It's amazing what you can find in nature. Unfortunately, it isn't always natural.
One Redditor went to the r/Anticonsumption community to share what they found in their local creek.
Several photos taken on their walk displayed pileups of trash at points along the creek. The amount of plastic waste was alarming.
"If this is just what collects in the creeks, I can only imagine what landfills look like," the OP wrote in the caption.
According to Statista, over 2 billion tons of waste is created globally each year.
However, in the world's richest countries, the material footprint per capita is 10 times higher than that of low-income countries, according to the United Nations. As a result, wealthier countries are disproportionately responsible for the planet's rising temperatures.
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Single-use plastics are a huge environmental problem — more than 330 million tons of plastic is produced yearly, with the vast majority of it ending up in landfills or finding its way into our oceans.
WWF reports that plastic can take hundreds of years to break down, shedding microplastics that end up everywhere — and threatening oceans and our health.
Overconsumption causes warmer temperatures because of the amount of energy needed to create and transport products as well as the exhaustion of our natural resources.
According to a 2021 report by The Guardian, "The U.S. population is 60% larger than it was in 1970, but consumer spending is up 400%." Heal the Planet reported that Americans consume more than their weight in products each day.
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You can reduce your personal consumption by thrifting, repairing what you already have, avoiding single-use plastics, and supporting eco-friendly brands that reuse and regenerate materials and products.
The post was met with disappointment and encouragement.
One Redditor wrote, "Honestly, that's the most depressing thing."
"That's pretty sad," another commented. "You should gather a clean up crew."
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