Plastics have overtaken our lands and water bodies. When researchers invented plastics in the 19th century, manufacturers immediately embraced this product as the next economic gold. Plastics made everything cheaper to produce… and dispose of. Today, as our collection of plastic pollution quotes points out, they’ve become poison to our environment, and we cannot get rid of them.
It is no surprise that plastic pollution has become one of the world’s most pressing environmental crises. This is evident as the increasing production rate of plastic has surpassed the world’s ability to recycle or properly discard it.
Our water bodies have plastics swimming in them, and millions of animals die from the ingestion of plastic every year. This has spurred different individuals, businesses, and organizations (such as Greenpeace, Plastic Pollution Coalition, and some TRVST members) to form a global alliance in working toward a plastic pollution-free world.
It is important to create awareness of our consumption habits' impact on the land and marine life. Here’s a collection of inspirational plastic waste and quotes on plastic pollution from individuals using their platforms and reach to drive the cause of less global waste.
Related: If you like these quotes, you might also like our compilation of zero-waste quotes & sustainability quotes.
Pollution from oil and gas development, toxic runoff, and miles and miles of plastic trash foul the waters and threaten marine life.
Frances Beinecke is a one-time president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in the United States of America. During her regime, she worked tirelessly to ensure the protection of health, and lives of wildlife as well as the availability of clean water and air for the environment. As an award-winning environmentalist, Beinecke is helping communities reach a vibrant and sustainable society.
Forget bottled water; tap water is just as good! Pour it into a reusable water bottle, and always have fresh water on the go without wasting plastic.
Ashlan Gorse Cousteau studied Journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is a seasoned Journalist and adventurer.
For over 10 years, Ashlan worked as a pop culture TV correspondent for the popular TV entertainment channel, E! News and Entertainment Tonight. She is also renowned for her work in the award-winning Discovery Channel documentary, the Nuclear Sharks, as well as the hit adventure series, Caribbean Pirate Treasure (on amazon, currently in its season 2).
Ashlan uses her platform, as her plastic pollution quote shows, to reach and deter her audience from needless plastic waste.
My obsession is plastic packaging. It makes me sick, all the waste. Everything about it disappoints me.
Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis, popularly known for short as Theo James, is quite a popular figure in Hollywood. He is an astute movie producer and director. He also recently picked up an interest in modeling. Theo James is renowned for playing Tobias "Four" Eaton in the trilogy, Divergent (amazon), starring other artists like Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, etc.
More recently, we’ve come to know James for speaking out against the different types of plastic waste and pollution in general. James reminds us that we should not allow plastic packaging to remain a norm with this plastic pollution quote.
I hate plastic bottles. Just think about it before you buy one. We pay more for a gallon of water than we do for a gallon of gas. I think people will realize that water quality standards in most municipalities are as good or better for the stuff coming out of the tap than bottled water companies. You'll save money and save the environment, too.
Philippe Cousteau, Jr. is the grandson of Jacques Cousteau. Cousteau, Jr has been nominated for several Emmy awards as a TV host. He is a filmmaker, producer, and avid explorer. His popular quote is on an adventure where he defined adventure as a place where you lead life.
Cousteau, Jr. draws our attention to the perceived standards about water created for economic benefits with this plastic pollution quote. He reminds US residents that the water running from their taps is perfectly drinkable for most, and reminds us of the environmental impact of plastic water bottles. If you have clean running water, then there’s no reason why you should be paying water bottling companies and polluting your planet.
We humans have become dependent on plastic for a range of uses, from packaging to products. Reducing our use of plastic bags is an easy place to start getting our addiction under control.
David Suzuki is a renowned award-winning Professor Emeritus and Environmentalist at the University of British Columbia, where he teaches Zoology. He is a scientist and broadcaster who co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation.
The David Suzuki Foundation dedicates resources toward ensuring less plastic production for single-use products. Referring to the rate of plastic disposal in Canada, across its lifecycle, David noted that plastics are not the future due to the health concerns they pose to the environment.
As an authority in this field, Suzuki’s plastic pollution quote clarifies how much our daily consumption depends on plastics and how we should work to ditch plastic bags.
I think, on a personal level, everybody, when you go through the checkout line after you get your groceries and they say, 'Paper or plastic?' We should be saying, 'Neither one.' We should have our own cloth bags.
Woodrow Tracy Harrelson a.k.a. Woody Harrelson (for short) is an American actor who came to prominence in 1993as a cast in “Cheers” (amazon), for which he won a Primetime Emmy award. He has also won several other awards after this.
Alongside acting, Woodrow has also been passionate about environmental causes. One of his known efforts is working to preserve the California Redwoods. He also won a case where he challenged the legalization of Marijuana/industrial hemp by Kentucky state as the state did not distinguish between both. Woodrow soon became an advisor for this advocacy in Kentucky.
I try to conserve water and avoid plastic as much as I can.
Jim Sarbh is a multi-award-winning actor, producer, and director in the Hindi Film Industry. Sarbh is passionate about seeking innovative solutions to global environmental hazards, such as reducing water waste and motivating people to reduce plastic pollution.
This also includes some Indian startups who have creatively found ways of finding new uses for harmful substances like plastics via energy conversion, which is the objective of this TV series pioneered by Jim Sarbh.
The plastic bottle we're throwing away every day still stays there. And if we show that to people, then we can also promote some behavioral change.
Professor Carlo Ratti, a member of the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) body of educators, is an activist, inventor, architect, and teacher. Professor Carlo leads a group of researchers at MIT who are working on using technology to change the way we live our lives in big cities with respect to waste management.
Recycling more plastics can help local businesses and expand jobs while supporting the goals of sustainability.
Kevin Alexander Leon is a 54-year-old United States Politician. He belongs to the Democratic party. Kevin was a one-time Senator (between 2010 and 2014) where he represented California as the 22nd State Senator.
Kevin was also part of the Senators who led the advocacy for a plastics ban on one-time-use products. However, this ban was unsuccessful despite some Californian workers being unaffected. Kevin, however, reiterated his commitment to this by going after a smarter way that reduces waste and protects the environment but helps protect local workers at the same time.
BPA is just one chemical used to make plastic baby bottles and in the lining of food, beverage, and infant formula containers. Research shows that children are exposed to BPA by drinking from polycarbonate bottles and consuming food from containers made using BPA.
Suzy Shuster started her career with NBA TV, she has since then worked for different TV stations. Since 2004, she’s worked as an ABC sideline reporter. Shuster’s plastic waste quote points to the inorganic materials we are depositing into, not just our bodies, but that of our children. There’s still so much we do not know about the long-term ingestion of plastic fibers and plastic waste.
There are five known gyres spinning around in our world's oceans. A gyre is a slowly moving spiral of currents created by a high pressure system of air currents. A spinning soup, so to speak, is made of what exists in the water. And in this case, the gyres are spinning with millions of tons of our discarded and forgotten about plastic waste!
Brandon Boyd studied at Calabasas High School and Moorpark College and has a passion for writing music. In 2011, Boyd, as part of his commitment to the cause, raised awareness at the Hurley Space Gallery for the ban of plastics in one-time-use products.
He reiterated the harmful effects on water bodies. Following this commitment, Boyd gas donated several millions of dollars to several Non-profit Organizations both locally and globally.
The truth is, of course, that history is not completed in modern commerce any more than philosophy is perfected in political economy. In other words, there is nothing timeless or God-given about filling stations and penicillin and plastic bags.
James Buchan is a Scottish Diplomat and Novelist. He is the grandson of John Buchan, the renowned Scottish novelist. He is an author of about 7 different books (amazon) including works of fiction and arts. James' books have won two different awards: the 1984 Whitbread Book of the Year award, and the Guardian prize.
The global problem of plastic waste and pollution will end when we decide to take action. Not just collectively, but as individuals who make conscious decisions about our daily purchases. In all the plastic waste quotes above, there’s one shared message; it is up to us all to be the change we want to see in the pursuit of sustainable living, zero waste, and a cleaner environment.
Related: Check out our article on the 4R's - Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (also sometimes including Rot) for more about approaches and why we need to do our bit to reduce plastic waste.
Not only are plastics polluting our oceans and waterways and killing marine life – it's in all of us and we can't escape consuming plastics.
~ Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International.
Industrial pollution and the discarding of plastic waste must be tackled for the sake of all life in the ocean.
~ Sir David Attenbourgh
Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.
~ Jacques-Yves Cousteau
I hate the hand that comes out of a car and just drops litter in the street. I hate that! For some reason, it just fills me with fury! It's just utter laziness, lack of interest in other people, lack of interest in the planet, in the hedgehog who might eat the plastic bag, it's a lack of concern.
We buy a bottle of water in the city, where clean water comes out in its taps. You know, back in 1965, if someone said to the average person, 'You know in thirty years you are going to buy water in plastic bottles and pay more for that water than for gasoline?' Everybody would look at you like you're completely out of your mind.
One lesson I got from Gandhi, 'Be the change you want to see,' haunts me. I just feel like I can't keep stomping around pointing the finger at BP when I am supporting the oil industry with my very own dollars and actions by buying their products, helping to pay their mortgage - plastic is from oil... polyester, shower curtains.
Plastic bags are bad and for the most part unnecessary.
When I'm working, on sets or stages, my contracts specify in the rider that no plastic bottles be used. When I'm playing with my band, we all use metal and non-plastic containers for drinking to be ecologically sensitive and show others that this is the way to go.
I used to love those little cute bottles of amenities in the hotel room. And while the soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion may smell great, they waste an incredible amount of plastic and space in your luggage.
Everyone should wake up and have a fresh-squeezed orange every day. By having a fresh glass of orange juice with American oranges, you are supporting the local economy, you have all the vitamin C you need in a day, and you support the environment because you don't use any plastic from bottles or bags.
It does seem really hard to get consumers to do the right thing. It is stupid that we use two tons of steel, glass, and plastic to haul our sorry selves to the shopping mall. It's stupid that we put water in plastic bottles in Fiji and ship it here.
Of all the waste we generate, plastic bags are perhaps the greatest symbol of our throwaway society. They are used, then forgotten, and they leave a terrible legacy.
If we have any hope of finding ways for seven billion people to live well on planet with finite resources, we have to learn to use our resources efficiently. Plastic bags are neither efficient nor environmentally friendly.
I'll tell you what me scares me is plastic. Plastic bags and plastic bottles and these things. Why does my water have to be in a bloody plastic bottle? The landfill and the ocean. And I don't know, I'm just terrified with the proliferation of plastic.
I'm scared by the enormous amount of bottled water being consumed today, instead of people drinking filtered tap water. Did you know that nearly 90 percent of those plastic bottles are not recycled and wind up in landfills where it takes thousands of years for the plastic to decompose?
One of my big pet peeves is single-use plastic bags. I think it's one of the stupidest ideas in the world.
To me, I think people who don't think it's a big deal to toss a plastic bottle in the garbage are not only being irresponsible, but I think they're being disrespectful of all the other humans on earth.
My stockbroker asked me something important today: paper or plastic?
The longest-lived people eat a plant-based diet. They eat meat but only as a condiment or a celebration. Nothing they eat has a plastic wrapper.
We have to rethink our whole energy approach, which is hard to do because we're so dependent on oil, not just for fuel but also plastic. If plastic vanished, there would be total chaos. We have to think quite carefully about using oil and its derivatives, because it's not going to be around forever.
What's it like to envision the ten-thousand-year environmental impact of tossing a plastic bottle into the trash bin, all in the single second it takes to actually toss it? Or the ten-thousand-year history of the fossil fuel being burned to drive to work or iron a shirt? It may be environmentally progressive, but it's not altogether pleasant.
Plastic waste is now found in the most remote areas of the planet. It kills marine life and is doing major harm to communities that depend on fishing and tourism.
Outright bans on plastic bags may not be the best solution, but education and incentives to get people to stop using them are necessary.
Banning plastic bags so that people use paper bags or imported reusable bags that will end up in local landfills soon thereafter is not the only solution to our plastic bag challenge.
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