Nearly every piece of plastic that was created still exists today.
As many of us know, the environmental degradation caused by plastic production, consumption and disposal cases irreversible damage to the environment. As shown below, plastic is a major player in global waste. Not only is it produced in massive amounts annually, but it is notoriously difficult to dispose of as.
As consumers, we are sometimes unaware of how far reaching the effect of plastic production and consumption can be.
What can we do about it?
The common Narrative
"We need to stop creating so much plastic as a world, until then we can't really do anything."
I challenge this idea. While local and global leaders must continue to regulate how much plastic is available for commercial use, the question must be asked:
What can we individually do to reduce our impact of the environmental degradation caused by plastic?
Once again we can turn to innovations in upcycling as an alternative. Innovative entrepreneurs at Precious Plastic are inspiring individual households to begin to breakdown their own plastic.
The Plastic Shredder Prototype
By taking what we would normally recycle, we can begin to immediately recirculate plastic use by upcycling shredded plastic!
New technologies such as Ultimaker 3D Printing use plastic in 3D printing. As these new technologies progress, they are becoming increasingly cheaper.
Through these printers, we at home can create amazing works of art and useful tools out of plastics that would otherwise circulate back into the natural environment.
Just a few things artists have created using plastic 3D printing
As you can see it is a myth to think that we as individuals are not capable of shaping the future and preventing future environmental degradation.
Projects, such as ProtoPrint are coordinating wide scale plastic clean up projects aimed at recirculating the use of plastic back into production.
Get involved and seek out resources for 3D printing and plastic shredding to help create high quality pieces, while prevent further global environmental degradation ...
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