According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology only five percent of the United States plastic waste gets recycled, and only ten percent of the plastic ever made has been recycled. The recycling industry wants consumers to believe that waste management it the problem and recycling is the solution. Unfortunately this is not the case because recycling is not effective enough. The truth is, evidence exposes the fact that recycling plastic never really worked. The plastic and fossil fuel industries lobbyists have been working overtime for the past decades to make Americans believe that recycling is the solution to all our problems.

To actually solve the plastic pollution crisis indefinitely, America must significantly reduce the production of plastics overall. This includes banning single use plastics and making changes in the direction of a refill/refuse systems. With these new adjustments and policies, the problem would not be able to grow and start to dissipate. Making this change would be a very big deal because plastics are utilized so much through out the country. It would be hard to replace every plastic with a different material that is as cost effective and provides the same function.

More than eight hundred million plastics bags are used every minute and they have a working life of about fifteen minutes. If the government required stores to eliminate the use of plastic bags we would remove so much of the daily waste in America. Every store should function the same way Aldi does, which is very eco-friendly. If you need a bag at Aldi’s you must purchase one of their reusable bags. Enforcing this policy would be really effective at decreasing Americas daily waste amount. So the next time you are at the store and plan to purchase something plastic and use a plastic bag to take it home with you, think about how that could possible affect the Earth.