Popular Science
We’ve Wasted More Plastic Than You Can Imagine
We’ve wasted so much plastic, it’s almost impossible to picture. In 2018, the Royal Statistical Society decided its International Statistic of the Year was 90.5: the percent of all plastic waste that’s never been recycled. The sheer scale of that number is hard to fathom, so we put together some examples to show you just…
Ryan Perry
May 2, 2019 at 7:09 pm
That is too much plastic!!
luke sumberg
May 2, 2019 at 7:15 pm
Ever since I watched “Earth” by lil Dicky I’ve stopped using plastic water bottles.
BuddyL
May 2, 2019 at 8:24 pm
♻️ ?
A3Kr0n
May 2, 2019 at 11:51 pm
If everybody reduced their plastic waste by 50%, which will never happen, but if we did we’d be right back in the same situation in 40-60 years when our population doubles. You can’t beat exponential growth.
Dennis Johnson
May 3, 2019 at 8:27 am
Population isn’t going to double in 50 years.
Laszlo Makrai
May 4, 2019 at 10:40 pm
+Dennis Johnson no, it will not, It will do it in 25-30 years. 119 years ago (1900) the population was 1.6B people. 49 years ago (1970) there were 3.7B people. 2018 population is 7.53B So it less then 50 years we doubled since the 1900. Now it will take a lot less as more doubles easier then less. Add the fact that between 1900 and 1970 were 2 world wars, several major illnesses that are no longer pose a threat. It does not take more then 25-30 years to reach the 15B. Then it will be an another 20 year to double that so we will have close to 30B people on a planet within 50 years. That is 4 times more then today. According to most research, the earths sustainability is around 33-36B people. Any more and the natural resources and landmass, air, water supply will not be enough. Rosy future we have, isn’t it ?
Laszlo Makrai
May 4, 2019 at 10:40 pm
@Dennis Johnson no, it will not, It will do it in 25-30 years. 119 years ago (1900) the population was 1.6B people. 49 years ago (1970) there were 3.7B people. 2018 population is 7.53B So it less then 50 years we doubled since the 1900. Now it will take a lot less as more doubles easier then less. Add the fact that between 1900 and 1970 were 2 world wars, several major illnesses that are no longer pose a threat. It does not take more then 25-30 years to reach the 15B. Then it will be an another 20 year to double that so we will have close to 30B people on a planet within 50 years. That is 4 times more then today. According to most research, the earths sustainability is around 33-36B people. Any more and the natural resources and landmass, air, water supply will not be enough. Rosy future we have, isn’t it ?
Dennis Johnson
May 8, 2019 at 11:06 am
+Laszlo Makrai Well world pop won’t even grow close to that because if you look at the trends people have less children as they become better off financially and are uplifted from poverty. Population growth rate is a major problem in Africa these days because of the unrest and poverty. Japan’s population is actually shrinking which shows that exactly.
Dennis Johnson
May 8, 2019 at 11:06 am
@Laszlo Makrai Well world pop won’t even grow close to that because if you look at the trends people have less children as they become better off financially and are uplifted from poverty. Population growth rate is a major problem in Africa these days because of the unrest and poverty. Japan’s population is actually shrinking which shows that exactly.
Laszlo Makrai
May 8, 2019 at 1:41 pm
+Dennis Johnson You forget South America, Asia which are growing rapidly. India nearly at China level. Many of these countries are adding so many people, it does not matter if a small country like Japan slightly shrinking. Most original EU population percentage is shrinking in fact. The overall population however rapidly grows. Just look around you, I’m sure lot of housing projects popping up and people are moving into the area. It might be a demographic change as well, people moving into the cities from small towns and farms, but I have no doubt the overall population is rapidly growing. No wars, no major illnesses, no natural selection. Millions died in 2 ww and also millions died in major illnesses which we protect ourselves from with vaccines. Hopefully no WW again, we really do not want that. The 1 child or 2 child per family policy is shrinking the population, as min. 3 kids will make the population grow. Around 2.3-2.6 kids survives from 3 child birth in the developed countries. Many countries like Russia has been advocating to make people have more kids. 3 kids per family would provide a marginal but steady growth of families.
Laszlo Makrai
May 8, 2019 at 1:41 pm
@Dennis Johnson You forget South America, Asia which are growing rapidly. India nearly at China level. Many of these countries are adding so many people, it does not matter if a small country like Japan slightly shrinking. Most original EU population percentage is shrinking in fact. The overall population however rapidly grows. Just look around you, I’m sure lot of housing projects popping up and people are moving into the area. It might be a demographic change as well, people moving into the cities from small towns and farms, but I have no doubt the overall population is rapidly growing. No wars, no major illnesses, no natural selection. Millions died in 2 ww and also millions died in major illnesses which we protect ourselves from with vaccines. Hopefully no WW again, we really do not want that. The 1 child or 2 child per family policy is shrinking the population, as min. 3 kids will make the population grow. Around 2.3-2.6 kids survives from 3 child birth in the developed countries. Many countries like Russia has been advocating to make people have more kids. 3 kids per family would provide a marginal but steady growth of families.
Laszlo Makrai
May 4, 2019 at 10:42 pm
The solution is not to make any more non-biodegradable plastic. Like right now stop making it. Plastic itself isn’t bad. Many goes away, simple rots like paper, wood, etc. Try and leave a plastic toy outside under the sun and it 5 years it will turn into powder. (my kids toys are all gone) We can make good plastic, we can make a lot of things from hemp which is a cheap natural stuff. The answer is in front of us, but greediness is in the way.
jeremyjw
May 11, 2019 at 3:45 pm
two truths:
1) human over population is the cause of every environmental problem
2) you can’t have a clean environment and a strong economy