There is a scene in The Graduate* where one of his of his parents’ well-meaning friends— Mr. McGuire— corners Benjamin for a brief, earnest bit of unsolicited career advice. He pulls him aside and says:
“I just want to say one word to you. Just one word… Plastics.”
*1967 movie with Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who is seduced by an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson played by Anne Bancroft).
And here we are 58 years later, and it’s 100% clear that we are poisoning the environment and ourselves.
And that it is unfortunately a very bad time for the European Union and other countries to get support from the United States for their efforts to curb the production of plastic.
GENEVA – Hopes for a “last-chance” ambitious global treaty to curb plastic pollution have dimmed as delegates gather this week at the United Nations in Geneva for what was intended to be the final round of negotiations.
Diplomats and climate advocates warn that efforts by the European Union and small island states to cap virgin plastic production — fueled by petroleum, coal and gas — are threatened by opposition from petrochemical-producing countries and the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump.
Plastic production is set to triple by 2060 without intervention, choking oceans, harming human health and accelerating climate change, according to the OECD.