Plastic Society - The Silent Killer
I'm sure you're not to blame, are you? Well, maybe, just a bit - after all, we all are. As an example, and without conscious thought, we cause 17 million barrels of oil to be used every year to produce disposable plastic water bottles. Did you actually take that in? 17 million barrels of oil every year, just for water bottles - that's enough to run one million cars for a year! Whenever discussing plastic pollution, the numbers soon get staggeringly incomprehensible. The scale of the problem is enormous - and mainly all because of our 'on the go' unconscious behaviour rather than anything malicious.
If you don't quite believe it's a problem caused by almost every person in every nation, I created an interactive story map (below) so you can investigate issues such as; the average daily plastic waste generated per person in every country (in the UK, each person on average creates 0.21Kg of plastic waste per day, whilst in the US it's 0.33Kg and in India it's only 0.01Kg), the tonnage of plastic waste produced each year by country (the US tops the chart with nearly 14 million metric tons per year) and see which countries cause the most damage through the mismanagement of plastic wastage disposal (China is responsible for nearly 28% of the global total). Regardless of who does what, it is a huge issue that has a direct impact on the fate of our planet. (If the map below doesn't work, try this link).
Good old plastic...
Also, did you know that a million plastic water bottles are sold around the world every minute? It's a number that borders on being unbelievable, but sadly is true. Every second, 20,000 bottles are bought, and it's a problem that's expected to get worse; by the end of the decade it is expected that half a trillion will be sold annually, that's 500,000,000,000 plastic bottles every year. We need to act some time, so why not today, right now?
In the UK alone, we use 38.5 million plastic bottles every day - and only half are recycled; well, we are all very busy aren't we? As a result, each and every day16 million bottles get thrown away, put into landfill, get burnt or find their way into the oceans just from the UK. This is part of the mismanaged waste issue explored in the story map above.
Disposable straws are another silent killer. In the US it is estimated that 500 million plastic straws are used every year; all for something that we often don't need or just push out of the way to drink our beverage anyways. In the UK, Weatherspoon has decided to stop using plastic straws across its 900 pubs by the end of 2017 - reducing consumption by 70 million single use straws every year. Yay Weatherspoon!
To add to concerns, the harm caused by plastic being created in the first place isn't the end of the problem, especially if we don't recycle. If you think you haven't got time to recycle and just throw plastic in a normal rubbish bin, you're directly adding to the problem. If treated the same as normal rubbish, plastic will find its way to landfill sites, and that really harms the environment too. It will sit in the ground for hundreds of years and during that time rainwater will flow over and around it and absorb the water-soluble compounds it contain, some of which are highly toxic. The water then moves into groundwater, soils and streams, poisoning everything in its path.
If simply discarded, as much rubbish is, there is a good chance the plastic will find its way into water courses and eventually the oceans. It is estimated that there are 5 trillion (that's 5,000,000,000,000) pieces of plastic in the oceans, weighing more than 250,000 tons. Our poor, beautiful oceans... If you don't really consider the impact it has on sea life as significant, perhaps you should. Just take a moment to think of the cycle here; sea animals (including turtles) mistakenly eat the plastic, think they're full when they're not and so starve to death, their decomposing bodies are then eaten by other fish, say tuna, and they may well enter our food chain. So the plastic we threw away, as well as killing marine life, eventually enters our food chain to further poison us.
Plastic is even turning up in the most remote and inhospitable parts of our wonderful planet now (as seen on the Arctic ice)- it's everywhere... The really sad thing is that most plastic that is created is single use and disposable - we are literally killing ourselves, and the planet, without conscious thought or need.
So, what can we do? Here are some really easy ways you can help:
- Be mindful - as ever, this is the key.
- Always recycle plastics - it seems obvious, but more than half of the water bottles used every day in the UK are simply thrown away; if you're out, make the effort and find the recycling bin - please.
- However, rather than recycle - downcycle; use less!
- Use reusable water bottles.
- Never use plastic straws
- Always take your own shopping bag - although things are getting better (in the UK and other places) it's still a problem. Even as late as 2015, it was estimated there were 11 plastic bags per 100 meters of coastline around the UK.
- Take reusable cups with you when you get your daily caffeine fix from your favourite coffee shop.
- Use soap rather than shower gel.
- Be sensible - try and go for products that either aren't packaged with plastic or it's recyclable plastic.
Even if you do recycle, please make sure you're doing it right - we all think we know how to do it (just thrown things in the recycling bin...), but there are issues to consider. The amount of recycling rejected has increased in recent years - and 97% is then sent to landfill or incinerated (kind of defeating the purpose) - due to contamination. Contamination means the rubbish either hasn't been cleaned before recycling or isn't recyclable. So, please just be slightly more mindful about recycling.
Be mindful, be happy and do some good today - help reduce plastic pollution!
Comments
Post a Comment