Plastic Society: a Murder-suicide
One million – this number is not a
population of a city, or the amount of money a person needs to buy an apartment
flat in New York City. One million is the estimated years it could take for a simple
plastic milk container to decompose. In a world full of ephemerals this may
seem like the best material to use on banknotes or to create phone cases. It
certainly seems that way with almost all items in everyday use made of plastic,
such as packaging, computers and even clothes. However, for the sake of convenience,
people are slowly destroying the world through plastic. If mankind hopes to create
a sustainable future, recycling is not enough; they need to stop abusing plastic, for it brings
detrimental consequences to the environment, marine life and even mankind themselves.
In truth, people have long been aware of
the fact that plastic has negative impacts on the environment. They have, for
several decades, been educating people to “reduce, reuse and recycle”. However, what they need to know is the consequences of making plastics. The production of plastic spends a lot of
oil – about 10% of all the oil produced, and since the creation of plastic in
1907, the use of plastic has increased over 3000%. This not only means that oil
is becoming depleted at a faster rate, but also that the oil industry has
partaken in increasing greenhouse gas emissions which are created during the production
of plastic. In other words, plastic is polluting the air. On this matter, one may consider recycling as its solution, but they could not be more wrong. Not all plastics are recyclable, only type 1 and 2. Even those that can be recycled is only used for about 30% of the new plastic, the rest being completely remade. Another fact that should be brought to one's attention is what happens when plastics do not decompose. Apart from
the fact that plastic buried underground will stay under for what may seem like
infinity to an average human life span, it transmits its harmful chemicals to
the groundwater and reservoirs, which in turn, naturally effects plant life. Moreover,
not everybody throws away their plastics in the right places. Many tend to neglect
their duty as a plastic user to keep their trash in the trash bin, but instead discard
their plastic wastes wherever they may please. Eventually, these plastics find
their ways into the Ocean. In fact, it has been discovered that in the middle
of the Pacific Ocean there is a patch of plastics the size of Europe. This, like
every other plastic waste, will release harmful chemicals into the water,
contaminating one of mankind’s most important resources. Thus, it becomes apparent
that plastic destroys the environment.
It would be as horrifying as it is with
plastic devastating the environment, but unfortunately, plastic also destroys marine
life. One of the ways that plastic tramples on the oceanic life is through
fishing nets. These nets, like gigantic ice bergs, float around the oceans’ surface,
while dragging its large body under water acting like a trap for marine animals
as well as breaking off corals. The fishing nets, regrettably, continue to
circulate the ocean current constantly choking the ocean floor. Another way plastic
destroys marine animals is through plastic’s harmful chemicals. People are
aware of how injurious theses chemicals can be. Hence, they choose not to eat
plastic or drink hot water poured in plastic bottles. However, animals cannot
choose. When plastic wastes are broken down by nature into tiny pieces, some
even as tiny as plankton, they will and are being consumed by birds and marine
animals. In case of birds, many have died due to guzzling plastic wastes,
including baby birds that were fed with these synthetic materials. The
situation is no different for the marine animals. In fact, pieces of plastic have
been appearing in the bellies of fish sold in daily markets. In addition, earlier
this year in Germany, the stomachs of sperm whales contained giant fishing nets, a car
engine cover and many other plastic goods that should not be inside a living
creature. Although this has not directly led the whales to their death, it is
the unavoidable truth that marine animals and birds are becoming a victim to
the convenient human life style of plastics.
Unfortunately, plastic consumption is not only
entitled to marine animals but also people themselves. With marine animals
eating pieces of plastics, some broken down into a molecular level, it seems
obvious that people will consume plastic with fish or water as their medium.
However, there are other means. One of the harmful chemicals of plastic is bisphenol
A (BPA). BPA was at first created for birth control, but was deemed not effectual
and thus, was shelved. However, with time it was discovered that the chemical had
the ability to harden plastic. Since then, BPA has appeared in many plastic
products. The peculiar fact about this chemical is that it can be absorbed
through skin, receipt paper being one of the most popular BPA mediums. However,
as a hormonal chemical mimicking estrogen, when BPA is consumed it may cause breast
cancer, obesity and cardiovascular diseases. It is also considered as the
reason for the faster development of puberty on children. Apart from BPA there
are phthalates, vinyl chloride, dioxin and styrene which are all considered to
be a possible catalyst in creating cancer, as well as disrupting the human reproductive
system permanently. In other words, through contact or consumption of plastic materials,
people can and will die.
In order for mankind to have a future, a sustainable
one where nature, animals and their future generations can survive in, one of
the very first acts they need to carry out is to stop depending on plastic. Forget recycling; they need to look for ways to successfully deal with the current amount of
plastic circulating the world and replacements that is bio-degradable without
harming the ecosystem. If they do not make an escape from the plastic society
they live in and recognize the immediate issue regarding plastics at hand, they
will not only end up suffocating the earth but also their own life. It will
become a world-scale murder-suicide, a plastic bomb as the murder weapon.
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