By Iurii Stepanov / Shutterstock
While California has rolled out a $53.9 billion plan to accelerate its green transition, the US West Coast state is taking the issue of single-use plastic pollution especially seriously. Even the technology giant Google is getting involved in this fight.
While California has rolled out a $53.9 billion plan to accelerate its green transition, the US West Coast state is taking the issue of single-use plastic pollution especially seriously. Even the technology giant Google is getting involved in this fight.
Over 170 trillion pieces of plastic are floating in the world's oceans, according to a study published in the American journal, Plos One, in March. The scientists' methodology was based on data on ocean surface layer plastic from over 11,000 observation stations around the world over a 40-year period, between 1979 and 2019. And while this pollution can stem from fishing industry waste like nets and buoys, it also originates from consumer waste like clothing, tires and the single-use plastics often used in the food-service industry.
Worldwide, there appears to be no shortage of ideas when it comes to stamping out single-use plastic in the catering business. In France, the issue has been addressed by prohibiting fast food restaurants from using single-use tableware to serve consumers who eat on-site. Then there's edible tableware and natural packaging solutions, such as the gourds being used by a coffee shop chain in Uzbekistan.
In California, Google has decided to take its share of responsibility in this environmental challenge. The Mountain View firm has launched a challenge, called "single-use plastics challenge," appealing to food companies that have found ways to serve or package food without polluting the planet. Indeed, the web giant explains that it wants to "switch from using single-use disposable products in our onsite food service operations to more reusable solutions -- whether it’s snack wrappers or changes to packaging used during distribution and delivery." Projects submitted for the challenge will have the opportunity to test their solutions in Google's US cafés and 'MicroKitchens.'
But Google's initiative is not an isolated action. In the small Californian town of Mountain View, there is a particular awareness of single-use plastic pollution. The municipality has already partnered with the American environmental advocacy group, Clean Water Action, to launch an experiment encouraging volunteer restaurant owners to test reusable tableware. Packs of glasses and plates have been sent to participants, whether they are café managers or food truck operators. The campaign is called "reThink Disposable."
Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times reported on how California was leading the way in the United States in reducing plastic pollution. The fight really became a reality when, in June 2022, the West Coast state took major action with a law (SB 54) "requiring all packaging in the state to be recyclable or compostable by 2032, cutting plastic packaging by 25 percent in 10 years and requiring 65 percent of all single-use plastic packaging to be recycled in the same timeframe," according to the Governor's website.
