Environmental Study Group: We must kick our single-use plastic addiction

Next month, we will be celebrating the 49th anniversary of the first National Earth Day, founded by U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin back in 1970. The event was organized to protect life on the planet as well as to heighten awareness of the growing pollution problems. We’ve made a lot of progress since then, but one growing problem is the convenience of single-use plastic. We’ve become a society that uses plastic items once, then pitches them.

The majority of these plastics are not biodegradable. The ones that claim to be biodegradable require high temperatures for long periods of time — conditions that might occur in a municipal composter but not in nature or in the ocean. Unfortunately, the production of new plastic material is increasing, not decreasing...

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Ken Notes: I wish we had a solution here, I have seen the mess in our waterways and oceans and we do need to address this issue. I like the list of solutions in the article but think only a select few will adopt many or most of them. We use reusable bags and water bottles but getting most product from store to home involves some type of disposable plastic container. Milk, meat, vegetables, fruit, and cereal -- and that just the basic food groups.