“Out there is our home! Home, Auto! And it’s in trouble. I can’t just sit here and do nothing. That’s all I’ve ever done. That’s all anyone in this blasted ship has ever done. Nothing!”

It seems like after 12 years, more people are starting to understand what “Wall-E” Captain B. McCrea had been saying all along. In recent years, young people around the world have gradually succeeded in pressuring policymakers into a more sustainable life. In fact, after student climate protests last spring, the University of St. Thomas recently started to take steps toward its goals from the 2019 Sustainability Strategic Plan.

Some of these steps have included minor changes in dining venues around campus, such as removing straws and switching to compostable to-go boxes in Scooter’s and T’s.

While these are definitely steps in the right direction, there is one issue that doesn’t seem to go away. Waste management remains a problem, one that defeats the purpose of compostable boxes. Likewise, this is the main problem with one of the most commonly targeted products of sustainable policies: plastic bags.

If consumers are not educated enough about proper waste management, and if it is not properly enforced by environmental regulations and sustainability policies, problems such as plastic waste will not decrease as much as we need them to. This is why before banning certain materials or taxing the use of certain products, people should be well-educated on environment-friendly practices.

To know how to manage different materials, such as plastic products and its alternatives, education about the materials and their effect on the environment is crucial. For example, at first sight, the decision to ban plastic bags and use paper instead seems obvious. However, alternatives to plastic, such as paper, often involve various implications.

While paper and cotton-based bags are much friendlier to the environment than plastic bags, plastic has many benefits the former two don’t. Plastic not only has numerous practical benefits unlike any other material, but it can also be reused and recycled more times than both alternatives.

Additionally, paper bags take about four times more energy to produce than their plastic counterpart, requiring much more water, electric and fossil fuel energy, and releasing higher rates of toxic chemicals and CO2. Paper also often takes more space and weighs more than plastic, making transportation more wasteful as well.

On the other hand, plastic takes about 1000 years to decompose, and many single-use plastic products end up clogging sewers, littering the streets, filling the ocean and entering the food chain. However, the problem is not inherently with the plastic itself, but with the management of plastic waste and the amount that is produced.

Another important factor is how many times and in what way different materials are recycled. The best materials for recycling are aluminum and glass since they can be recycled an infinite amount of times without losing any properties or quality.

Plastic and paper have limits, with paper being recyclable about four to seven times and plastic up to 10 times, and both materials lose quality and fiber each time they are recycled. This makes paper lose viability after a few times, and plastic needs to be “downcycled” into lesser-quality products.

So what is the best course of action against waste pollution? After all, the problem lies mainly in the management, and on how materials affect the environment if they are disposed of improperly.

Many organizations have proposed ideas to governments and industrial corporations, but ultimately, it must be a team-effort between governments, companies, retailers and consumers. A report from the U.N. Environment about single-use plastics and sustainability offers various options.

Companies in the manufacturing and industrial sector should start using fewer raw materials when making plastic and look for alternatives to fossil fuels. Additionally, they should aim toward decreasing their overall pollution with energy-efficient and cost-effective processes.

Governments should use financial incentives to encourage more sustainable alternatives within the industrial sector and consumer population, such as a slight tax on plastic bags and tax rebates for industries to be more compliant. Investing in the development of recycling and waste management infrastructure is crucial, especially in mid-wealth countries that develop the production sector faster than infrastructure and recycling programs.

Policymakers should also aim to educate the public about the proper disposal techniques and management of waste. Reusing and recycling habits should be taught in school curriculums, along with at home, in social programs and on educational TV shows.

If people learn something from their hundredth rewatch of “Wall-E,” maybe then we will keep compostable to-go boxes out of the trash, and into the bins labeled “compostable.”

Gustavo Gutierrez can be reached at guti6327@stthomas.edu.