Every country is known for something, but some of the things might make the country notorious, rather than famous. All countries that engage in international affairs have some notoriety, which is to be expected.
The United States is known for doing business outside the country, but they are also known for other things. One of the things that people know the US for is their ability to generate plastic. Sources say that they are the biggest plastic trash producing country. Let us examine whether that is true and whether the US is actually one of the biggest polluters, when it comes to plastic, at least.
They Say Otherwise
During president Trump’s tenure, blame was always shifted to Asian countries. Blame shifting is a common way of not wanting to take responsibility or admit something, particularly in the eyes of the public.
Among the blamed countries, China was the first, of course, alongside Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. There was a pompous speech about stopping other countries from making the US ocean filthy, but no talk about their own contribution to the said pollution.
The Statistics Tell a Different Story
When you shift the blame to Asian countries, it creates a sense of relaxedness, that the other entity has to put in the work to make oceans cleaner, however, the reality is quite different. The US might not be the largest producer of plastic in the world, that title belongs to China.
The US is the largest producer of plastic waste, and by a long shot. The US produces around 42 million metric tons of waste. The second closest is India with 26 million metric tons. With such a huge lead on India, and China, for that matter, which sits at 21 million, the US is hardly innocent in the pollution department, particularly when it comes to plastic waste.
The US Needs to Take Care of Its Own Yard
One must first tend to their yard, a wise man once said. In this case, the US produces 17% of the world’s plastic waste with only 4% of the world’s population. The idea that stopping other countries’ waste from entering the US ocean territory will be enough is preposterous.
The US is a very consumer-oriented society which loves using plastic products for the sake of practicality.
However, renewable and recyclable products are a much better choice, yet it would be a large undertaking to shift an entire country’s mentality over the pollution that they are producing.
The US is the world’s largest producer of plastic waste, and by a large margin. While not the largest producer of plastic, the waste part is much more important, for their own environment, and that of the world.
The less plastic is turned into waste, the better the world will be.
