Every time I hear someone complain about a single tiny piece of plastic on the ground or someone uses slightly more than needed cling wrap, all I can think of is the couple of warehouses I used to work in a couple jobs ago.

Everything comes on pallets wrapped in about a dozen layers of cling wrap. 8-10ft tall pallets.

Every box gets opened, the items pulled out of a large plastic bag, each item wrapped in its own plastic bag.

Those items get put in other boxes, stacked on a different pallet, and wrapped in another dozen layers of plastic wrap.

The pallets get moved to a temporary spot for a few hours, then someone comes up and curs all the wrap off. Moves the boxes onto 4 other pallets, and each of those goes to a separate forklift driver who puts them on shelves.

When the item leaves, it’s placed in plastic bags, then a box, then goes on a pallet that gers wrapped in a dozen layers of plastic wrap. Onto the truck for shipping elsewhere.

They have a truck that comes twice a day to replace a shipping container filled with plastic.

So much plastic, every day, all day, they only close for Christmas and 4th of July.

Am I still going to use anything but plastic wherever possible? Sure. Am I still going to pick up that piece of plastic and put it in the recycling bin? Absolutely.

Companies suck and will blame you for their shitty treatment just like every abuser does.

Plastic can be recycled. Adding high quality synthetic oil into poor quality plastic can completely restore it’s potential for use. HOWEVER! The main and mind consuming problem with plastic: plants can’t grow in microplatics. Test it out, grind up plastic, put it in a bowl, and plant a seed in it, use growth hormones, use plant food, use whatever you like. The plant will sprout and die shortly after. It will never flower. Meaning once the Earths soil becomes statistically enough microplastic particles, crops won’t grow, any new plants in nature will never reach maturity. Complete decaying death of the natural world because a purified compound that is incompatible with life, has been ground up and spread all over the globe. That’s the fear of microplastics. That and the long term impact on people that get exposed to high enough concentrations that plants can’t grow… Likely dehydrate to death as the body won’t be able to absorb micro plastic laden water. You can also test that at home, but I do not recommend drinking micro plastic heavy water to see what it might be like for your grand kids.