Opinion: It’s high time to put a lid on plastics
Plastic waste is the legacy we are leaving our children. It is everywhere: In remote alpine lakes, in deep sea trenches, and even inside us. Studies show we consume up to a credit-card worth of plastic every week. The latest stunning research has found microplastics in every single sample of freshly fallen Antarctic snow. Meanwhile, the production of plastics is warming the planet. In 2019, the Center for International Environmental Law estimated the production and end-of-life management of plastics globally contributes the equivalent of 850 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.
-Written by Betty Yee, controller of California and a member of the California Ocean Protection Council.