Plastic Kills!

By: Nabiha Ahmad

The flying plastic bags in a thunderstorm and the heaps of plastic bottles and wrappers in an empty plot makes me worried. Apart from this, the plastic waste that gets pressed underneath our feet while we are enjoying picnic with our loved ones at the beach makes me wonder about the harm plastic cause to our world. This plastic pollution not only looks bad, but it also has many unpleasant effects on the earth and the creatures living on it. According to WWF(World Wide Fund For Nature) plastic is creating a 400-year problem which is 16 generations.

When we talk about the reason of plastic being extremely harmful, so we come across a very significant fact that plastic is an inorganic matter and a non-biodegradable waste i.e. it cannot be decomposed by microorganisms that are present in the soil. This is the reason it occupies space on the earth and the only few ways to dispose it off are burying it in the ground or burning it. However, if we burry plastic in the ground the microbes get affected and the living organisms in the soil gets stressed, so it is not fit for burial. On the other hand, if we burn plastic, many toxic gases such has hydrochloric gas are released in the environment and these toxic gases may cause cancer, asthma, etc.

Moreover, plastic is a threat to marine life. Many animals and birds have lost their lives due to plastics. The news of a ‘Plastic Whale’ with 30 plastic bags in its stomach found dead near Norway was all over the internet a few months ago. Furthermore, one million sea birds die every year due to plastic pollution in oceans. This is because the animals’ stomach gets blocked due to plastic waste and food cannot enter their stomachs. Also, 99% of plastic cause climate change which is one of the reasons why the deaths of many sea and land animals are increasing.

Ultimately, the humans are affected by the plastic pollution in many ways. They eat plastic, drink plastic and breathe plastic. This is because ¼ of fish that we eat have plastics in their gut, 83% of tap water samples contain plastic and micro plastics cause air pollution.

Therefore, if we want to save our world each one of us must contribute in it. The only way we can get rid of plastic pollution is to reuse and recycle it and not generate new plastic waste, keeping in mind that currently 91% of the plastic is not being recycled. In addition to this, we can find a substitute for plastic, for example we can use a jute bag instead of a plastic bag for carrying goods. Recently, most of the people out there are using plastic bags to carry most of the items starting from food to clothes and it is found that in the past 60 seconds 3000000 plastic bags and bottles were sold. Now, we need to stop using plastic and start collecting it for recycling as half of the world’s plastic comes from Asia.

Therefore, if we want to save our world each one of us must contribute in it. The only way we can get rid of plastic pollution is to reuse and recycle it and not generate new plastic waste, keeping in mind that currently 91% of the plastic is not being recycled. In addition to this, we can find a substitute for plastic, for example we can use a jute bag instead of a plastic bag for carrying goods. Recently, most of the people out there are using plastic bags to carry most of the items starting from food to clothes and it is found that in the past 60 seconds 3000000 plastic bags and bottles were sold. Now, we need to stop using plastic and start collecting it for recycling as half of the world’s plastic comes from Asia.