No. 64 of 108
August 16, 2025
1000 delegates from across the globe failed Friday in its 6th round of talks to achieve an international legally binding treaty on plastic pollution. Vowing to continue the effort, pro-treaty countries cite “uncooperative positions” from petroleum producing countries and the United States who oppose caps to new plastic production and incentives for recycled plastics. (Plastics are primarily made from fossil fuels.) President Biden began phasing out single use plastics, such as straws, used/purchased by the federal government. President Trump rescinded that order and called for discontinuation of paper straws. Plastics in landfills release methane, accounting for more than 15 percent of greenhouse gases. Experts are still debating the impact of consuming microplastics. The average person has consumed about a credit card’s worth of microplastics through food and drink. Researchers in China report boiling water before drinking removes up to 90 percent of plastic particles. When microplastics combine with PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals”, synergies create substances more toxic and durable than the original components.
To be clear, I detest paper straws. I’ve learned to drink directly from the glass or cup, a small shift in gustatory experience. Drinking directly from the glass, boiling water, bringing your reusable bottle, reusing the bag, carrying the takeout in the compostable box without the box and the bag, working with local officials and organizations and businesses on uses and management of waste, down-cycling but not hoarding those tofu and yogurt containers… doing what we can dozens of times each day is the best we can do for now. Governments will lag in all things. For now. Everyday actions by all the peoples of the world may very well be closer at hand than agreements between their governments. For now.