Just when you think the global business community is making strides in preserving our planet, a new study comes out that reinforces the notion that humans simply cannot live in harmony with nature.
Earlier this week, the Minderoo Foundation issued its second Plastic Waste Makers Index, which found that the world generated 139 million metric tons of single-use plastic waste in 2021. Most alarmingly, this is 6 million metric tons more than plastic waste generated in 2019.
Despite regulation, consumer awareness and corporate “pledges,” the list of petrochemical companies producing virgin polymers bound for single-use plastic remains effectively unchanged. In addition, recycling is failing to scale fast enough to deal with this issue.
As we have highlighted, this year’s Earth Day theme is once again “Invest in Our Planet,” which is the exact opposite of what’s happening in the petrochemical sector these days.
Fortunately, there are a number of .earth web domain users who are tackling the plastic pollution issue head-on:
- Tide.Earth: This Swiss company is turning plastic collected from the ocean and coastlines into safe, useful products. Learn more here.
- SecondLife.Earth: This organization helps companies to kick-start their own circular plastic development supply chains to clean our oceans. Learn more here.
- PlasticFootprint.Earth: This organization has developed a methodology that measures plastic leakage to put an end to plastic pollution. Learn more here.
- Vuma.Earth: This organization has created a campaign to ban single-use plastics in South Africa. Learn more here.
- Mandin.Earth: This collective of friends, artists and designers have created skateboard decks made of recycled plastic. Learn more here, and check out our 2020 podcast with Mandin.Earth here.
We hope that our ever-growing .earth domain tribe will continue to come up with innovative ways to rid our planet of single-use plastics. If your organization has a similar mission, the .earth web domain is the ideal foundation for advancing your important efforts.
To learn more about the .earth domain, visit Voices.Earth. Also, many organizations and individuals are sharing their voices about the benefits of a .earth domain in our Voices.Earth podcast series.
