Effort level: ★★★
Plastic is everywhere. Look around you. I’ll pay you five bucks* if you can’t find a single thing made of plastic in the room you’re in. You can’t (Unless you did, in which case I owe you five bucks**). Chairs, tables, whiteboards, even your chromebooks are made of or contain plastic. Why? I’ll give you three reasons: 1. Plastic is cheap, 2. Plastic is durable and 3. Plastic is flexible. In other words, plastic is the ultimate material, the pinnacle of human invention, applicable anywhere with almost any product. It’s almost unbelievable that such a material was created by accident. But this miracle material is also one of the most dangerous things humans have invented.
It is estimated that 12 million tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean every year by the USA. About 100,000 marine animals are found dead each year due to plastic, and that’s just the ones we find. But perhaps the most interesting effects are the ones we can’t see. Microplastics are small pieces of plastic, able to slip by water filtration systems with relative ease. What, exactly, does that mean? For one, it means that some of the water you drink contains plastic. In fact, around 240,000 microplastics and nanoplastics can be found in bottled water. The biggest issue with plastic is that it’s not biodegradable. It just stays there… for years. For centuries, possibly. It fills up our landfills and the burning of plastic waste expels carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In the case of our health, microplastic may be responsible for heart attacks and other health problems. So how do we avoid this?
The issue is that we can’t. Again, plastic is everywhere. It’s impossible to just decide one day ‘no more plastic’ and do it. Still, what we can do individually is to reduce our usage of plastic. Here are a few ideas.
- Don’t drink bottled water
Water is a necessity. But you don’t need to get it in plastic bottles that you’re just going to throw away when you’re done. Use water bottles made of stainless steel, or if you have to use plastic water bottles, keep good care of them and don’t throw them away until you absolutely need to.
- Avoid plastic made products
If you’re not buying plastic, more won’t be produced, and less gets thrown away. This isn’t always easy, as plastic is cheap and convenient, but if you can, do.
- If you have to use it, make it last
The biggest issue with plastic is that people throw it away too frequently. Moderation is important. Make the product last for as long as possible, and try not to replace it unless you absolutely need to. This way, less plastic makes its way into the oceans and into our bodies.
It may not be easy, and it may not be convenient, but if we all do it, the amount of plastic will go down significantly and maybe, just maybe, we can save our planet.
*No, I won’t
**No, I don’t
