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Oct 294 min read

Garbage is political: A call for clicks


Background image by Anja from Pixabay. Hand overlay by mynameis98 from Pixabay.


Over the weekend I had nothing better to do than sign a slew of online petitions, pledges, campaigns, and letters. That's right, I had nothing better to do. It was quick and easy work, too, amounting mostly to a bunch of clicks, a delightful dichotomy of mindful and mindless. I decided those clicks would be the best use of my time, since I had already completed an even more important task: I voted.


When I first envisioned this site, I had no idea how much content would be specific to plastic, and Big Oil wasn't on my radar. I knew about highly toxic Superfund sites, but I didn't realize the environmental impact from run-of-the-mill landfills in the form of methane gas, leachate, and microplastics, the latter of which I've since learned are literally everywhere. I would have guessed that PFAS stood for Pretty Fucking Awesome Shit, not poly- and per-fluoroalkyl substances, better known as toxic "forever chemicals." Turns out, garbage is much more complicated—and much worse—than I thought. Enter politics.


Left to their own volition, corporations have a proven track record of prioritizing profit over planet, and communities are left to bear the consequences for generations to come. Consider:

  • Exxon is the world's leading producer of single-use plastic, but they aren't alone: 20 petrochemical companies produce 55% of the world's single-use plastic. Even worse, Exxon has known since the 1970s that the burning of fossil fuels would need to be significantly reduced to mitigate the catastrophic consequences of climate change. They hid this information and instead spent millions on climate misinformation. (For more Exxon awfulness, see the Hall of Shame article I wrote.)

  • Coca-Cola (another Hall of Shamer) is the world's leader in plastic pollution and has been for six years running. In 1970 the company lobbied against a bill that would have banned non-returnable containers, setting the stage for present day, where the company puts out over 200,000 plastic bottles a minute.

  • DuPont and 3M have known since the 1950s of the hazardous health risks associated with toxic PFAS chemicals, yet they (and later the spin-off Chemours) willingly polluted air, soil, and water with them. A handful of these chemicals have been banned, but over 16,000 remain in use, largely unregulated, and new iterations keep cropping up. Now these "forever chemicals" are found increasingly in our drinking water and a long list of everyday items, all the while accumulating in our blood. (Yep, another Hall of Shamer.)


These examples, while representative, are but a paltry few of the innumerous corporate crimes against our planet. The damage is pervasive; we're at the point where no one and nowhere is exempt.


We need to stand in opposition to corporate power, backing legislation that benefits all of us, not just C-suites and their shareholders. If you have nothing better to do, I hope that you too will spend some mindful, mindless time clicking to take a stand. To get you started, below you'll find a curated list of organizations and their initiatives that are garbage adjacent. Better yet, click the headings and then click through to support all initiatives.


While you're here, check out the National Environmental scorecard: Enter your zip code and  see whether your elected members of Congress have been voting for legislation that protects people and the planet. The League of Conservation Voters has been tracking these voting records for over 50 years.






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