Aquaman was right about plastic water bottles - San Francisco Chronicle

We can’t be friends if you drink from a disposable plastic water bottle. That may sound extreme, but it’s true.

I was therefore delighted to see the “water bottle war” leap into public consciousness recently when the actor Jason Momoa chastised his friend and fellow actor Chris Pratt for posing with a single-use plastic water bottle in an Amazon-sponsored Instagram post.

Thousands of people excoriated Momoa, of “Aquaman” fame, for publicly shaming his friend. But the truth is that Momoa did the right thing.

Whenever I see someone I know sipping from a plastic water bottle, here’s what I ask: Do you understand the harm that single-use plastics are doing to our oceans and sea life? Do you know it will take 400 years for the plastic housing those 20 sips of water to decompose — and that a million plastic bottles are being discarded into the world’s landfills and oceans every minute? And are you aware you can be part of solving this problem simply by carrying a reusable water-bottle?

Sometimes people tell me they plan to recycle the bottle, perhaps unaware that only 9% of plastics are recycled. More often, it becomes clear that they’ve been seduced by advertisements that normalize and even glamorize the use of plastic water bottles.

Advertising is powerful, and it has caused Americans to betray our better instincts before. Starting in the late 1960s, for example, the infant formula industry started a massive campaign to convince mothers that their breast milk was inferior to formula. They suggested that breastfeeding was passé and that chic, informed mothers bottle-fed. The strategy worked, and it took decades for breastfeeding to make a comeback.

The current water-bottle disaster is similar in its scale and deceit. The bottled-water industry has blanketed billboards and airwaves with popular actors such as Jennifer Aniston making it seem cool to drink from plastic bottles. It has even led people to believe that tap water is unhealthy, when in fact it is regulated more stringently than bottled water.

Advertising is powerful, all right. But you know what is even more powerful? Social pressure: the positive influence we can exert on our friends and acquaintances to do the right thing.

The Momoa-Pratt kerfuffle ended exactly the way it should: with the friends remaining friends, and with the humble, sensible Pratt (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) explaining how he came to be photographed with the single-use bottle while telling his fans he always carries a reusable model. The whole exchange communicated a positive message to millions, but it would not have happened without Momoa taking the initiative to confront his friend.

We all need to be more confrontational when it comes to discouraging single-use plastics. Our friends and acquaintances will most likely care more about our feelings (and, let’s hope, the planet) than they do about advertising and convenience. If some of them don’t — if they persist in selfishly polluting our planet even after we’ve made it clear to them that the issue is important to us and should be to them — then maybe they weren’t such good friends after all.

Sheila Morovati is president and founder of the nonprofit Habits of Waste.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"water" - Google News
December 27, 2019 at 09:42AM
https://ift.tt/39iFC6c

Aquaman was right about plastic water bottles - San Francisco Chronicle
"water" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2XpCTT3
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini