Solutions to Plastic-Use Reduction and their Issues Education Essay

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Solutions to Plastic-Use Reduction and their Issues
The world continues to have climate change as pollution in all areas spread. Pollutions in air, water, and landmass contribute to the alarming changes in natural occurrences like natural calamities and disasters (Bytnerowicz, Omasa, and Paoletti). One of the pollution issues in the world is the single-use of plastic that pollutes the bodies of water everywhere in the world (Parker). The danger of this pollution is that it puts see creatures at risk by mistaking the garbages for food. On the other hand, irresponsible disposal of plastics pollutes land areas because these plastics may take years before decomposition (Parker). Plastics may prevent plants and trees from acquiring nutrients from the soil and water. That is why movements and solutions to plastic pollution continue to grow in every part of the world. People engage in creating innovative ways to avoid using plastics. However, rather than solving the problem, the initiatives seem to be creating another problem.
Initiatives on reduction on plastic consumption have become a trend these days. They are attempts to cut on the usage of plastic materials that will, later on, be dumped after a single-use. One of the initiatives in the business industry is that they allow customers to bring their containers when purchasing their products. The products are in huge containers instead of packagings and customers can fill their containers in the amount they desire. They will pay for it depending on the weight of the product. Another way to cut plastic or styrofoam use in packaging is that they use paper packaging, glass bottles, or leaves as wrappers. Some stores would pack their products this way so that there is less consumption of plastics (Brinkley).
These initiatives are, honestly, wise, and ecofriendly if we look at their primary intentions. They do cut on the usage of plastics and give people an alternative to plastic wrappers. However, these solutions for the reduction of plastic waste have raised another rather classist issue: putting the weight of plastic pollution on the less fortunate (Sarmiento). As much as we want to look at the brighter side of these solutions and initiatives, they are not inclusive of all economic statuses and, in fact, not that eco-friendly.
First, on the classist issue, only those who can afford the bottle-sized amount of products are excused by these initiatives from consuming plastics. These consumers would usually start from the upper-middle class whose salaries can afford buying products good for a couple of consumptions. However, for the lower-middle to lower class, goods are bought in much fewer times of consumption. To further explain, an upper-middle-class family can buy a couple of 1-liter bottles to buy a shampoo that could last them for a month. A lower-middle-class family may only afford a few bottles that could last for 1 to 2 weeks. On the other hand, a lower-class family may not even be able to afford a bottle as they can only buy for daily consumption.
The problem is, the solutions to the reduction of plastic consumption (i.e. bringing own containers, use of non-plastic packaging) leave behind those who cannot afford to consume from...