Some plastics that might be hard to replace are safety glasses, medical supplies and water pipes. If we banned them, it could get dangerous or expensive.
What happens to all the plastic that is already in the environment? It still needs to be cleaned up.
So, plastic is a node that is both useful and harmful. Removing that node would solve some problems and create other problems at the same time.
Systems thinking is about seeing how that node has relationships that will cause all sorts of unexpected things to happen.
Solving the plastic waste problem would need many people to come up with lots of smaller solutions that work together:
- Perhaps a council or a state would consider banning certain types of plastic, like single-use bags – a smaller system within the big plastic production system
- Materials scientists might try to develop a more sustainable material to make phones out of, so that plastic can be removed from that system
- Engineers might have a role to play in making recycling systems more efficient, reducing the existing waste problem
- None of these solutions will work everywhere, but together they can change the behaviour of the whole system.