It's been awhile, but today I'm going to write about something deadly serious again.  Hopefully this post won't violate forum rules about controversy.  I don't think it will.  It's not going to touch any of the banned, taboo subjects.  I think it should be fine.  We'll see.  Fingers crossed.

This is a topic I already talked about in the Grind My Gears posts "Litter" and "Glitter", but it's so important that I felt it demanded more serious and comprehensive attention.

Regardless of your beliefs or worldview, it cannot be denied that our planet is in trouble.  The environment needs help.  We're trashing the planet, and we need to clean it up.  It shouldn't matter what side you come down on with regards to any specific debate that has become controversial, I think that everyone, from every side, can agree that there's too much trash on Earth and that we need to make less of it and clean this sh*t up.  I don't think that's a debatable or controversial statement.  If it is, there we're in a lot more trouble than I thought.

This post is primarily about our excessive production of plastic, and specifically frivolous, unnecessary plastic.  Plastic has become a huge problem.  I think most people by now have heard at least some of the frightening truths.  We all know that the ocean is absolutely filled with plastic.  I am given to understand that there's currently more plastic in the ocean than fish by weight.  Or, if we're not there yet, we will be soon.  The problem of micro plastic in the ocean is particularly horrifying.  The ocean is saturated with plastic that has broken down and dissolved into microscopic particles.  Because of this, massive amounts of marine life are consuming plastic, and therefore most of the seafood we eat contains plastic.  Cut open that salmon?  Plastic.  Look at that canned tuna under a microscope?  Plastic.  Scoop up a cupful of seawater from anywhere in the world?  Plastic.  It's everywhere.  It's estimated that most people consume the mass of a credit card worth of plastic each week.

What's most alarming of all is the fact that we're still moving in the wrong direction, fast.  Unless I've been grossly misinformed, plastic production is only increasing each year.  No matter how bad it gets, we just ramp it up more and more because every incentive is pointing the wrong way.  I read somewhere that all plastic that has ever been produced on Earth was made after 2015.  That's terrifying.  Now, I don't remember where I read that, but I remember feeling that the source was credible.  That's hardly a rock solid argument, I know, but I'm not asking you to take my word for it.  Research it for yourself.  Whether that figure is accurate or not is irrelevant; the point is that we have a serious problem, and we need to act quickly.  It seems like we've been running an experiment for many decades now to see how quickly we can transform all matter on planet Earth into plastic, and it looks to me like we're doing a pretty good job so far.  If we want to have a habitable planet, if we want future generations to have a place to live--if that's something that we actually care about--then we need to do something about this, now.

I don't even know where to begin with regards to cleaning up the existing mess, but I have a simple and easily implementable suggestion for decreasing the amount that we add to this problem.  All of us need to start radically and immediately rethinking our use, consumption, and purchase of completely unnecessary, disposable plastic.  In other words, we need to stop buying pointless plastic sh*t that just becomes trash after one use.  This is actually a very easy change, believe it or not.  I'm not asking for a drastic change of lifestyle here.  I'm suggesting that we stop our use of purely aesthetic plastic crap that is designed to be thrown in the garbage at the end of the day.  Specifically, we need to stop buying things like confetti, streamers, and balloons.  Disposable, one-time use party decorations were never a good idea, but they didn't seem too detrimental in a time where there weren't nearly so many of us on the planet, and it felt like we could never take enough from the planet, or produce enough trash, to really impact anything.  At this point in human history, disposable party decorations are completely indefensible.  Ideally, confetti, streamers, balloons and the like should be illegal.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.  Sorry, Pinkie, but this is the real world where our food is full of plastic.  Now, I'm really not suggesting anything extreme here.  I'm not suggesting that we cease all production of anything that's not absolutely essential for survival.  No, not at all.  I'm not saying that we can't have plastic toys.  I'm not saying that we can't have decorations, including plastic ones.  I'm not saying that we can't decorate for holidays or parties.  No, not at all.  I mean, perhaps that is what it would actually take to save the planet, but I also don't think it's realistically possible to get society to go along with that.  Nobody would stand for it.  Saving the environment is rather pointless if we enact measures so draconian that it causes society to blow up.  We can't force changes like that.  We can't just pass laws and then hold guns to people's heads to force them not to buy balloons.  That doesn't work.  That's not how any rules have ever worked.  To change society, you have to change the way people think, and laws don't work unless the majority of people willingly obey them because they feel the law is just.  That's why I'm trying to encourage a voluntary change in thought and behavior.

I'm not asking for us to give up everything that's fun.  I'm not prepared for that kind of change myself, either, and I don't think that we really have to go that far.  At this point, all I'm suggesting is that we stop buying things that are specifically designed to be used once, then thrown away, and which serve no purpose other than aesthetic.  I'm not asking for a ban on plastic plates, cups and utensils, either.  We should certainly try our best to limit our use of such things, but there are times when you need 'em.  I'm just asking that we stop using things like confetti, balloons, and streamers, or any other one-time use, disposable decorations.  Think about something like confetti for a moment: it's literally just garbage that makes a short detour on it's way to the trash can.  Companies produce literal garbage which we then throw around the room or whatever before sweeping it up and tossing it into the trash can.  Confetti is specifically designed to end up in the garbage by the end of the day.  That's its purpose.  This kind of product is absolutely inexcusable and unacceptable.

I encourage everyone to give a moment's thought to whatever you're buying, and only buy things that either serve a necessary purpose, or will be saved and reused.  You can still have decorations, but only buy decorations that you plan on saving and reusing.  Don't buy ones that you're going to turn into trash immediately after the event is over.  Granted it's better if the temporary decorations are paper or cardboard because those are much more recyclable, but we still shouldn't be using such things if they're only going to get one use.  Recycling isn't a magic bullet.  Putting something into a recycling bin, even the most recyclable things like paper and glass, does not at all mean that you've somehow magically canceled all resource consumption and waste production.  Perhaps one day we will have 100% efficient Star Trek matter recyclers that break down any matter into raw elements for reassembly, but at the moment, recycling still costs money, time, resources, and humanpower.  It's much better environmentally to never produce or use something in the first place than to have to recycle it.  Trash is bad, recycling is better, never making it to begin with is best.

Just to further drill the point home, you can absolutely still live the lifestyle you're accustomed to, but just don't buy plastic crap if you're not going to save it and reuse it.  As long as the item in question is going to see some reasonable amount of reuse, or if it's a somewhat permanent display piece, then I have no problem with it.  Just end your relationship with disposable party decorations.  And the kicker is that it really won't make your life any worse.  Seriously.  If you feel upset or offended at the prospect of not buying balloons and confetti for your party, I invite you to simply buy a few colorful, festive, semi-permanent decorations instead, and save and reuse them.  I think you'll quickly discover that your life and your party will be just as fun, and you won't miss the disposable crap at all.  The balloons are not where the fun comes from anyway.

There are other easy areas where we can rethink and change our habits with absolutely zero negative affect on our lives.  Gift wrapping is a big one.  Wrapping holiday presents in extravagant wrapping paper with bows and ribbons that get thrown away is also completely indefensible at this point in history.  It's also totally unnecessary for our enjoyment as well.  Instead of buying, using, and discarding all that extra crap, try wrapping presents in something that you have anyway, such as newspaper.  Save the Sunday comics all year so that your presents will still be colorful.  Does it look as perfect and beautiful and artistically crafted holiday wrapping paper?  Well, no, but isn't it good enough?  Can't the Sunday funnies be sufficient?  Isn't that worth not eating a credit card worth of plastic a week?

If you don't subscribe to a paper, or you'd rather still have something more fancy looking, then do what my family does--we bought a selection of nice, festive gift bags, and we put our Christmas presents in those each year, and when we're done, we carefully fold the bags up and put them away for use next year.  We've been using the same bags for over a decade.  If picking out new wrapping paper each year is something that you really look forward to, then I say find something else to look forward to.  Honestly, it's a really small price to pay.

Here's another tip from my family: bring your own reusable containers into restaurants for the leftovers so you don't have to ask for a disposable one.  If you really want to go the distance, bring your own metal spoon to self-serve frozen yogurt places.  Just make sure you stop them before the grab a plastic one and stick it in the yogurt.

There are easy things we can all do to slow the transformation of Earth into a plastic planet, and it doesn't require us making any real sacrifices.  You don't need the disposable decorations.  You really don't.  Please stop and think before you buy, and if the product is going to end up in the trash can by the end of the day, then skip it.