A Matter Close To My Heart.

I have permanent foreign matter in my 57-year-old heart. It is primarily plastic polymer. Some of it I asked specifically to be put there by a wonderful heart surgeon Dr David Roy, in the form of stents.

They not only saved my life, but they also keep me alive so that I can brag to my daughters that father is a Global Plastic Influencer with 1,000’s of Followers (well, perhaps not all would use that description!). They laugh & guffaw, too young to be LinkedIn. I also have uninvited plastic in my heart, courtesy of micro & nano plastic. We all do. Medical research confirms this, & Australian research continues to broaden our understanding of the health impact, including the thickening & blocking of arteries. We know irony when it hits us where it hurts most. That which saves us, is also killing us.

That is the incomplete story of plastic, so recent an arrival & yet so omnipresent. The polemic appears fierce between a fabricated dichotomy that some would have us believe. That you are either pro-plastic or a plastic hater, & nothing in between. Well, I am both, obviously. Yet, as a consumer, I detest plastic packaging & curse its diminishment of our lived experience, not least our ‘fresh’ food. But I’ll leave all that for another day.

This day in this blog, I simply want to share a recent experience at home, where I never push any plastic agenda, as the girls rule my world (thus me finding my LinkedIn Voice!). My eldest daughter recently hosted a teenage party. Mother wanted to buy lots of small plastic water bottles (can’t imagine why!). Eldest advised that there were to be no plastic water bottles at all, no matter how cheap. Instead, a ceramic water container & glass cups.

To see such change at home, so close to heart & without an iota of direct influence or direction, brought a flutter to my heart. I must make another appointment with my surgeon.

We, the consumers, want real Plastic Product Stewardship right now. Congrats on the launch of this seminal Blog.