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Environmental sustainability is currently a cardinal concern for the world. Government and non-governmental organizations globally are embracing initiatives to facilitate the 3 R’s of waste management – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. While recycling is mostly a societal responsibility, reducing individual consumption of plastic items in the first place may help overcome their massive accumulation in nature.
Plastics take more than 400 years to degrade. Single-use plastic products used in packaging food and beverages are primarily below 50 microns and cannot decompose without incineration. Over 85% of them end up in landfills and water bodies, polluting the natural environment. About 6300 metric tonnes of plastic waste were generated by 2015, 9% of which was recycled, 12% incinerated, and 79% accumulated in the ecosystem. Continuing with the current waste management trends, approximately 12 billion metric tons of plastics will cover the globe by 2050. They will clog the sewerage, contaminate the oceans, and threaten the animals who consume them. Moreover, producing and incinerating plastics will release over 2.8 gigatons of carbon dioxide annually, contributing to air pollution and global warming.
Aligning with the scenario, many organizations work relentlessly to recycle plastic. Popular brands reuse PET plastic to make clothing and footwear products. However, as mentioned above, only a tiny amount of plastic waste worldwide is recycled. This encourages adopting the following measures at the grassroots to reduce reliance on plastic and benefit generations to come.
Eliminating plastic water bottles Bottled water generates 1.5 million tonnes of plastic waste per year. While it comprises the fastest-growing beverage market, valued at $5.55 billion in 2022, about 20,000 plastic bottles jeopardize oceans, coastlines, and other ecosystems every minute. Moreover, polypropylene, nylon, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) contaminate per liter of water with 10.4 microplastic particles. Consuming packaged drinking water may thus cause metabolic disturbances, neurotoxicity, and carcinogenic effects in humans. Replacing plastic water bottles with metal, glass, clay, paper, or plant-based bioplastic containers can boost eco-friendliness, promote good health, and reduce production costs to half.
Using reusable grocery bags Around 80% of water pollution is caused by plastic bags, killing around 100,000 marine animals and harming over 267 species annually. Over 200 animal species, including turtles, whales, seals, and fish, misapprehend plastic as food and die of choking. Even in landfills, plastic waste emits toxic chemicals on photodegradation, causing soil pollution and bioaccumulation. Thus, cloth or recycled paper bags can be excellent biodegradable alternatives to polythene bags and avoid environmental hazards.
Avoiding plastic straws and coffee cups Over 500 million straws are discarded in nature every day. While 2.5 billion single-use plastic coffee cups get disposed of in a year, less than 1 in 400 are recycled. Most straws and to-go coffee cups contain polypropylene which is non-compostable. Even paper cups can be internally wrapped with polymer lining and end up in landfills. Saying “No” to straws and enjoying cafe products in steel, ceramic, glass, or planet-friendly insulated tumblers can be a revolutionary step towards protecting the environment.
Adhering to the government regulations Aiming to curb the pollution caused by unmanaged plastic waste, the Government of India has banned manufacturing, importing, stocking, selling, and using single-use plastic products. The Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules 2021 increases the permissible thickness of plastic bags from 50 to 75 and then to 120 microns. A national-level task force and state governments are also developing a comprehensive action plan to manage plastic packaging waste in an environmentally sustainable way. The Government conducts awareness campaigns pan India and encourages innovative solutions through India Plastic Challenge Hackathons under the Swachh Bharat Mission. Such initiatives promise to mitigate the 3.6 lakh million tonnes of plastic waste the country generates presently.
Conclusion Every year, over 8 million tonnes of plastic pollute the land and oceans across the globe. While Covid-19 has added 25,900 tonnes of plastic waste with surgical face masks, PPE kits, and sanitizer bottles, plastic entanglement kills lakhs of animals and harms over 3 billion people worldwide. Thus, adopting preventive measures and reducing the use of plastic products is the need of the hour.
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Views expressed above are the author's own.
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