Reducing plastic waste
Average usage of a plastic bag is less than 30 minutes and its lifespan can be about 1000 years.
Plastic. Today it’s surround us everywhere. Most of today’s items either completely made of plastic or consist elements made of it. From manufacturing perspective it is cheap, versatile, easy forming and durable material and because it’s durable it’s quite harmful for the environment. We produced about 300 million tons of plastic waste globally every year, half of it is single-used plastic. Just a fraction of it, about 10% is recycled, but most of the plastic end ups on the landfills or in the oceans. To understand the seriousness of the plastic pollution problem let’s see how plastic is made.
From oil to polyethylene. Main products of oil refinery are different types of fuel: petroleum, kerosene, and diesel. One of the sub-products of oil refinery process is colorless gas named ethylene, which in free state does not present in nature. Ethylene is organic compound and widely used in chemical industry for plastic production. Further chemical reaction of polymerization turn ethylene into most common plastic material – polyethylene a synthetic polymer. Above transformation of oil sub-products through chemical reactions into synthetic polymer (polyethylene) does not occur in nature like it happen to rubber - natural polymer. As a result polyethylene can’t be degrading by bacteria in normal conditions or easily recycled like wood, aluminum, ceramic. Ultraviolet rays and ocean soil just divide plastic to smaller and smaller parts, but it does remain plastic. The further problem is that these small plastic particles can be later eaten by fish and animals getting into a lower level of food chain and eventually appear in our kitchen.
Alternatives to plastic. Since its invention in 1898 there have been number of types of polyethylene and plastic materials, which make segregation and recycling really hard, due to the fact that not every plastic can be recycled together with another type.
There are number of studies to replace oil based plastic. You can already find in some markets plastic bags labeled biodegraded, however biodegraded doesn’t simply mean good for environment. Special conditions like high temperature requires to decomposed biodegraded plastic by bacteria in a short time, however such conditions are uncommon for the landfill and the biodegraded bag can remain there same time as the regular one. There are further researches for plastic alternatives: prawn shell plastic, milk plastic. Another interesting study shows that plastic by certain chemical reactions can be turned back into diesel fuel, however this process is not that efficient yet.
Reduce plastic usage in our life this is what we as consumers can do to support the environment. Below are several alternatives to plastic products we use every day, some might be familiar to you from the past before plastic era:
- Canvas or cotton bags. Bring your own shopping bag, so you don’t need the plastic one, usually proposed by most markets.
- Glass bottle. Purchase glass or stainless steel bottle you can carry and refill. For home you may use water filters.
- Reusable straws. If needed use straws in glass, stainless steel, bamboo, or silicone.
- Bamboo tooth brush. You can try bamboo toothbrushes instead of plastic one.
- Reusable cutlery. Dine where they have reusable cutlery or bring your own.
- Non-liquid soap & shampoo. Most of us familiar with soap bars we used in the past, you can still buy it instead of liquid in plastic dispenser, you might be surprised, but shampoo is available in bars too.
- Matches. Plastic lighter are not recyclable. Look for the metal one, which you can refill or simply use matches.
- Digital media. Purchase or listen to music through famous web stores or services. Same approach for the movies. Most of the software can be also downloaded. Avoid buying layered plastic CD/DVD.
Although some of the above examples are quite practical and can be easily implemented there are also certain drawbacks of eliminating plastics. For instance plastic vacuum packaging for meat and soft fruits increases their shelf life and reduce amount of food we throw, due to spoiling. Switching from plastic packaging to glass or aluminum may increase overall product cost. Green packaging alternatives are quite expensive. Other industries like automotive, aerospace also highly depend on plastic materials.
Some conclusions. As we see plastic problem is more complex than we can think. Completely get rid of plastic can be very challenging and economically difficult. From the other side we need to move away from single use plastic materials, therefore production companies, scientists and government have to combine their efforts to solve the massive problem of plastic pollution. Smart decisions of eliminating plastic in the areas where its usage is unnecessary and adopting some its alternatives in to our life is a big step to the clean Planet.