Plastic Pollution

Plastic Pollution

Pollution of the environment has increased through the years, and it is known that people are discovering that the pollution has got out of hand and therefore coming up with solution to counter the pollution in the world. Basically, plastic pollution is one of the major pollutants in all environmental pollution. As mentioned before the pollution in the world continues to grow everyday mainly due to the on the go lifestyle that we have adopted globally; this means that we have resulted to using easily disposable (plastic) products like water bottles, cans whereby the continuous use of such products without recycling continues to worsen the pollution that is already there; in form of air, land and water pollution. Plastic pollution can be described as where plastic has gathered in a particular area and it is affecting the environment negatively; the ecosystem affecting the wildlife, plants and the human population (Knight 2012).

There are specific serious effects of plastic pollution; this is because plastic as item that is not degradable or takes years to break down obviously will cause havoc on the environment; leading to effects on animals, plants and people at large.

Water conservation currently is a global initiative, plastic ultimately cause groundwater pollution; the water sources globally are in danger due to plastic waste. This is affected in the sense that it becomes part of a garbage dump and whenever it rains it leaks to the ground water; ultimately polluting groundwater and reservoirs. Additionally, the number one pollutant in the oceans and coastlines is plastics; this has an effect that in turn affects a lot of marine species; their habitat and ecosystem in general (Eriksen et al. 2014).

The effect is land pollution; plastic also accumulates on land, whereby when exposed to they react to form harmful chemicals. The chemicals then seep underground degrading the water quality. Another way is that plastic deposits are carried by wind to various places which causes litter; whereby animals might eat plastic during grazing or any other activity on land and might suffocate the animals. Additionally, the plastic might clog drainage systems and cause mild flooding.

Plastic also cause air pollution; this is when plastic burnt in the open; it releases harmful chemicals that cause air pollutions. The air polluted cause harmful effects on animals and humans degrading the health status by causing respiratory problems.

Additionally, plastic is poisonous, plastic is made through the sue of various toxic chemicals, whereby the exposure and the utilization of plastic has been discovered to cause various health problems (Sharma et al. 2017). Affecting people globally. That is why people are advised not to microwave food with plastic containers mainly because some of the plastic shed to the food, and if this is done long enough then it will lead to continuous plastic poisoning. Whereby even if one is still very careful about plastic; the storing, making disposing and being around plastic is considered to be very harmful to human beings.

Finally, plastic pollution is expensive; that is why actually it is a problem. Interestingly enough China refused to service United States’ plastic waste and returned it as it became hard to recycle, this includes other countries that were contracted by the United States to recycle the plastic waste because the process is expensive and laborer intensive. That is the cost that is only involved in cleaning the plastic pollution. There is loss of life to animals, plants and human beings; through the various ways in which plastic pollution affects the environment (Seltenrich 2015). It can be through destroying the habitats, through poisoning the water, soil and air.

The Best solutions for plastic pollution can only be created by companies, individuals; as directed by certain policy makers such as governments. All these mentioned groups can come together to have proper policies in place that will reduce waste; particular plastic waste in this case. Some of the solutions include;

Replacing plastic bags with reusable bags, having bags that can be used in every shopping trip it would save the plastic bags used for every shopping trip. Even the plastic bag can be reused and it will reduce the waste by almost 50 % of plastic pollution (Diaz 2018).

Plastic bottle not be used anymore, it is clear that water is very important and people drink lots of water daily, whereby plastic bottles have become a great way to be hydrated, however a better way to avoid accumulating plastic bottle waste is trough having a refillable bottle that you can use multiple times. Whereby this is an initiative that lot of companies have sold reusable bottles reducing exposure to leaking bottles and plastic waste. In relation to this point to go containers should not be use anymore; these are mostly sued in fast food restaurants; like coffee cups paper but insulated with plastic for insulation; the point still remains that the to-go containers should be replaced by reusable containers (Gourmelon 2015).

Another remedy is to educate business on danger on using plastic that in turn cause plastic solutions; and work with them to come up with better solutions and alternatives. Whereby this is something is underway where some businesses have replaced plastic containers and utensils with bamboo ones.

Having policies in place that would control plastic pollution is another great solution for this environmental issue. Speaking to lawmakers to make the government involved in controlling plastic pollution; that will encourage the development of policies control the use of plastic (Xanthos et al. 2017).

Finally recycling everything is the last and most powerful solution in this case; there are items tat are reusable because they are non-plastic but others are mot; but that is where one is supposed to make sure that they check everything before putting in the trash; because recycling is just using plastic for other reasons because it barely brakes down. Therefore, reducing the amount of plastic produced through not allowing the production of more plastic.

References

Diaz, Hannah M. “Plastic: Breaking down the Unbreakable.” Fla. Coastal L. Rev. 19 (2018): 85.

Eriksen, Marcus, et al. “Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea.” PloS one 9.12 (2014): e111913.

Gourmelon, Gaelle. “Global plastic production rises, recycling lags.” New Worldwatch Institute analysis explores trends in global plastic consumption and recycling. Recuperado de http://www. worldwatch. org 208 (2015).

Knight, Geof. Plastic pollution. Capstone Classroom, 2012.

Sharma, Shivika, and Subhankar Chatterjee. “Microplastic pollution, a threat to marine ecosystem and human health: a short review.” Environmental Science and Pollution Research 24.27 (2017): 21530-21547.

Seltenrich, Nate. “New link in the food chain? Marine plastic pollution and seafood safety.” (2015): A34-A41.

Xanthos, Dirk, and Tony R. Walker. “International policies to reduce plastic marine pollution from single-use plastics (plastic bags and microbeads): a review.” Marine pollution bulletin 118.1-2 (2017): 17-26.

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