By Seher Talukdar
More and more people are becoming aware of recycling and the negative effects of plastic on the environment. It is transitioning into common knowledge that littering is unacceptable and proper disposal of used products is required, but most do not know the severity of the situation. Did you know every piece of plastic ever produced still exists? Probably not.
Plastic can be found frequently in daily life, most of it being single-use and thrown in the garbage, into the environment, or not recycled. The amount of these instances is startling, especially when the knowledge of the harmfulness of plastic is being made more clear. Many societies, city to suburban, have taken on a “throwaway culture” which is characterized by high amounts of waste and low recycling. In addition to this, high production of plastic and products using plastic further worsens the crisis. There has been more plastic manufactured in the last decade that in the entire century prior. Entire beaches and waterways can be found with a floating layer of garbage, most of it plastic. Despite making progress in recent years, with around 20% of plastic recycled, it still leaves a staggering amount of almost 400 million tons left untouched annually.
Every single piece of the 7.8 billion tons of plastic ever produced is still somewhere on the planet today. This plastic can be found diapers, bottles, packaging, cups, bags, fishing lines and more. The shortest after life with plastic is one or two decades in plastic bags, but in that amount of time, wildlife can manage to ingest it or it can leech other harmful chemicals into the ecosystem. Imagine those facts put in place with other plastic products, most of them having durability for 100-450 years. The damage that could be done with such a drastic difference is unimaginable. However, this is plastic’s behavior in the environment when isolated and exposed to the elements. When placed in landfills, it easily takes most pieces of plastic over 1,000 years to decompose. The consequences are amplified incredibly.
It is predicted that by 2050, the weight of ocean life will be equal to the weight of plastic discarded into the water. Such conditions will result from the continuation of our “throwaway culture” consisting of single used products, high production, and low recycling rates. Plastic leads a long life in both the environment and landfills, both doling out crippling consequences.
So how could this be combated? In general, awareness of such statistics is beyond necessary for any change to be kick started, along with more knowledge of where our plastic comes from and where it goes. Once completed, rates of recycling and reuse would need to rise. To avoid high plastic waste, pay close attention to plastic disposal as to not contaminate any recycling (by varying community standards) and be mindful of single use plastics in daily life. Items like disposable cups, bags and bottles should either be avoided or properly recycled. Only then will more change be promoted for the benefit of the community and communities beyond.
Sources:
telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/10stark-truth-long-plastic-footprint-will-last-planet/
storage.neic.org/event/docs/1129/how_long_does_it_take_garbage_to_decompose.pdf
ourworldindata.org/faqs-on-plastics
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