Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I'm ok with just raising general awareness of what our single-use packaging type of lifestyle is doing to our planet.  

But I completely agree if there's not some action proposed to follow, by people that are currently contributing to the problem, then it's going to end up being completely pointless.

What's the message, then?  Recycle those water bottles at higher rates?  If that's the message, then what's the action plan?  How do you get people to do it?  Put rebates on returns?   Something else?

Or is the message we should stop using this type of packaging altogether?  And if so, again what's actionable?  Are we messaging to manufacturers that they're going to have to end the practice?  To do this, do we place super-high taxes on all industries using single-use packaging, thus driving those products out of the market?

Right now I don't see much of a concerted effort to get a message that resonates, to the appropriate audience, with a plan that is reasonable and actionable.  Like so many other environmental concerns, I basically just continue to see, "Oh noes youse guys, humans are bad for the planet, stop doing what you're doing and be better humans!"

That's not targeted, it's not actionable, and you better be darn sure aware that it's not going to resonate with the people that are most important to creating change.  

Melting polar ice caps, yo.

18 billion pounds a year?  No wonder the oceans are rising on the coasts

that doesn't take into account all the rocks that fall into the ocean

Those coastal folk will finally have a chance to use their webbed hands and feet. 

a 15 footer in the pacific?

not me

I've fished countless hours in 15 foot boats on rivers, ponds, and small lakes

not even large lakes or  Reservoirs  - which I refer to as BIG water

It did feel dinky, but it was a relatively calm day and of course we stayed 3-4 miles out max.
The wife was not happy apparently but didn't say anything until later.
I pushed the throttles up to max and the ride got very rough to I stay at about 3/4 when getting somewhere.

Plastic getting into oceans is obviously an issue and the source is not well understood, but some of it is airborne litter.

And folks often point to various biodegradable plastics as a solution but they have significant problems as well.  I used to work in the area and it is complex putting it mildly and the current options are not good.

Our management made this "promise", actually several of them, to shareholders that we'd have a biodegradable diaper by time X and of course none of that happened at all, but we spent tens of millions on various stupid projects to "try", all of it for PR.

I got into trouble pointing out some very obvious things about all of this.  My own boss told me to shut up about it to protect me.  There were things "we" simply could not say or write.

I came to realize that much of our R&D was to support our Public Relations efforts and nothing else.

And we spent a lot on R&D.  The company is in serious trouble today, but is so large it will take decades to really sink to K-Mart levels.  I spent my last 12 years on the sidelines, I couldn't take it any more.  I found a job "managing patents" that was still in R&D but I "worked" with the patent attorneys.  It was a complete sinecure, and I "worked" no more than an hour a week.

The hilarious thing is that when I left, they put TWO PEOPLE into that same job, they split my "role" and added another person to do it.  My boss was into Empire Building and was good at getting budget for more people, that was his sole motivation in life.  The folks who ran the budgets had no clue what we did but were told it was important, it wasn't.

I saw something about buying some bracelet and some outfit would promise to remove one pound of plastic from the ocean somewhere.  The bracelet was $9.95 I think.

I then read something about how many pounds go into the oceans each year and did some quick math.

It was not even a scratch on the surface of what goes into the oceans, much less what is already there.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/05/plastics-facts-infographics-ocean-pollution/

18 BILLION pounds going into the oceans each year.  BILLION.  According to NatGeo.  I don't know if the figure is correct.

Global plastic production is said to be 335 million metric tons.  

https://www.statista.com/statistics/282732/global-production-of-plastics-since-1950/

So, only a small percentage of that ends up in the oceans, 2.4% if I did the math right.  I'm not convinced it is as high as 2.4% though.

These numbers are impossible to comprehend.

The story on rubber tires is similarly mind boggling.