Our star-spangled country is siding with the bad guys way too often when it comes to environmental matters (and others, which I won't get into here).
I want to be proud of the USA, but we're not carrying our own weight when it comes to environmental stewardship. This goes beyond carbon emissions, as you may know. We've been sending our garbage and recycling overseas (burning massive amounts of fossil fuel in the process). As if we haven't already done enough damage in countries like Vietnam, we're sending our waste plastic to them, adding to their own plastic pollution issues.
The Guardian is conducting an ongoing investigation into the USA's recycling problem.
It's not an easy problem to solve, but we can start pushing in the right direction.
♻ Use less plastic. Re-use/repurpose plastic items as much as possible.
♻ Tell your local, state, and federal government representatives that you want new laws with a moral underpinning to stop shipping our garbage and recycling overseas.
♻ Tell those same representatives that you are willing to have your tax dollars put to work to subsidize sensible recycling programs in the USA.
♻ Clean and sort your plastic recycling. This will ultimately add to its value, as dirty or improperly-sorted items diminish or destroy large batches of recycled material.
Thank you for helping...every time you recycle, and every time you make a purchase decision that is influenced by the product's packaging.