Ban Single-Use Plastics

Whenever I'm on campus, I make sure to sort out my recycling into the proper bins. Generally, campus is quite clean and I feel good about myself for doing so. But can you believe that only 10% of our plastics are actually recycled or down cycled? I have family in the Philippines who are very poor and I've seen the amount of single-use plastics that end up in the natural environment there. Additionally, videos circulate online of how much plastic is in our oceans. I value healthy, natural ecosystems across our globe that are free of plastic pollution and I envision a world where our oceans and forests are empty of trash and plastic waste and single-use plastics are no longer created or used/in circulation. I also value educating the public on recycling myths and envision a future where people are made aware of the true numbers when it comes to recycling, and instead, are more mindful, aiming to first reduce their consumption and reuse items/materials before resorting to recycling. We need to push our government bodies to draft bills and legislations to end the production and sale of single use plastics, either by incurring a fine for companies that produce them, or providing incentives for those company to refrain from producing them altogether. I hope through these actions, we may be able to one day stop single-use plastics. I truly believe that if we had survived without them before, we could learn to survive without them now.