Plastic era
Where did plastic come from ?
in 1862 at London International Exhibition, Alexander Parkes introduced first ever man made plastic. plastic was first marketed as an alternative to ivory and horn that Mr. Parks discovered while trying to develop a synthetic substitute for shellac for waterproofing. yes that’s right waterproofing was the main reason that plastic was created.
Why did we like it ?
have you ever tried to make something waterproof without using plastic as the main material? it’s hard and expensive right? that’s the main reason for why we liked plastic. Plastic is cheap, sterile, convenient and its invention changed our lives. But was it a good change or bad one?
We use plastic a lot !
while you are reading this article, look around you, how many of the objects you see does have plastic as their main material? yes we use plastic a lot.
to give you a small example :
we buy 1 million plastic bottles every minute around the world
yes it’s true, based on an article by the Guardian 1 million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute, and this number is set to increase 20% in 2021 if we don’t act.
in another example we have the usage of plastic bags
we use 2 million plastic bags every minute, world wide
based on a 2014 article of ECO WATCH , between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide annually.
where are we going to end up eventually?
PLASTIC ERA
Plastic era is when plastic basically rules the world and we can not find our way out of it.
think about it, where do you think that plastic water bottle that you bought this morning will end up eventually?
recycled ?
looks like its improving, but it has the cost problem, so we can not recycle it as much as we should and it will eventually end up in our oceans and land.
did you know there are garbage islands these days ? yes imagine an island which is created by trash and plastic! here is VOX to explain :
this plastic which is floating on the water breaks down to small pieces which is called “Micro plastic” and it becomes a bad source of food for the animals of the ocean which then means they are a bad source of food for us.
What should we do ?
It’s not easy being green . it’s not easy to only use ECO – FRIENDLY products , it’s not easy to ban plastic at once but if we look at the path we are going we can see it’s not very beautiful so we have to bear a little hardship to change it.
one of the easiest ways that you can reduce the amount of plastic is to start reusing what you already have. whether it’s plastic, glass or any other material that you already bought. by reusing what we already have the demand for plastic will naturally decrease. with lower demand for plastic, manufactures are forced to reduce their production . this means lower air pollution , lower demand for fossil fuels and eventually less plastic. By spreading awareness about plastic pollution, we can help to end this plastic era and hope for a cleaner future for our children.
Credits :
BBC
NATGEO
THE GUARDIAN
GLOBALCITIZEN
VOX
CNBC
