Why the War Against Plastic is Needed?

Remember first plastic bag that carried your favourite toy home? Or that pack of chips that aroused your taste buds after a long day at school? What about that straw you used to quench your thirst? Do you remember that one?

Chances are these relics from your past may still be around. In your tap water, the sewer, in a heap of garbage on the outskirts of your city, in the ocean, in the intestines of an unfortunate animal.

A study published late last year found that 90% of all plastic waste in the oceans comes from just 10 rivers – all of them in India, China and Africa. Of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic produced since the 1950s, 79% lies piled up in landfills and oceans. Single-use plastics, such as food wrappers and plastic bags are two of the top five pollutants found in water bodies.

Closer home, in Patna, a cow underwent a three-hour long surgery as doctors removed 80 kg of polythene from her stomach. A few days ago, a whale died in southern Thailand after consuming 80 plastic bags. You may have had something to do with it. The whale in Thailand and the cow are not isolated cases; they are grim indicators of how non-biodegradable plastic has become a horrifying form of pollution.

The real problem with plastic is its negligible value (so people discard it without a thought) and its long life, causing it to accumulate on land, in rivers and in the sea where it disfigures countryside and harms wildlife. Plastic bags get into soil and slowly release toxic chemicals, end up littering the landscape. Clogging storm drains (costing municipalities millions in clean-up costs); and they persist in the environment, causing harm for a very long time.

The Central Pollution Control Board has estimated that India generates 15,342 tonnes of plastic waste per day, of which 9,205 tonnes are reportedly recycled. Some 40% (6,137 tonnes) remains uncollected.

Your garbage doesn’t cease to be your problem once you throw it out. It will come back to haunt you sooner or later. Solutions like biodegradable and compostable plastics available but they require us to and the corporations to take responsibility to go with these eco-friendly solutions. We need to demand that plastic bans be properly implemented. The government’s ban and dilute policy won’t work if officials are not serious about enforcing them. But eventually, what we need is a plastics-free world, and all of us need to pitch in and take responsibility for our trash.