US Must Reduce & Refuse Plastic Waste: Major Challenge Despite Interest Groups - Essay Sample

Introduction

The excessive consumption and production of plastic have serious consequences in human health and the environment at large. This prompts a need for waste reduction and refusal in the United States (EnvironmentalPollutionCenters.org, 2019). These processes involve cutting down on the amount of plastic waste and its associated toxicity before it is generated. However, the reduction and refusal processes have still become a major challenge in the United States. Therefore, which interest groups are involved in plastic waste reduction and refusal processes and which groups are dominant in shaping the currently existing status?

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Interest Groups Involved

Since plastics have become a part of our daily lives, reducing and refusing their use requires actions from all the stakeholders to establish a more sustainable life with minimal to no use of plastics. The interest groups involved in this process include the individual consumers, industries, and the government (Jia et al., 2019). Individual consumers have to reduce their consumption and minimize their plastic waste. The industries have to take on the responsibilities of producers and design plastic products that have minimal negative environmental impacts in the course of their lifecycles. The government has to raise public awareness and concerns on plastic waste, restrict its toxicity, and the use of plastics (Showstack, 2020). It can also establish a plastic waste management system for recycling the already existing plastic waste.

Dominant Groups in Shaping the Current Status

The current status of plastic waste is marked by an increase in the amount of plastic wastes in the United States. According to EPA.gov (2020), plastics are a rapidly growing segment of the municipal solid waste (MSW). This status is still attributed to the individual consumers, the industries, and the government at large. This is a problem because little has been done by the groups to control the use of plastics increasing plastic waste. According to Dell (2019), six times more plastic waste is burned in the U.S. than it is recycled. However, there are currently no federal laws that are restricting single-use plastics in the U.S. despite most experts agreeing that banning single-use plastic products would be a more useful strategy to reduce plastic use and pollution, compared to recycling (Cirino, 2019). The individual consumers are increasingly using plastic products with a global annual increase of 4% from 2009 to 2017 (Jia et al., 2019). This is shown by the increase in the amount of plastics in the Municipal Solid Waste in the U.S. from 2010 to 2017 (EPA.gov, 2020). The industries and manufacturers are also increasingly using plastics in durable products such as furniture, appliances, and lead-acid battery casings among other products (Prata et al., 2019). They rarely explore the potential of eco-design to reduce plastic waste.

Conclusion

To conclude, the U.S. is experiencing a problem in reducing and refusing plastic waste over the years. However, the interest groups and dominant groups that would ensure success in reducing and refusing plastic waste include the government, the industries, and individual consumers. The groups have to work together to achieve the plastic waste mitigation goals.

References

Cirino, E. (2019). What laws work best to cut plastic pollution? TheRevelator.org. https://therevelator.org/plastic-pollution-laws/Dell, J. (2019). Six times more plastic waste is burned in the U.S. than is recycled. Plasticpollutioncoalition.org. https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2019/4/29/six-times-more-plastic-waste-is-burned-in-us-than-is-recycled

EnvironmentalPollutionCenters.org (2019, January 02). The status of plastic waste in the United States. EnvironmentalPollutioncenters.org. https://www.environmentalpollutioncenters.org/news/the-status-of-plastic-waste-in-the-united-states/

EPA.gov (2020, May 12). Facts and figures about materials, waste, and recycling. EPA.gov. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data

EPA.gov (2020, May 12). National overview: Facts and figures on materials, wastes, and recycling. EPA.gov. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials

Jia, L. et al. (2019). Motivating actions to mitigate plastic pollution. Nature Communications. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12666-9

Prata, J. et al. (2019). Solutions and integrated strategies for the control and mitigation of plastic and microplastic pollution. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6651478/

Showstack, R. (2020). Bill calls for dramatically cutting plastic pollution. Eos.org. https://eos.org/articles/bill-calls-for-dramatically-cutting-plastic-pollution