PUPS
What is PUPS?
We all have a plastic problem, and we're all part of the solution!
PUPS stands for "Picking Up Plastic Stuff," and that's where we start. But there's a lot more to PUPS than that! We want to hold the manufacturers and users of plastic responsible for the problems they're creating, and help them find ways to reduce the plastic in our lives.
That's why we're asking PUPS people to post pictures and videos of themselves with some of their plastic "loot," and call out the companies that are contributing to this problem. If those companies hear from enough of us, they'll find ways to package their products without plastic!
But what about recycling?
Well, to be honest, we can't recycle our way out of the plastic pollution problem.
Plastic recycling just doesn't work. According to the U. S. Department of Energy, only about 5% of all the plastic being produced today is recycled! That means that 95% of it will either be burned, dumped into landfills or disposed of in oceans, where it will stay around forever, breaking down into tiny microplastics, contaminating our water, our air, our food supply and eventually us!
Plastic recycling is an idea being promoted by the fossil fuel industry (plastic is made from oil and gas), the chemical industry (plastic contains many toxic chemical additives), and companies that want to keep using plastic because it's cheap, lightweight, convenient and flexible. But there are better solutions available right now, We just have to convince companies to use them.
