Sustainable Development #13 Plastic Pollution
Happy weekend fellow steamians, my today's post is on the very worrisome global issue which is common both on the continent and in the ocean. As the world population continues to grow so does the amount of rubbish we produce, a large percentage of this rubbish are plastics.
Plastic is material consisting of any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic compounds that are malleable and so can be moulded into solid objects.
Plastics travel long distances. They are scattered all over the ocean, they are everywhere from the Polar Regions to the Equator.
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Plastic pollution involves the accumulation of plastic products in the environment that adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitat, or humans.
Over the past 50 years, global production of plastic has continued to rise, 299 million tons of plastics were produced in 2013, representing a 4% increase over 2012. Millions of tons of plastics end up in landfills and oceans each year. Our lifestyles and the continuous usage of using disposable products such as plastic bags, bottles have led accumulation of this products, therefore, increasing the amount of plastic pollution globally. Plastic is made up of toxic pollutants and has the capacity to cause major harm to the environment in the form of pollution (air, land and water).
Biodegradation of plastic
Plastic is a very durable material which is resistant to natural biodegradation processes as microbes and organism that break down food substances do not recognise it as food. Plastics are known to decompose, though not fully, over a very long period of time (within 100 to 500 years) on land and at sea between 450 to 1,000 years.
Factors responsible for the increase in plastic pollution
- It is less expensive and widely available for use.
- The use of fishing net also causes pollution as toxins are released from the net into the water body and some cases damaged fishing nets are dumped in the sea.
- Lack of plastic recycling facilities to curtail the production of new plastics.
- Unavailability of proper plastic disposal make people throw away plastics indiscriminately.
Effects of plastic pollution
- It causes land degradation as plastic do not decompose easily, toxins from plastic pollute the land.
- Causes groundwater pollution as a result of toxins from the plastics seeping into the ground.
- It negatively affects the tourism industry because plastic causes unpleasant sight of the coast.
- Plastic endangers animal life by trapping them in entanglements such as net which can lead to death.
However plastic pollution can be curtail by;
- Recycling of plastic.
- Reusing of plastic, e.g shopping bags.
- Using alternate packaging for drinks instead of plastic.
- Implementation of policies that dissuade the use of plastic.
- Avoid/boycott products that uses plastic for packaging.
There is a lot still to be done regarding the issue of plastic pollution. If not tackled land and water quality will be affected, also the ecosystem will be greatly altered.
Huuuuge issue here. Isn't there an island of plastic floating around with one of the currents in the Pacific, headed for the Arctic? For some reason, I seem to recall hearing about some organism engineered to eat plastic? That would be cool.
It is going to be a big disaster if those plastic makes it to the Arctic. There is no organism that feeds on plastic, it only takes human effort to clean it up.
I'm not being argumentative here, honestly providing talking points, but here is the result of a Google Search. It is a bacteria, and they also claim Wax Worms eat plastics. Now, I didn't find any extremely official sites talking about it so I wanted you to be able to use your own discernment on the search results if you felt like following up the conversation. Again, thank you for bring this topic up in this community! Very important.
We have been trying to cut back on our plastic consumption on my homestead too. Re-use has become my motto!
reuse is the best option since we can't do without using plastic.
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Hi @donfelix!
Amazing synchronicity - was contemplating the plastics problem more or less the same time that your post must have been coming to light.
The idea came up then to establish a Plastic Island community on a large plastic vortex, most likely in the middle of the Pacific - with the central theme being large scale mining/harvesting/recycling of the plastic, so reducing it's environmental impact.
One could start off using an old ship of a suitable kind as base. Over time one can build a habitable island out of stabilized plastic and establish a large scale recycling factory..etc, etc.
I think sponsorship for a project like that should be easy to come by!
We really need to avoid single use plastics and if we do not need plastics at all, let's just avoid.By doing so we will greatly reduce our plastic footprints