The World Is Addicted To Plastic
We are in the 21st century, where plastic is already deeply embedded in our daily lives.
They are all around us, and we can’t live without them; in health, transportation, production, household, and security, they are everywhere, and it is unimaginable replacing them with other substances. Like it or not, plastic is here to stay.
One trillion plastic bags are used in the world every year, with ‘service’ time averaging only 15 minutes on average. Studies say that plastic production is up from 2 million tons in 1950 to 380 million tons in 2015. In 2050 the figure will close to 34 Billion tons. People are getting more and more dependent, and we are addicted to plastics.
Oceans Of Plastics
More and more campaigns to reduce plastics to save the environment and the earth are launched everywhere on the globe.
From environmentalist NGOs to politically correct government-made initiatives in various scales to reduce or even ban plastics 150 years ago, plastic was invented as a light, strong, and yet cheap material.
Not only do they bring conveniences to our everyday lives, but it will be hard to believe that they actually have saved wildlife.
If plastic had never been invented, piano keys and billiard balls would still be made of ivory.
As time goes on, more and more things made from metal, woods, and stone are replaced by plastic. Its versatility is unmatched. So many conveniences are brought by plastics that are not provided by other materials.
The demand for plastics is so high that the trace left behind is also immense. About 8 million tons of plastic pollute the sea every year. This is the biggest negative side of plastics that everyone hates the most.
Metal rusts, organic matter decomposes, but plastic takes hundreds of years, if ever, to degrade back into its original element. Plastic waste in landfills will still be there for a long time.
A Superhero Or Supervillain ?
People were shocked upon hearing the news that several ‘ garbage patches ‘of epic proportion are formed in all the oceans. Plastic waste floating in the oceans is driven by sea currents and accumulates in an area, the largest and most famous being ‘The Pacific Garbage Patch’.
The area has reached 1.6 million square kilometers, about three times the size of France. It will require more than 450 years for the plastic to turn its form back to the molecular level. This problem poses a big threat to the whole ecosystem.
Not to mention that when disintegrated, larger plastic parts fragment into microplastics that go inside the bodies of marine life, which in the end also accumulate in the human body. Scientists have been studying the patch, and huge efforts are being made to clean up this mess. Yet after all this tragedy, we still can’t turn our backs on plastic easily. There’s no way back.
The Culprit
The increase in plastic development and application of plastic is so rapid worldwide. However we can see that different countries have different policies and systems for handling its waste.
While landfills and incinerators are most commonly used to solve waste problems, some countries don’t have any good systems for collecting and processing their wastes from household on to the final disposal facilities.
Many people still dispose of their waste in the river, which eventually ends up in the ocean. This is one of the main causes of the horrific marine pollution we are seeing right now.
Paper;
A False Prophet
Many believe that going back to paper is the perfect solution for the environment. However, we will have to think more comprehensively to make this decision.
It is unarguably true that a paper bag will disappear in just weeks if left out on the ground or in the ocean, while plastic bags will take way more than decades; thus, paper does seem to be friendlier to the environment, but the production process of paper needs a far greater amount of energy and water for the same amount of material.
Compared also with metal and glass, the production process of plastics requires a lot less energy and produces less harmful waste.
With improvements in material efficiency and better processing technology, plastic products are now thinner, lighter, and more durable.
Because plastic is resistant to corrosion, impact, UV rays, and many other environmental factors, it doesn’t have to be replaced as often as other materials.
Whether it’s used for components in a piece of machinery, underground sewage piping, or a reusable water bottle, it can help save time and expense by reducing the need for maintenance and replacement
Being in the plastics industry, we have known all along that plastic provides lightweight, energy-efficient solutions for plastic packaging, both in its processing and transportation.
If you compare the use of resources in manufacturing paper compared with plastic, in water usage alone, the cost is much higher given that potable water is a resource that is in short supply in many regions of the world.
Many believe that going back to paper is the perfect solution for the environment. However, we will have to think more comprehensively to make this decision.
It is unarguably true that a paper bag will disappear in just weeks if left out on the ground or in the ocean, while plastic bags will take way more than decades; thus, paper does seem to be friendlier to the environment, but the production process of paper needs a far greater amount of energy and water for the same amount of material.
Compared also with metal and glass, the production process of plastics requires a lot less energy and produces less harmful waste.
With improvements in material efficiency and better processing technology, plastic products are now thinner, lighter, and more durable.
Because plastic is resistant to corrosion, impact, UV rays, and many other environmental factors, it doesn’t have to be replaced as often as other materials.
Whether it’s used for components in a piece of machinery, underground sewage piping, or a reusable water bottle, it can help save time and expense by reducing the need for maintenance and replacement.
The energy used to transport goods in trucks is much higher when shipping cardboard and paperboard.
For example, a fact sheet provided by the ACC notes that 2,000 plastic retail bags weigh about 14 kilograms, while 2,000 paper grocery bags weigh 130 kilograms.
For every seven trucks needed to deliver paper bags, only one truck is needed for the same amount of plastic bags. Additionally, it takes 91% less energy to recycle a kilogram of plastic than it does to recycle a kilogram of paper. Plastic bags generate 80% less waste than paper bags.
By using less material, plastics play an important part in our everyday lives by reducing the greenhouse gas effect and saving energy.
Counterintuitively, plastics help us protect the earth by reducing waste, cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions, and saving energy at home, at the office, and on the road.
Plastic insulation, sealants, and other building materials help us reduce energy consumption on heating and cooling.
Plastics are durable, long-lasting, lightweight, cheap, and can be easily formed; they replace many products.
Its application is endless, thus the consumption is increasing very rapidly. It is an undeniable fact that the long-lasting feature of plastics has an impact on the environment; things or packaging that are no longer needed do not easily disappear from our sight.
They are accumulated as waste in landfills and many other places around us. Its other feature, recyclable friendly, has actually provided some clues on how the problem is supposed to be solved and also to supported cutting down carbon emissions, and sustainable growth.
Plastic packaging provides protection from contaminants, oxidations, and decays. Some foods last longer in storage thanks to plastic.
With so many benefits provided by plastics to our wellbeing, the way to go is not to reduce and eliminate plastics and go back to paper, glass, or metal, but to mitigate the ugly side of plastic waste.
The Way Out
Research to find a ‘Holy Grail’ of environmentally friendly plastics seemed to have ended when several companies claimed to have found it.
Using whole or partially plant-based materials, they claimed that their product would degrade quickly and naturally in nature.
While some of the product failed to provide all the positive features of plastics such as strength, clarity, etc. Most of them required more energy to produce, which meant they would promote global warming.
A study initiated by Imogen Napper and Richard Thompson from the University of Plymouth England, compared four samples, namely Compostable, Biodegradable, Oxo-degradable, and conventional plastic.
The biodegradable, oxo-biodegradable, and conventional plastic formulations remained functional as carrier bags after being in the soil or the marine environment for over three years.
The compostable bag completely disappeared from the experimental test rig in the marine environment within three months but, while showing some signs of deterioration, was still present in soil after 27 months.
Another alternative is proposed by oxodegradable products. It uses certain additives in conventional plastics so they will oxidize and rapidly disintegrate. But this solution posed even more problems than it solved.
Instead of being degraded, plastics just fragmented into tiny particles called microplastics, unseen by our naked eyes. Microplastics are now already found in oceans, rivers, tap waters, and wildlife.
Most of these environmentally friendly plastics are now used only once and only to be disposed of in nature or incinerators, no different than conventional plastics.
The Strategy
Another strategy that we can use is to build an integrated platform for all the stakeholders, like governments, corporations, and industry, to look at the same data and information. These stakeholders often have difficulties aligning their actions.
To solve a waste problem, we have to start with good waste management.
A good waste management system of collection, transportation, sortation, and solution will be the spearhead if we ever want to solve this problem.
Building a circular economy is the next step in solving the plastic waste problem. Putting recycled plastic material in road construction has been introduced. The use of recycled materials is also encouraged.
Indonesia, along with the Global Plastic Action Partnership, have set a target of reducing of plastic waste in the ocean by 70% by 2025. Several strategies have been proposed including gathering local waste processing plants and encouraging collections of plastic waste to be fed to recycling plants.
Managing waste produced by households and industries must be improved if we want to reduce plastic waste in the ocean significantly.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Maritime has also issued some policies and innovations on the usage of recycled materials and how materials are processed.
Living in Harmony With Plastic
However, there are some easy steps that we, as individuals, can take.
Getting along with plastics as simple as using it wisely and efficiently way before it is used, using them only when really needed, reusing them whenever possible, and disposing of them in a way that is convenient for a recycling company to process further (washing, crushing, recycling).
The main thing about the plastic waste problem is that these wastes are not where they are supposed to be.
Everyone is a link in a waste management chain. Recycling should be expanded more aggressively, considering just 10% of plastics are recycled right now.
All plastics can easily be recycled as long as they are not intermixed, as there are many kinds of plastic and purity is of the essence here.
What the people can easily do about waste is first reduce it and sort it by composing organic wastes, then sort recyclable and non-recycleable wastes.
Basically, plastics are easy to recycle as long as they are not mixed with or contaminated contaminated with other materials.
Waste management can actually become a profitable business, like some people do in Bekasi, West Java. They create a movement called Waste4Change, which collects and sorts waste and sells it to recycling plants. Waste4Change founder Bijaksana Junerosano said “We collect and sort household waste in more detail into 30 types of waste”.
We don’t have to wait for the scientists to do their job and discover the ‘holy grail’ or the government to produce laws.
We can start with ourselves because the earth is ours and it is our responsibility to protect and maintain it.