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and recycling efforts are largely concentrated • If you don’t like the image of single-use plastic, don’t use it, but don’t
in Western countries and not in the emerg- wait for a ban to take effect. Start reasonable low-effort conservation
ing world. Specifically, the majority of plastic efforts without the government is involvement. All of us can keep
pollution in the oceans comes from ten rivers, a couple of canvas bags for trips to the store as a matter of lifestyle
mostly in Asia, as shown in Figure 4, where choice.
open trash dumping is the norm and a large • Support initiatives that separate oil companies from their petro-
capital investment in point-source sanitation chemical operations. Oil companies are in the business of selling
has yet to be made. oil, and recycling reduces raw oil consumption, particularly around
A second challenge with cutting plastic plastics. Remove the perverse barriers that present an economic
waste is that without strong government sup- hurdle for increased investment in plastic recycling.
port, the companies that produce plastic have • Shrink the length of your personal supply chain. Buying food and
little economic incentive to favor plastic recy- other consumable goods from local manufacturing shrinks the length
cling over virgin plastic production. Core plastic of the supply chain, requiring less intensive packaging practices.
manufacturing is overwhelmingly performed • Support research and development efforts in biodegradable plastics,
by large oil and refining companies, with very that is, plastics that decompose naturally over time, without sacrific-
few companies integrated from the point of ing the material properties of the plastic. Don’t confuse biodegrad-
production (the refinery) to the point of end-use. ability with being produced from cash crop plants. Fairly sizeable
Asking oil companies to increase their level of initiatives from the corn and soy industries to find yet even more
waste plastic aggregation and recycling comes outlets for corn and soy components are already underway and are
at the cost of cannibalizing their core business, well funded. Try out their version of plastic, see how it compares to
namely the conversion of raw crude oil into the real thing and make your choice based on material performance.
plastic products. Due to a variety of complex • Last but not least, keep an open mind and consider all of the ben-
social and political reasons, not the least of eficial properties of our plastic-saturated society before we vilify
which is the lobbying-industrial complex, the a construction material that is doing exactly what it’s designed to
current solution of reducing plastic usage is to do.
cut end-use demand by taxing consumers versus
the more efficient and point-targeted solutions of James Kirkpatrick is a mechanical engineer and energy analyst serving
improving municipal waste collection, recycling as president of JKF Associates.
and incentivizing well-capitalized companies
to invest in industrial-scale recycling efforts.
This leaves us with a profound problem
if we are concerned about plastic pollution
globally but realize that local initiatives to ban
single-use plastic won’t do much to get rid of Figure 4: Top ten polluting rivers
those ocean plastic patches. Here’s what we
can do:

• Don’t fall for the bait: differentiate between
local self-serving political plastic initia-
tives that do very little to reduce pollution
and larger initiatives that address waste at
the source.
• Support recycling in all its forms, particu-
larly financial incentives that apply the tax
at the point of production versus the point
of consumption.
• Support investment in point-source sanita-
tion in the developing world. Prevent the
plastic from being dumped in rivers in the
first place by subsidizing modern world-
scale recycling initiatives.

FALL 2020 Wise Traditions 51