Many residents in Minot want to see citywide recycling, but before we invest big in the facilities and equipment, perhaps we should ask — what problem is it we’re trying to solve? One answer we’d expect to hear is we need to reduce the amount of plastic entering the environment. If that’s the case, then Matt Wilkins writing at Scientific American has a different proposal for dealing with the problem — end the availability of single-use plastic products. They are used for an average of 12-minutes, they persist in the environment for half a millennia.
More Recycling Won’t Solve Plastic Pollution
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Thank you for sharing this summary and article Josh. It was an interesting and important read. As our community looks to create public policy and a future that is environmentally responsible, one of the best mantras we can remember is the Five R’s (the newest iteration of the Three R’s that many of us grew up with).
In order of greatest impact:
1) Refuse (decline the waste in the first place)
2) Reduce (find ways to minimize the waste we use)
3) Reuse (find a second, third, fourth, etc. life for plastic items before they head to recycling or landfill)
4) Rot (allowing our food waste to turn back into fertilizer via compost rather than sitting in the landfill)
5) Recycle
Thank you!!
Tim