Plastics. We use them every single day without question because there is no need to question something so embedded in our culture. We have invented an absurd number of plastics, to name a few, Polyethylene terephthalate, Polystyrene, Polycarbonate, Polyetheretherketone, Polypropylene, Polytetrafluoroethylene, Polyvinyl chloride and poly - you name it. Nevertheless, plastics have managed to infiltrate into our everyday lives and now into our oceans and into our lungs. The list of harmful footprints has expanded. We all have a carbon footprint, a water footprint and now even a plastic footprint.
I have a recycling bag at home as most of you will (I hope), and the word “recycling” makes me feel like I’m helping, rather than destroying the environment. But every single day my family and I manage to overfill a new bag with plastic bottles, food wrappers, egg cartons, crisp packets and I realised that almost every product we buy from the supermarket and consume is covered in a plastic of some sort. We are in effect consuming plastic in huge quantities, and the word “recycling” does not mask this fact. The world’s plastic production is over 300 million tonnes each year, which is the equivalent of 50 million adult elephants. Only about 10% of that is recycled, the rest ends up in landfills of which 7 million tonnes is dumped into the sea. Is recycling plastics a scam? What's the point if only 10% of all the plastic in the entire world is recycled, and less than half of what you put in the recycling bin is actually recycled?
There is a limit to how many times you can recycle plastic before it no longer remains sustainable. After a certain point it will lose its strength and become useless, and when its lifetime is up, it will be incinerated or left on the Earth for millions of years. It seems strange to think that plastic could outlive humans, but this is a possibility we should all take into consideration.
Not to mention the production of plastics is equally as un-environmental. They are derived mostly from fossil fuels which are unsustainable and non-renewable, they will eventually run out and faster than we think. Some say that by the time we do run out, it will be too late. Due to greenhouse gases causing global warming along with natural global warming, the human species could go extinct. We don’t have the power to destroy Earth because the Earth will always recover in time, but we do have the power to destroy ourselves and other species that inhabit this planet. It is up to you to decide whether you care or not. You could say “who cares about other generations, hell I'm gonna enjoy my life”.
After finding out about this, a couple of questions crossed my mind. Do we need to put everything in plastic? How many items are either made of or are covered in a biodegradable packaging? Have we even tried to make packaging more sustainable? The answers, no, some, not enough. Because plastic is inexpensive, lightweight and durable, effectively every industry wants it. Plastic has in a sense increased consumerism, because it allows items to be sold in bulk, all over the world at a fairly cheap, cost-effective price. With increased consumerism comes increased waste and a “waste mentality”. People buy, buy, buy without thinking about anything else. Since plastic is so cheap, people feel like they can discard it, but very few people understand the consequences on the environment and on themselves or are so caught up in this buying mindset that they no longer care. The point is, we are overusing plastics to the extent that we have become dependent on them. Yes, recycling is good, but it will only work if we produce less and consume less and if we begin to transition to using more bio-degradable, sustainable materials and environmental manufacturing methods.
Approximately 20 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans each year. Over 260 species have been entangled in plastic debris, resulting in impaired movement and feeding, reduced reproductive output, lacerations, ulcers, and finally death. They mistake the floating plastic bags as food but then get caught in them and die of exhaustion from struggling to detangle themselves or from starvation. No animal deserves to die in such a horrific way. Their death is an indirect consequence of our consumerism. The millions of plastic particles are endlessly present in our oceans. They seep into animal organs releasing toxins which can then be passed down the food chain and down to us. We eat the fish that ingest these micro-plastics, the land animals and plants that breathe them in. In fact, we breathe them in without even knowing it. Forget being healthy if the food you eat and the air you breathe is contaminated.
The invention of plastic has led to a way of life that is unsustainable. We need to start making all products with the environment in mind. Leaders from all spheres of life today believe this. Sacrificing plastics is the first step. Transitioning into the world without plastic may seem impossible now, but It is a slow poison that we must wean ourselves off or we will continue to head down a path of self-destruction. We have to un-plastic our world!
