Let’s stop pretending and talk about plastic waste in nature. Today, the question is not whether you are interested in the cause or not. Today, it is time to realise what is truly essential. We must take concrete action to end the mass suicide in which we are all participating.

We must prioritise one single issue: our survival in a world on the brink of collapse. If there is no planet, there are no wars, there are no social divisions, there are no questions about rights, about what is right or wrong.

Every week, every day, we are inundated with new scandals, each one bigger, more disgusting and more impactful than the last.
There are so many that by the end of the month, we have already forgotten those from the beginning of the month.

I have never understood the leaders of this world: we all live on the same planet. So why don’t they think that leaving a less messed-up world for their own future generations should be a priority? What are they hoping for?

Today, the world is on fire, the ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising and the seasons are disappearing. During the summer, Europe sweats under 40°C and Asia under 50°C. What will our future look like? In 50 years’ time, will we be facing recurring heatwaves, endless storms and tornadoes?

We are constantly distracted by divisions, by choices to be made, by positions to be taken. We no longer talk to each other, we shout at each other, everyone has an opinion, and we all think we are right. This world no longer has an ounce of common sense.

However, solutions to improve the situation do exist.
One of them would be to use this new resource at our disposal.
It is in the soil, water and even the air.
This plastic waste is spreading like an endless wave.

We must learn to reuse existing plastics and eliminate virgin plastic from our consumption.Today, less than 10% of the world’s virgin plastics are recycled.
Most of the plastics consumed in supermarkets are not recyclable and end up in landfills: burned or dumped in the oceans.

More than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans every year, and by 2050, this figure could triple. We would then have more plastic than fish in our oceans. And exporting our waste does not solve the problem; leaving piles of plastic in Asia and Africa is not the solution. Over time, this ubiquitous plastic breaks down into microplastics. It ends up on our plates, in our tap water, in our bodies: humans consume the equivalent of a credit card every week on average.

Of course, we all have to do our part, but multinationals have shifted the blame onto consumers, making them believe that they are responsible for plastic waste and that current recycling practices are sufficient. In reality, less than 10% of plastic is recyclable today, and the cycle is not infinite.

We must stop blaming consumers, who do not have the power and impact of these giants. Citizens want to believe in effective recycling, but today it is like believing in unicorns. Let us abandon this ‘recycle wish’.

Let us put pressure on those who really have an impact on our lives.
If a green economy does not exist today, it is because it is not profitable for multinational corporations. We must force them to internalise the costs of sustainable recycling.

These companies have been recycling the same empty promises for decades; it is time for them to recycle the plastic they have been producing for so long and to abandon the production of new plastic in the very short term.

It is time for all of us, citizens of the world and multinational corporations alike, to take note. It is time to clean up our way of life and have the courage to face the situation head on.