FINALPROJECTPARTB (1)

.docx

School

Southern New Hampshire University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

101

Subject

Anthropology

Date

Jan 9, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by CorporalNeutronRhinoceros44

Final Project Part B 1 Final Project Part B ATH 101 SNHU

2 I. Cultural Diversity A1. Although it is not their fault, it’s important to understand that women have a bigger impact on the war on plastic that we are dealing with. I came to this conclusion because sanitary products and makeup alone make up for 165 billion plastic products every year. The makeup industry accounts for 120 billion units of packaging every year, and a majority is not truly recyclable (Plastic Pollution Coalition, 2022). And about 45 billion sanitary products are produced every year, the majority is plastic (Barth, 2019). Makeup is usually in a plastic container, and also wrapped in plastic, and sanitary products are also wrapped in plastic, and even the applicator is usually made of plastic. It seems like businesses have an ongoing problem of wrapping plastic in more plastic when we think about it. Also, the media has this stigma against using paper, so I find that cardboard tampon applicators are becoming harder to find even though plastic applicators are no better for the environment. In fact, there are plenty of activists trying to put an end to plastic tampons, and there are biochemical companies trying to formulate a compostable applicator that would be safe to insert, and better for the environment (Cappiello et al., 2022, p.344). And ultimately, there are tampons without applicators that are the best option for the environment, but they are not advertised enough. A2. As we have seen through the years, humans don’t know how to recycle properly because they’ve been told to just look for the triangle and that’s all. Their attitude towards recycling is that maybe it's too much to understand, and they think every plastic is recyclable because that is what the media tells us. They don’t have the patience to learn about recycling. I know that with my recycling bin there is a small list of items that are recyclable, but from what we know about human behavior is that most people don’t read the small print. They see the 3 rotating arrows and just throw it in the bin. Fun fact, this arrow symbol is called a mobius loop

3 (Creative Review, 2007, p.39). A3. Unfortunately we aren’t the only ones dealing with the war on plastic. There is so much plastic that is being dumped at different sites, or in the ocean which is harming wildlife. There was this video circling the internet for a long time, and still does, about the turtle who had a plastic straw stuck up his nose, or another video of the plastic holders that the soda cans are in, and it managed to wrap around a fish, or other marine life. They say that 18 billion pounds of plastic end up in the ocean every year because there is no way to actually recycle it (Frontline PBS, 2020, 0:49:16), and 60% of this plastic comes from Asia (Frontline PBS, 2020, 0:32:55). And it’s not only marine life that is being harmed. Large mammals have also been found eating plastic, and birds are constantly eating all types of plastic. Microplastics have even been found inside more than 100 different marine species (Parker, 2019). Because our animals are consuming microplastics, that means that this is also harming humans because they are consuming microplastics as well. B1. The only thing that we can do is to inform the public about plastics and what is truly recyclable. People think they are helping the environment because they see that the packaging is recyclable when it really is not. The plastics industry is tricking the public into buying more plastic because it is a cheaper option for most companies to wrap their items in plastic. They say that it’s recyclable so that the public will think that the environment is improving, but in reality this crisis is harming ourselves and our whole environment. The public isn’t concerned about the environment because they think that recycling is working (Sullivan, 2020). Our job as anthropologists is to inform the public on what plastic is doing to our earth, and what that means for us humans. And as for being sensitive towards others beliefs, I don’t believe that there is any extra caution that we need to take to be sensitive towards people's beliefs because this is ruining

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version