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Joane: Plastic is killing us in the Amazon

This young Brazilian activist fights for a better future in her village in the Brazilian Amazon. Her story is the fourth in the series 'Rainforest Defenders' which presents five activists fighting against environmental destruction and Bolsonaro's government. Español

Joane: Plastic is killing us in the Amazon
Joane poses on the beach in her community where plastic pollution has destroyed the environment. Pablo Albarenga.
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How much more plastic waste could the Amazon basin take before collapsing? How much more unconscious aggression? How much more environmental degradation?

A plastic bag, a polyethylene bottle, a piece of polyurethane... these are all ordinary, cheap, disposable objects. Their daily use is measured in billions of units throughout the planet.

However, after one single use, they are systematically abandoned in nature, where they impact catastrophically, especially when they multiply up to infinity, invade the territory, decompose into micro-plastics and pollute water. They end up killing the river fauna: fish, turtles, birds.