Friday, May 23, 2014

Make it Good, but Not Too Good

You'd be hard pressed to find an American born before 1960 who doesn't know this movie line: "I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? Plastics."

The problem with plastics, like the internal combustion engine, is they're too good. Plastics are used to the point that they've impacted our planet. Carbon emissions in the air and plastic pollution in the ocean are growing problems. It's become such a factor that local governments have banned plastic bags and beads. We had a running joke in Djibouti. Someone would ask, "What's the official flower of Djibouti?" and another person would respond, "The plastic bag." and a third person would follow up, "Is the plastic bag the official flower or bird of Djibouti?" and finally, someone would say, "Both!"

As I pointed out last month, when writing about Blue Dot Refill, the benefit and curse of plastic is it won't go away.  It's great that it lasts forever, but, then again, it ends up too many places it shouldn't be.

Author: Joe Moreno

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