Plastic doesn't go away

We found this margarine container on our February 2020 clean up. It says best before 02 Jan 1988 on it. Plastics don't biodegrade like organic matter, which means they can't be converted by living organisms into useful compounds for life. Instead, they photodegrade, a process by which photons from the sun's rays pulverize the plastic polymers until they are broken into individual molecules. This is why there are huge masses of plastic floating around our oceans and lakes, clogging our landfills and even leaching toxins into our water table.
Grocery bags, plastic food wrap, sandwich bags, ziplock bags and produce bags are more troubling because they are typically used once - maybe twice - and then discarded, where - as previously established - they will wind up in a landfill or somewhere out in the wilderness where they will never biodegrade.
And this begs the question that we - the consumers - must face. Is the ease of use of plastics like grocery bags, styrofoam containers or disposable forks really worth the cost? Now you know that those single use plastics cannot decompose, what are you going to do about it?
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #beachcleanup
#plastic #saynotoplastic #plasticpollutes