Free Essay. Interest Groups Involved

The excessive consumption and production of plastics have serious consequences in human health and the environment at large hence prompting the need for waste reduction and refusal in the United States (EnvironmentalPollutionCenters.org, 2019). Since plastics have become a part of our daily lives, reducing and refusing their use requires actions from all stakeholders to establish a more sustainable life with minimal to no use of plastics. The interest groups involved in this process include individual consumers, industries, and the government (Jia et al., 2019). Individual consumers have to reduce their consumption and minimize their plastic waste. Industries have to take on the responsibilities of producers and design plastic products that have minimal negative environmental impacts in the course of their lifecycles. The government has to raise public awareness and concerns on plastic waste and restrict its toxicity, and the use of plastics (Showstack, 2020). It can also establish a plastic waste management system for recycling the already existing plastic waste.

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Dominant Groups in Shaping the Current Status

The current status of plastic waste is marked by an increase in the amount of plastic waste in the United States. According to EPA.gov (2020), plastics are a rapidly growing segment of municipal solid waste (MSW). This status is still attributed to the individual consumers, the industries, and the government at large. This is a problem because little has been done by the groups to control the use of plastics increasing plastic waste. According to Dell (2019), six times more plastic waste is burned in the U.S. than it is recycled. However, there are currently no federal laws that are restricting single-use plastics in the U.S. despite most experts agreeing that banning single-use plastic products would be a more useful strategy to reduce plastic use and pollution, compared to recycling (Cirino, 2019). The individual consumers are increasingly using plastic products with a global annual increase of 4% from 2009 to 2017 (Jia et al., 2019). This is shown by the increase in the amount of plastics in Municipal Solid Waste in the U.S. from 2010 to 2017 (EPA.gov, 2020). Industries and manufacturers are also increasingly using plastics in durable products such as furniture, appliances, and lead-acid battery casings among other products (Prata et al., 2019). They rarely explore the potential of eco-design to reduce plastic waste. The groups should, therefore, work together and play their part to achieve the plastic waste mitigation goals in the United States.

References

Cirino, E. (2019). What laws work best to cut plastic pollution? TheRevelator.org. https://therevelator.org/plastic-pollution-laws/

Dell, J. (2019). Six times more plastic waste is burned in the U.S. than is recycled. Plasticpollutioncoalition.org. https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2019/4/29/six-times-more-plastic-waste-is-burned-in-us-than-is-recycled

EnvironmentalPollutionCenters.org (2019, January 02). The status of plastic waste in the United States. EnvironmentalPollutioncenters.org. https://www.environmentalpollutioncenters.org/news/the-status-of-plastic-waste-in-the-united-states/

EPA.gov (2020, May 12). Facts and figures about materials, waste, and recycling. EPA.gov. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data

EPA.gov (2020, May 12).National overview: Facts and figures on materials, wastes, and recycling. EPA.gov. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials

Jia, L. et al. (2019). Motivating actions to mitigate plastic pollution. Nature Communications. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12666-9

Prata, J. et al. (2019). Solutions and integrated strategies for the control and mitigation of plastic and microplastic pollution. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6651478/

Showstack, R. (2020). Bill calls for dramatically cutting plastic pollution. Eos.org. https://eos.org/articles/bill-calls-for-dramatically-cutting-plastic-pollution