Plastics are known to be one of the most common materials we use but is it safe for the environment?
Plastics show us most people throw away stuff quickly. Plastic products such as straws, plastic drinking bottles, plastic bottle caps, food wrappers, plastic lids and plastic grocery bags are polluting the environment. People are dumping plastic into water bodies on a regular basis and they keep doing it because people buy too many one use plastic products. For a lot of animal species both in land and sea are having trouble with plastic waste dump. Animals mistake the plastic waste as food and then they eat the plastic. Weeks later they die because the plastic waste has chemicals inside that gives them bad diseases.
Single use plastic represents today's throwaway culture. Most of the plastic ends up in landfills, waterways and oceans. The U.N environment report states that there is 5.25 trillion tonnes of plastic in the ocean. This amount of plastic weighs up to 269,000 tonnes. It is shown that every beach in the world has plastic on it due to ocean plastic pollution. On average 8 million tons of plastic dumped into the ocean. Plastics are not biodegradable and result in breaking down into even smaller pieces of plastics called microplastics. The top 20 contributing rivers to ocean pollution are in Asia and they contribute to 67% of all ocean pollution by plastics. In 2016 a global population of 7 billion produces 320 million tons of plastic and this is set to double by 2034.
The ocean is being polluted by the second with a lot of plastics and it is affecting nearly all of life. If this current state wasn't bad enough every year about eight million tonnes of plastic gets dumped into the ocean and makes the situation even worse. While fishing a lot of discarded plastic fishing gear which bumps into coral reefs and slowly destroys them which is one of the main life ecosystems. If this continues, then by 2050 plastics will outweigh all fish in the entire ocean.
Marine species suffer the most, due to the throw away culture of humans. At least 233 marine species are ingesting plastic and these species include all marine turtles, ⅓ of seal species, 59% of whale species and 59% of seabirds. It has been discovered that 344 species of marine animals that have been entangled and trapped in the plastic floating around in the ocean.
What can we do to improve the situation - while many sayings go - with many drops makes an ocean. Every single step that we do reduce usage of single use plastics will make a difference. Every effort we make to recycle / reduce will make an impact.
Why should other species suffer because of our mistakes?
What can we do?
These are some ways you can help make a difference:
Use cloth and reusable bags instead of plastic bags for shopping.
Use recyclable cups made out of glass and ceramic.
Do not buy water in plastic bottles.
Bring your own take out containers for buying things instead of using the ones there.
Support efforts to ban plastics and other not sustainable items.
Sources:
“Rethink Plastic. Save Our Seas • Plastic Oceans International.” Plastic Oceans International, plasticoceans.org/.
Buranyi, Stephen. “The Missing 99%: Why Can't We Find the Vast Majority of Ocean Plastic?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 31 Dec. 2019, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/31/ocean-plastic-we-cant-see.
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