Plastic is a word that means pliable and easily shaped, it was first invented in 1869 which was said to be a revolutionary discovery which was a hard and durable substance with many benefits but yet with a lot of new inventions they become abused or overused. This is how convenience is destroying our planet. 1 trillion is the number of plastic bags produced worldwide each year. 1 thousand is the number of years it takes for a single plastic bag to full degrade. 3.5 million Tonnes is the new weight of bags discarded in a year. 10,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die each year when they become trapped in plastics or ingest it. It one of the most serious threats that our beautiful sea creatures like whales and dolphins face in the oceans worldwide. Marine life suffers greatly from the choices we make day in and out and we cannot expect someone else to clean up the problem we all need to do our part especially when we are in the best time where we have alternative options. This defeats the purpose of why plastic was originally invented as a means to stop harm to animals and elephants for their ivory as a use of material the issue is becoming far worse. Plastics outlive us, they almost last forever in our environment. There is now a toxic area, the largest in the world called ‘the pacific garbage patch’ a rotating current that is three times the size of France and contains 79,000 tonnes of plastic. This waste eventually starts to break down over decades into tiny fragments referred to as micro-plastics and these toxic particles get into our food supply when they are eaten by fish and then us which can penetrate our internal organs and allow toxic chemicals to enter the body. So where do we start in order to make this change? We need to start off by avoiding using single use plastic. We can all bring our own reusable shopping bags, say NO to straws (and as a fact the exact number of straws used worldwide is unknown however in the US 500 million straws are used daily. ‘It’s just one straw’ you say. In Australia we are starting to become more aware of other ways we can save, reduce, reuse and recycle. The good news is lots of conscious companies are getting on board now with helping to reduce single use plastic such as being able to purchase a ‘keep cup’ to use for coffees, hot drinks, smoothies and juices and receive a discount off the total purchase price. We need more business and companies to promote environmental protection we should have a 10c refund on all single use drink bottles and cartons. We can opt for the veggies and fruits in the shops that are ‘loose’ and not packaged already, use bio degradable bio-plastics turning back to plant based sources like based cutlery that breaks down much quicker and also cafes are now starting to sell metal reusable straws, we can use reusable bottles and therefore if we show support to these types of campaigns we will start to set a positive trend all around. Scientists are working on solutions that we could break down plastics better and found organisms capable called wax worms and meal worms and found a microbe that can decrease the time of degrade from hundreds of years to only a few days. The estimate if serious changes don’t happen is by the year 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. We are basically turning the world into plastic which will eventually be uninhabitable if we don’t each starting making better choices. One person can easily make a difference to reduce our footprint on this planet. © References dailymail.co.uk Nationalgeographic.com Sciencehistory.org Author Daniela Cavallaro
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