World Environment Day 2018
It seems that the war on pollution for this year is focused on plastic waste. Last April 22, the Earth Day celebration’s theme was “End Plastic Pollution”. The coming World Environment Day event this June 5 has also for its theme “Beat Plastic Pollution”, subtitled “if you can’t reuse it, refuse it”. The themes of these global environmental events are very timely because plastic has invaded our oceans and contaminated even our drinking water and food.
The World Environment Day to be celebrated next week was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. It was also on this date that the General Assembly created the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through a resolution. UNEP is the principal body of the United Nations in the field of environment. In the Philippines, the celebration is not just for a day. The whole month of June was designated as environment month through a presidential pr ocl amat i on.
Why the focus on plastic pollution? It’s because we are being ‘buried’in plastic waste. Around the world, 1 million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute. Every year, up to 5 trillion disposable plastic bags are used. Around 50% of the plastics are only used once and nearly one third of the plastic packaging escapes collection systems, which means that it ends up clogging city streets and polluting the natural environment.
Every year, up to 13 million tons of plastic leak into our oceans where it harms coral reefs and marine wildlife. The plastic that ends up in the oceans can circle the Earth four times in a single year, and it can persist for up to 1,000 years before it fully disintegrates. Worst, small plastic particles called microplastics are reaching the bottom of the food chain. This means that the fish we eat might already be contaminated with plastic.
In time for the WED celebration, the European Union Commission published a draft legislation targeting the ten worst single-use plastic (SUP) waste offenders, as well as plastic fishing gear. Together, these represent 70% of the SUP items counted in a survey of marine litter on European beaches.
The single-use plastics that the EU will regulate includes cotton bud sticks (with exception for medical purposes), cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks), plates, straws (with exception for medical purposes), beverage stirrers, and sticks and mechanisms to support balloons. Consumption reduction targets will be required for plastic food containers and drinking cups and EU member states will be obligated to collect (and recycle) 90% of SUP drink bottles by 2025.
Here in the Philippines we do not have a national law regulating or banning plastic though there are bills pending in both houses of congress. There are however many provinces, cities and municipalities that have local ordinances banning or regulating plastics.
For our part, there are many things that we can do. Stop using plastic straws, bring a coffee mug or glass to work, bring reusable shopping bags to the supermarket, avoid disposable plastic utensils and plates and avoid consumer goods in sachets. If we already have plastics at home, re-use old plastic bags or turn PET bottles into something usable. There are many instructional videos in YouTube on how to make plastic waste into arts and crafts.