Stop plastic pollution — now or never
PLASTIC is a material we commonly see in our daily life. It’s light weighed, waterproof and durable which can be used in different ways.
Thanks to these characteristics, plastic production increases in proportion with population expansion. The world produces more than 300 million tons of plastic each year, including billions of plastic bottles and plastic bags. When the population expands to almost 10 billion people in 2050, it is expected that plastic production will be tripled. However, among the big plastic production, only a fraction of them are recycled, half of them we will just use once. From this perspective, the characteristics of plastic will be reversed to become terrible when we talk about getting rid of them. Think about it, almost every plastic made by human is on the Earth in some way.
Compared with the low cost of reproducing the plastics, recycling plastics is expensive. Most of the plastic waste is dumped in our environment (air, land and ocean). So, what can we do? As an individual, we need to memorize the three key words which are “reduce, reuse and recycle.”
How to reduce? If possible, we may use less plastic or use other material to replace plastic consumption. We have seen many retailers are now introducing reusable bags to replace plastic bags, changing plastic straw with paper straw. Those are good examples.
How to reuse? By definition, reuse means to use something again. When it applies to reusing plastics, we should consider using the plastic as many times as possible. Instead of throwing plastic bags away, can they be used again for shopping or can they be used as rubbish bags?
How to recycle? Many companies have started the initiatives for plastic recycling, for example, adopt mechanical way to recycle namely making the plastic become raw chemical material for other things, re-processing it to become engineering fuel, etc.
Companies should take social responsibilities but not profit generation only into consideration. No matter which industry the companies are in, they can all contribute to the stop of plastic pollution to some extents, for example they can use less single-use plastics in the business environment, they can organize volunteer activities to promote public awareness or they can invest more on the design of environmental friendly products etc.
Surely it’s easy to say than to act. Stop plastic pollution definitely cannot simply rely on individual or companies, it should be the action from the whole society and whole human being. Governments or nonprofit organizations from different countries around the world can help with the reduction of plastic pollution by imposing taxes to deter the production or use of single-use plastics, and/or offering tax subsidies and other fiscal incentives to encourage alternatives to single-use plastic products. They can also design globally adopted product
standards, certifications and labeling requirements to educate the public on the environmental impacts of plastic, and on the health and safety hazards involved in their production and use.
We all know that reducing plastic is not that easy, but it’s never too late to start. From now on, “reduce, reuse and recycle,” together we can make our planet better.