoost shoe, made from plastic found in the ocean, and introduced 3 new versions of the footwear.
At the time, Adidas said its goal was to create a million pairs of UltraBoost shoes.
Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted said:
“We last year sold 1 million shoes made out of ocean plastic.”
Some of you will hate me for what I am about to write.
I’m quite accustomed to it.
Rodney McMullen, the CEO of Kroger, announced August 23 that the supermarket chain will phase-out plastic bags from all of its stores by 2025.
Writing for USA Today, Mullen said:
A recent UK newspaper headline read “The World’s On Fire,” which is literally true as extraordinary continent-wide wildfires consume the planet, accompanied by unbearable, insufferable, oppressive heat. Europe, North America, Japan, and North Africa are all experiencing unprecedented scorching heat.
All of which begs the question of when anthropogenic, or human-caused, global warming will be recognized as a reality by America, the second biggest contributor of greenhouse gases (GHG).
If we want to protect the ocean from plastic, we need to think strategically.
On 24 July 2018, a young woman single-handedly prevented the deportation of an Afghan asylum seeker out of Sweden by buying a ticket for his flight and refusing to sit down so that the airplane could take off. Her noble and courageous act brought tears to my eyes after the recent months’ terrible developments in the insane, obsessive, surreal European conflict over refugees and immigration.
