Don’t get carried away by slogans or promises without foundation, sticking to reality to make things better

If you open the internet and type “Plastic Free” you will find a river full of sites, social, blogs, companies, institutions that have only one watchword: delete the plastic from the face of the earth. But as in all armies that comply with orders, they are not respected, they are not discussed, even if they are given as “watchwords”, it is not permissible to have opinions.

This in a fictionalized and somewhat grotesque way is what is happening in the globalized world where the management of power is no longer, apparently, in the hands of institutions, politics or money, in the classic terms to which we were accustomed until recently, but command the masses who have the power to influence the market and, with it , our lives.

But behind every mass, however, there are always the usual engines of lobbies,money and politics with a new outfit. We live in the age of absolute freedom but if we stop to think about the human condition we notice that a part of people feel alone and insecure for which they find in the associationism, real or virtual, the way to belong and share themes and movements of which they know little and of which they wonder even less, but feel part of something.

“Plastic Free”or “Zero Plastic” are movements that have grown from people’s fears, which it identifies in plastic lost at sea or in nature, the number one enemy to fight.

These movements have been taken up and used by some companies that through marketing campaigns have found new future customers or at least in an attempt to avoid enemy consumers, by some media that propose campaigns to release plastics from the seas without fulfilling their main task which is that of impartial information, from institutions, large and small, that stand up on the politics and votes of the people and Therefore, for the same reason as companies, the population cannot be enmityd.

But in a free way it is permissible for everyone to have their own opinion and to be able to follow the currents of thought he believes in and the movements in which he believes. The fundamental point is that every person should make rational and thoughtful choices because today the masses move quickly, growing fast and knowing that every shift will have a consequence, even if the individual does not think about it.

A lot of people want to give up plastic because they think it pollutes, it’s a demon and without it, they think, they’ll have a better world. I would say that you can accept this theory, maybe not share it, because no one is married to plastic, but then?

What are the short-term alternatives? What ecological materials do we replace it with? Plastic is not only made of bottles or purge of detergent or plastic bags that we see in documentaries scattered at sea, we use it in the hospital to save our lives, on every means of transport we take, even the most environmentally friendly ones, in our homes, six of our computers or mobile phones or printers or televisions, in the industry that produces the most varied goods that we buy every day even if we are promoters of the “Plastic Free” , in the means of payment, in clothes, in shoes.

Maybe we’ll first list what we don’t produce with plastic. So let’s imagine that we can suddenly delete all these products and replace them with greener products following the motto of “Plastic Free or Zero Plastic”.

Where are the green products that can take this step today? It’s one thing to shout no to plastic, one thing, right after that, is to find a solution to continue living in a real way.

It takes time, technical expertise and political will to bring about such a radical change, even if only partially, reminding us that plastic is a material with technical and economic skills that are difficult to replace with the scientific knowledge available to us today.

But from a technical point of view we have all the knowledge and information to solve the problem of pollution that man, not the plastic itself, has created in the environment.

We want to talk, just to give an example among the many that we could cite, of proposals to replace drinking straws or combs or toothbrushes with bamboo? Laudable idea, but although from a marketing point of view can be appreciated, have we considered that an important demand for raw material for the production of these items involves the start of new crops and therefore the search for free land on which to grow plants?

Are there fertile land currently free or do we have to burn the forest as usual to make room for new crops that will require water and perhaps fertilizers, herbicides and chemical insecticides to support the business?

Recycled plastics are a key resource for our societies, so it’s worth listing some of the rewarding aspects of this important feature:

– Plastic recycling reduces the use of virgin polymers,derived from oil, every time a product is produced. 1 kg. regenerated plastic is used countless times, reducing dependence on oil.

– Plastic recycling creates jobs, especially in those countries where the industrial fabric is scarce, giving people an additional opportunity for local employment.

– Plastic recycling saves the environment from what the media shows us every day, the pollution created by finished products thrown away rather than reused.

– Plastic can be fuel that is used to create electricity and liquid fuels by reducing dependence on oil and other highly polluting fossil sources such as coal.

– If we were to raise recycled plastic every year in the world, there would be a virtuous economic circle and a substantial reduction in pollution at all levels.

In order to make a breakthrough that can, in a short time, solve the environmental problem, we have to tie together various sectors that cover the pieces that make up the circular economy: production, harvesting, recycling and reuse.

Production must create products that are more recyclable than we are now on the market and not just worry about including variable percentages of recycled plastics into their productions. Companies must be involved in the social project so that they minimise the production of items that cannot be recycled at the end of life.

The collection involves government institutions that must impose a clear and simple system for citizens to divide plastic waste at the end of life, giving users non-contradictory information on how to select waste. The citizen must be aware of the social task he has been entrusted to properly fulfilling this task, even and above all for himself.

Governments need to increase investment in waste recycling,helping the market to find a balance, including economic, that allows recycling companies to have a fair return on work and investment and social recognition of the sector in which they operate.

The adoption of post-harvest plastic waste sales systems, which sees recyclers squeezed by commodity prices born as a result of auctions,are a means of curbing market development at the expense of the community.

In addition, scientific research should be more supported by governments,in order to give it a technical support function on projects for the use of non-recyclable plastics as fuels in place of fossil fuels.

The reuse of plastic waste through the recycling process allows to recreate value to the product market without drawing on the natural sources of the earth by closing the virtuous circle of the circular economy.

But all this, without a general culture on the wider plastics world, is a really difficult task. A problem never starts from its end but from its beginning, so we must not demonize the plastic because it is in the seas but understand why man throws it into the environment and then we find it in the sea.

If by magic no one was dispersing waste into the environment but understood that these are low-cost resources, evenly distributed in the world, with which you can live both economically and environmentally, do you think there would still be plastic in the seas? Stupid apart of course.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.