What happend to »no more plastic«?

Covid-19 came into our lives with many nega­tive side effects. But another symptom of the pandemic is climate amnesia. Poli­ti­ko­range jour­na­list Teja Mikla­včič talks about what a pandemic can’t let us forget – that saving lives only makes sense, if we’re saving the life-giving planet along with them.

I have been in Provence, Rome, Hamburg; Munich, Plymouth, Venice; Vienna, London, Salz­burg, and Graz. And that’s just a few I can remember off the top of my head. I saw some cities. I’ve seen some cultures and people. And I’ve seen so much pollu­tion and waste of plastic in stores, at gas pumps, in parks, bars, and restau­rants. Statis­tics show that here, in Slovenia, every resi­dent creates an average of 1,3 kg communal waste per day. Communal waste is waste that comes from house­hold, produc­tion, store, or service acti­vi­ties. More than 1 million seabirds die every year; one in four fish has plastic in their stomach; there are more than 150 million tons of plastic in the ocean right now and 83% of water has micro plastic in it. We could go on.

It’s fine if we make mistakes

The corona crisis forced us to make some very signi­fi­cant mistakes. We’ve been through some terrible times, and it’s not over yet. A few years ago, the Slove­nian presi­dent told us that we will abolish small plastic products for good. Indeed, we have seen some great impro­ve­ment. In Slovenia, plastic cutlery and cups in stores are very hard to find. That made me happy. But we still have tons of plastic.

And then, this pandemic arrived. All of a sudden, plastic gloves were ever­y­where. Masks for single use were ever­y­where. And not just on peop­le’s faces, but on the streets and in the ocean. I under­stand that this situa­tion is unpre­ce­dented, and that people reacted to take care of them­selves. But we all forgot about the envi­ron­ment. Ever­y­thing was just about people and health, all over again. We forgot about ever­y­thing else over­night.

There is no Planet B

We need to save planet earth, because there is no alter­na­tive. If we forget about this little Earth, we will all soon be gone and nothing will matter anymore – not our problems, not Covid-19, not if we gain a little bit of weight.

Plastic is a huge intruder in life, so make good decis­ions. It’s up to you: you can buy a mask for single use or you can buy a unique, well desi­gned, cotton mask, that lasts forever.