The Plastic Generation

We tend to use it every day of our lives. We use it in the supermarket, to store our food and to throw our waste. Our dependence on it is almost equivalent to our dependence on mobile technology. Yet, it has only been around for less than a century. If you hadn’t guessed already I’m talking about our use of plastic.

Of course plastic has been extremely useful to humanity. Not only does it come in handy to carry out groceries in, it has made cars more fuel efficient and helped improve medical and mobile technology. Yet, it is wreaking havoc on our natural environments and has enabled modern humans stamp their mark on the fossil record for millions of years to come. So much so that plastic pollution is a defining factor which calls for the start of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene.

The reason for this is that plastic takes thousands of years to break down. Within this time, it could be ingested by several species who mistake it for food. The accumulation of plastic in animal’s stomachs, especially sea birds and whales have been well documented. The magnitude of the plastic problem is truly understood when photographs of dead birds on a deserted island reveal countless amounts of plastic in their stomachs. It is scary to think that it is possible that the weight of plastic in the ocean could outweigh all the fish by the year 2050.

One of the main reasons for our dependence on this killer material is the disconnect between manufacturer to consumer. We fail to think where our materials come from, how they are produced and where they go after we dispose of them. We are automatically drawn to the plastic bag at the checkout counter in the supermarket, just because it’s there and there are plenty of them to be used. On average we use plastic bags for just 30 minutes and don’t twice about throwing them away, giving hundreds of species a death sentence.

So are there alternatives? In most cases yes. We simply have to ask how did people manage before plastics became so popular? Groceries were carried in baskets or cloth bags and food was wrapped in paper. We can carry our own reusable water bottle instead of buying expensive bottled water. We can carry our own lunch box to bring home any leftovers after a meal.

France has just become the first country to ban plastic cutlery, an Indian man has made edible cutlery instead of plastic ones and plastic bags are banned in several cities and municipalities. The world has started to make a change, but each and every one of us needs to join in. Next time you’re tempted to put your groceries in a plastic bag, think about the turtle who will mistake it for a jellyfish or the baby bird that eats it for breakfast. I hope then, that you’ll refuse.

#Society #Environment