EARTHDAY.ORG, the global organizer of Earth Day, announced the global theme for Earth Day 2024: Planet vs. Plastics.
On International Mother Earth Day, we celebrate women of color who work directly or indirectly to reduce the use of plastics on Earth.
Three amazing women who are making a difference are Lorena Skelley, Dr. Catherine Thomas, and Anela Choy.
Lorena Skelley is the director of the Division of Molding & Packaging at Abbott, where she also mentors female engineers and engineering students through a formal mentoring program with the Plastics Industry Association.
Dr. Catherine Thomas is a research biologist from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory (EL). She has expertise in evaluating plant nutrient uptake pathways and adaptive plasticity.
Anela Choy has been honored for her work at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, where she studies the impacts of plastic debris on ocean food webs and strategies to manage and conserve ocean ecosystems sustainably into the future.
It's alarming to note that last year alone, over 500 billion plastic bags were produced worldwide, which equates to one million per minute.
In the United States, one hundred billion plastic beverage containers were sold, which is more than 300 bottles per inhabitant.
Unfortunately, only a few of them will be converted into park benches, and none will be made into new plastic bottles.
Shockingly, 95% of all plastics in the US won't be recycled. Even the 5% of recycled plastics are "downcycled" to inferior products or shipped to poorer countries for "recycling," leaving the demand for virgin plastic undiminished.
Plastics are a significant environmental issue as many plastic bags have a short working life of a few minutes, followed by an afterlife of centuries.
Even after plastics disintegrate, they remain as microplastics, minute particles that permeate every life niche on the planet.
Making a plastic water bottle requires six times as much water as it contains, and yet people seldom think of water when they think of plastics.
EARTHDAY.ORG's goal is to achieve a 60% reduction in plastic production by 2040.
To achieve this goal, they aim to promote widespread public awareness of the damage done by plastic to humans, animals, and biodiversity's health.
They are also demanding more research to be conducted on its health implications, including the release of any and all information regarding its effects to the public.
EARTHDAY.ORG is pushing for rapidly phasing out all single-use plastics by 2030 and achieving this phase-out commitment in the United Nations Treaty on Plastic Pollution in 2024.
They demand policies ending the scourge of fast fashion and the vast amount of plastic it produces and uses. Additionally, they are investing in innovative technologies and materials to build a plastic-free world.
Planet vs. Plastics unites students, parents, businesses, governments, churches, unions, individuals, and NGOs in an unwavering commitment to calling for the end of plastics for the sake of human and planetary health.
Together, they demand a 60% reduction in the production of plastics by 2040 and the ultimate goal of building a plastic-free future for generations to come.
