Putting a Stop to Plastics' Revenge

The Issue

Plastic, what a wonderful material it is, a synthetic polymer we somehow discovered by reforming brown goo. It is sterile, cheap, accessible, and is easily produced. We use it for different purposes, from packaging for our commodities to components and essential parts of gadgets and machines we casually use in today’s generation. In spite of this fact, plastic still ends up to be the biggest contributor to land and water pollution.

What could be the cause?

With all the variety of uses of plastic, 40% of plastic is used as a packaging and disposable materials. You may think that DISPOSABLE means that if you just throw it away, it will disappear. Well it’s not that easy, synthetic polymers are so durable that it takes roughly 500-1000 years for it to decompose naturally. This means that plastic keeps on stacking up on landfills and most commonly on bodies of water, this then explains why plastic becomes a major contributor to land and water pollution.

You might think after reading this paragraph that we should consider banning plastic.

Well the answer would still be no. Plastic has served us many good things as well. In fact it has greatly contributed in preserving food. 1/3 of food is left to waste and is casually thrown away, this in turn lets them to freely release methane in our atmosphere which contributes to air pollution and the alarming global phenomenon called GLOBAL WARMING. In countering this, plastic can be used to completely seal food inside to keep it from oxidizing and from becoming off. Plastic can also be massively produced and serve as a container for our commodities and the other products we usually buy. Don’t even think that using Eco-friendly items as a substitute would work substantially in countering the harmful effect of plastic pollution, we’d still have to reuse this items repetitively at least a thousand times to see impact just because of the fact that we have to use this items to its fullest potential in order for it to take effect. On the other hand, plastic can be easily produced and can supply the demand of consumers immediately.

Plastic pollution may not yet be seen as a catastrophic issue, but if it’s not given significant attention we may consider ourselves doomed. As of now, micro-plastics roam around our oceans and are mistakenly consumed as food by the creatures of the ocean especially phytoplankton (primary consumer). This simply means that plastic is just making its way back to us, to our systems to be exact. We may consider ourselves consuming plastics by now to be honest.

How are we suppose to do this effectively you might ask?

It’s simple, just control our usage of plastic. Instead of using recyclable items, why don’t we simply use plastic repetitively? Plastic packaging as an additive material for bigger things like plastic chairs, plastic tables, and even bricks. Synthetic polymers are so durable that they can be reused numerous times. Imagine this on a macroscopic scale and see the possibilities of the world changing for good.