“The future of plastics is in the trash can,” predicted Lloyd Stouffer, editor of the Modern Packaging magazine, at a conference of the Society of Plastics Industry in 1956.
A few years later, Stouffer announced that the
“The future of plastics is in the trash can,” predicted Lloyd Stouffer, editor of the Modern Packaging magazine, at a conference of the Society of Plastics Industry in 1956.
A few years later, Stouffer announced that the “happy day” had arrived: the plastics industry was “filling the trash cans, the rubbish dumps and the incinerators with literally billions of plastics bottles, plastics jugs, plastics tubes, blisters and skin packs, plastics bags and films and sheet packages.”
The system isn’t broken. It’s working exactly as it was designed. Small comfort today when plastics are forming continents in the ocean and landfills are overflowing with plastic.
For many of us, plastic most often comes into our lives when we shop for food – wrapped with plastic, on Styrofoam trays and carried home in plastic bags.
Fortunately, this habit is under scrutiny, and many places are banning or restricting such uses. But, there’s a hidden connection between food and plastics that is far more dangerous.
Before fully degrading, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, some of which are eaten by fish, birds and other animals.
Plastic is in our waterways and soil; we ingest plastic in our food and the air we breathe.
Bowen residents Harmony Shire and Aaron Davison believe we can do something about it. They are committed to raising their two children in a plastics-free home.
When asked what started them on this path, Harmony says that a documentary film opened her eyes to the food industry.
“It’s all about food,” she says, but quickly adds she was