Plastic Pollution

Introduction

Pollution can be defined as

"The act or process of polluting or the state of being polluted, especially the contamination of soil, water, or the atmosphere by the discharge of harmful substances."

As we become more technologically advanced, we produce materials that can withstand extreme temperatures, are durable and easy to use. Plastic bags, synthetics, plastic bottles, tin cans, and computer hardware- these are some of the things that make life easy for us. But what we forget is that these advanced products do not break down naturally. Plastic bags are difficult and costly to recycle and most end up on landfill sites where they take around 300 years to photo degrade. They break down into tiny toxic particles that contaminate the soil and waterways and enter the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them. But the problems surrounding waste plastic bags starts long before they photo degrade.

When we dispose them in a garbage pile, the air, moisture, climate, or soil cannot break them down naturally to be dissolved with the surrounding land. Our planet is becoming increasingly contaminated by our unnecessary use of plastic carry bags. Big black bin liners, plastic carrier bags carrying advertising logos, clear sandwich bags, vegetable bags and a variety of other forms used to carry our daily food items and other items are all polluting our environment. Just take a look around you. Plastic bags can be seen hanging from the branches of trees, flying in the air on windy days, settled amongst bushes and floating on rivers. They clog up gutters and drains causing water and sewage to overflow and become the breeding grounds of germs and bacteria that cause diseases.

Deadly Facts

 A plastic milk jug takes 1 million years to decompose.

 A plastic cup can take 50 - 80 years to decompose.

 Recycled plastic can be used to make things like trash cans, park benches, playground equipment, decks, and kayaks.

 Special fleece-like fabrics used in clothes and blankets can be made out of recycled plastic bottles.

 Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1 million sea creatures every year.

 Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

 An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash, much of it plastic is dumped in the world's oceans every year.

 The worldwide fishing industry dumps an estimated 150,000 tons of plastic into the ocean each year, including packaging, plastic nets, lines, and buoys.

 About 1,200 plastic soft drink and salad dressing containers could carpet the average living room.

 Nearly every piece of plastic EVER made still exists today.

 Every year, around 500 billion (500,000,000,000) plastic bags are used worldwide.

 Over one million bags are being used every minute and they're damaging our environment.

 An estimated 15 lakh computers and 30 lakh mobile phones are disposed of every year in India.

Effects of Plastic Pollution

One of the major disasters due to the plastic pollution is the Mumbai's storm water drainage choking with accumulated plastics waste, making the floods unmanageable.

Walk down any city street or village road, turn any corner, find a spot at the beach or in a park and you will find mounds and mounds of dirty plastic bags, food wrappings, plastic cups, bottles and cartons lie piled high, or blocking drainage systems and sewers. The road outside our house is littered with flimsy multi-coloured plastic bags. The wind blows these bags into the open gutter. The bags collect and block the gutter which then spills on to the road. Mosquitoes thrive in the stagnant water. Pigs and rats wallow in the slime, carrying disease. The place stinks and the air is polluted.

Animals and sea creatures are hurt and killed every day by discarded plastic bags. Plastic clogs their intestines and leads to slow starvation. Others become entangled in plastic bags and drown. Because plastic bags take hundreds of years to break down, every year our seas become 'home' to more and more bags that find their way there through our sewers and waterways. Given India's poor garbage collection facilities, tons of plastic bags litter the roads, preventing rainwater from seeping into the ground. Hundreds of cows die in New Delhi alone every year when they