Thanet is gifted with a wonderful coastline and prime agriculture land, but do we really value it? Do governments throughout the world care as they continue to resist legislation to stop the production of single use plastics? The United Nations says that the world society ‘only recycled about 10% of the 7 billion tons of plastic we have created since its invention and things are likely to only get worse’. Simon Reeves’ Plastic in the Mediterranean shows the implications of this statement -
www.facebook.com/bbctwo/videos/plastic-in-the-med-mediterranean-with-simon-reeve/2076011195795863.
Society claims to be concerned about future generations, yet it is willing to sacrifice this for supposed convenient packaging that has damaging consequences for soils, seas, food systems, biodiversity and yes, our health. We are quick to fly the flag for the NHS and rightly so, but do we not have the responsibility to prevent illness in the first place?
This is another example of lack of full systems thinking. Nature does not produce waste like we do. It has effective recycling systems keyed into its very functioning. The diversity of the planet is being diminished and single use plastics are playing a massive part in this decline. If we are to live on a healthy diverse planet, we have to reverse this. Diversity is now diminishing, and this is why the new geological age is here - the Anthropocene, the seventh mass extinction caused by us, humans.
We need governments to completely ban single use plastics and enable local authorities to have the financial resources to set up commercial composting facilities which would adequately compost truly biodegradable compostable packaging. The government need to enable the creation of networks from product manufacture to product sale to consumer waste and then commercial composting: a merry-go-round of efficient use, a cyclical system. As a bonus, these systems could produce energy for homes and council facilities etc. Our current systems of production to waste are inadequate to create these cyclical approaches.
Young, inspirational people like Ella and Amy Meek @kidsagainstplastic, Myra Rose Craig, Vanessa Nakate, Daniel Koto Dagnon @DanielKotoDAGNON, Greta Thunberg, Nyombi Morris, Lesein Mutunkei, Luisa Neubauer, Autumn Peltier and Malala Yousafzai are leading thinkers who see the harm our present economic systems are causing. Don’t young people, wild animals and the very biodiverse habitats we share the world with, that supply us with water, food and air, deserve better? It is in all our interest to address this issue, not keep kicking the can down the road.
If we just look at the situation from a monetary perspective, it will cost more if we do not act; money will not protect what is being lost and will be lost. We need to act now.