COVID's Environmental Cost: 25,000 Tons of Trash

Last year, 1.5 million face masks entered the world's oceans. While the last thing anyone wants to hear about right now is yet another problem caused by the COVID crisis, this underscores a much bigger problem: our addiction to single-use plastic products. Last year, 1.5 million face masks entered the world's oceans. While the last thing anyone wants to hear about right now is yet another problem caused by the COVID crisis, this underscores a much bigger problem: our addiction to single-use plastic products. [Wealth Daily logo] COVID's Environmental Cost: 25,000 Tons of Trash [Alex Koyfman Photo] By [Alex Koyfman]( Written Nov 11, 2021 Dear Reader, Last year, a study commissioned by OceansAsia determined that more than 1.5 million face masks entered the world's oceans in the year 2020 — a single but substantial prong of the total mass of plastic waste generated by the global campaign to stop COVID. In all, the study determined that more than 25,000 tons of single-use plastic waste was generated by the suddenly omnipresent COVID response market. [covidwaste] The point of origin for most of this predominantly plastic refuse is hospitals, which defer to single-use products almost exclusively. Of that waste, about one-third is expected to wind up in the ocean and, ultimately, on the seabed, where it will gradually disincorporate and enter the food chain. Now, believe me, I know that the last thing you want to hear about right now is yet another problem caused by the COVID crisis. As if supply chain interruptions and stimulus-fueled inflation weren't enough, we now have an ecological crisis on our hands thanks to the 21st century's first true pandemic. This ecological crisis, however, underscores a much bigger problem: our unshakable addiction to single-use plastic products. Plastic: The Heroin of Modern Commerce That 25,000-ton figure may sound dramatic to you, but it's still just a drop in the bucket compared with the estimated grand total of plastic we discard on an annual basis: 300 million tons. And about 60% of it goes either into landfills or into the ocean — humanity's two preferred method of sweeping a problem under the rug on a planetary scale. Less than 10% of that 300 million tons is recycled, and of that which is recycled, about 90% winds up either in the ground or in the water in its next usage cycle. And that's only part of the story. Plastic doesn't just consume energy and produce toxic byproducts at every stage of production. It's also highly taxing on another finite resource: oil. As it stands, about 10% of our oil supply is consumed by the plastics industry, with that figure rising every year. Put all the facts and figures together and you quickly come to one conclusion: Our dependence on plastic is not sustainable. The only possible answer, short of changing the way we live to no longer rely on single-use products, is to come up with a plastic alternative that neither pollutes during production nor is taxing on the environment to recycle. Plastic 2.0? Such an alternative will need to be able to sit on a shelf and remain airtight for years if need be, and at the same time decompose rapidly and completely, without any energy invested, in a natural setting. It sounds like a wonder product, but it's no longer the stuff of fantasy. Right now, a small Canadian materials technology company is entering the market with a truly compostable plastic alternative. Its pilot product: A Keurig-compatible single-use coffee pod. Why not a plastic soda bottle or a straw, you might ask? Elon Musk Drops MASSIVE Bombshell The shrewd billionaire just made a VERY strange confession about the future of his electric car empire. The secret he reveals could also mint fortunes for smart, fast-moving investors. This has nothing to do with buying shares of Tesla. [Click here]( for the stunning details. First of all, the coffee pod is one of the newest and fastest-expanding segments in the single-use container market. Two decades ago the coffee pod was little more than a novelty product. Today we use 50 billion per year. To work, the pods need to withstand near boiling temperatures and espresso-level internal pressures. To be effectively compostable, the discarded pod needs to be able to disincorporate in about two months — roughly the speed of a discarded apple core. This new material fits the bill on both counts. Once the proof-of-concept stage is finished in the commercial market, the world of single-use plastics will be open. The company behind this thing spent years and millions of dollars developing this product, and for most of that time, it was doing it completely under the radar. A 21st-Century DuPont in the Making? Right now, however, we could be at an inflection point. You see, this company's stock is already trading on the public market at a market capitalization of less than $100 million... but the market it will disrupt in the next several years is worth hundreds of billions. Licensing alone could bring in billions in revenue in short order. Investors are starting to realize this inefficiency, so share prices have jumped almost 50% in the last few weeks. It's still just the beginning, but this train is gaining momentum and I don't think this will stay a secret much longer. There's too much to say about this company right here, right now, so I went ahead and put together [a video presentation]( to answer all the questions. It's free, there's no registration required, and you don't even have to enter your email address. [Enter here for immediate access](. Fortune favors the bold, [alex koyfman Signature] Alex Koyfman --------------------------------------------------------------- New Groundbreaking Tech Could Solve Global Energy Storage Issue We’re rapidly entering an era of super-sized global energy storage projects. In fact, an energy research firm named Wood Mackenzie reports that global energy storage capacity will jump 1,400% by 2030. But the truth is all of those new storage systems are lithium-ion batteries that run for only two–four hours on a charge. Grids require much more storage than batteries can provide. Luckily, I just discovered a tiny company with the solution. And the best part is that it’s NOT a battery. This brand-new tech I’m calling “Electric Glass” allows electricity to flow through it like water. It can conduct 27x more energy than the best lithium-ion batteries... Hold more than 100,000 charges — 25x more than Tesla’s batteries... And can even be fully charged in just five minutes without falling back on fossil fuels to cover the gap! Not only will “Electric Glass” soon be a vital component of every piece of technology... [Early investors in this small firm have a shot at being handed a HUGE windfall.]( Browse Our Archives [Behind Every Great Fortune, There Is a Crime]( [Benefits of the Infrastructure Bill]( [I'm Loving This Inflation!]( [What a Gigantic Waste!]( [This Could End the Plastic Industry as We Know It]( --------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to {EMAIL}. It is not our intention to send email to anyone who doesn't want it. If you're not sure why you've received this e-letter, or no longer wish to receive it, you may [unsubscribe here](, and view our privacy policy and information on how to manage your subscription. 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