May 16, 20193 min read

We gotta talk about plastic pollution

Updated: Jan 24, 2020

a girl collecting plastic bottles from a water body — Plastic bottles in water bodies/ Photo by Nastya_gepp on Pixabay

It was in 1907, when Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic, was developed. In all fairness, the reputation of plastics was high in those times and was used substantially in daily households, and even in the great wars. The good face of plastic was stained in the post-war era when people realized its deceptiveness. Environmental organizations and literary works shed more light on this problem, which had already punctured a hole in the system. Nowadays, we are working against the clock, trying to undo this cascading effect. But are we too late?

Plastic in and of itself is not a bad thing. It's probably one of the most useful inventions of all time. But as they say, "with great power comes great responsibility", and this is where we seem to have lost grip. Plastic mismanagement is undeniably a major problem, but it only grew because it went overlooked for so many years, blending cunningly into the butterfly effect of things. Though its roots have sunk deep into the foundations of the earth, figuratively, and quite literally, we might well be able to save the planet from it.

The global production of plastics in 2016 was 335 million tonnes[1], according to plasticseurope.org. If we could consider the plastic pollution as a system with an input and an output, we can deduce a proportionality between plastic production and plastic waste. But this analogy is often misleading.

According to plasticseurope, about 335 million tonnes of plastics were produced in 2016/ Photo by Ryan Quintal @ Unsplash/ see link under sources

We often stress on either end of the system but fail to identify a fundamental flaw in the form of plastic usage. An article on Nature[2], estimates that about 60 to 99 million metric tonnes of mismanaged plastic waste was produced globally in 2015. This figure, with the current state of recycling efforts, is likely to hit 155 to 265 million metric tonnes/year by 2060.

Furthermore, about 90% of the plastic products[3] we use are discarded after a single time use, and most of the day-to-day plastic products that we use takes hundreds of years to fully degrade in the environment, and this includes the consumer-friendly plastic bottles too which have a decomposition period of more than 400 years. As plastic consumers, we could easily assign blame on government policies and lack of proper waste management systems, but before doing so, we need to clean our hands too.

Reusing bags is a major step/ Photo by Sylvie Tittel on Unsplash

The best thing to do is to emphasize more on reduce, reuse, recycle. The three R’s could make a considerable difference if we consider the plastic problem as a viable threat and jump on the same boat going forward. If we can match our needs with plastic usage, we can sort our plastic priorities and can trim our plastic footprints. Using reusable tote bags for shopping, using alternatives for plastic bottles and diapers, participating in cleanup programs, proper waste disposal, etc. are a few things that we can do as consumers of plastics.

But in some cases, this is easier said than done. In low to middle-income countries where certain places are affected by poverty and lack of clean drinking water, one can’t expect plastic consumers to manage wastes properly. Not without having any good waste management systems. So, this is where governments and organizations need to think of better methods and simpler ways to maintain plastics.

Nowadays, plastic cleanup programs have grown in popularity, and people are beginning to understand the roots of the problem. The major plastic zones in the oceans, like Great Pacific Garbage Patch[4], are being monitored and cleaned by a bunch of organizations working towards a common cause. Though we have a long way to go towards a plastic-concern-free future, it is safe to say that we are on the right track.

We gotta talk about plastic pollution

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