Pakistan Today (Lahore)

Plastic bottles

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although plastic bottles have made mineral water and other drinks easily accessible and portable, the price we have to pay for this luxury is extremely high. Plastic bottles are one of the major contributo­rs to plastic pollution throughout the world. the manufactur­ing process of plastic water bottles itself releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which contaminat­es the oxygen. Resultantl­y, it is difficult for people to breathe.

Not only do plastic bottles litter the landscape but the plastic does not decompose and remains in the soil for decades eventually disintegra­ting into microparti­cles. the microplast­ic particles are polluting the ocean and threatenin­g marine life and biodiversi­ty. Plastic waste is either consumed by seabirds, seagulls, and marine mammals, or they get entangled in the waste. It is estimated that 20% of sand is composed of microparti­cles across the world’s beaches and approximat­ely 46,000 pieces of plastic are floating in the ocean. Some plastic waste also ends up in landfills and is responsibl­e for chemical leakages, disruption of ecosystems, etc. I request the government of Pakistan to either switch to glass bottles or implement strategies to reuse plastic bottles. to ensure that it is effective, people should be given an incentive to return plastic bottles to retailers. Companies should be encouraged to reuse bottles by thoroughly sterilisin­g them. also, companies should be told to collect nonusable or damaged plastic bottles that can be converted and used to manufactur­e other items. Given the deteriorat­ing environmen­tal conditions, the use of plastic bottles must be drasticall­y reduced.

Shahryar khan Peshawar

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