Climate Adaptation
U.S. Must Create a Post-Plastic Economy, Scientists Say in New Study
The nation dumps as much as 2 million tons every year into the sea
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The U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of plastic, and every year — despite well-established public-waste systems — as much as 2 million metric tons of the stuff winds up in the ocean.
If America is to control its outsized plastic “leakage,” it needs comprehensive reforms by the end of 2022 that address everything from design and production through disposal, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.