‘Reduce, reuse and recycle’ is often prescribed as the most effective mantra for curbing plastic persistence. The point is to find solutions to the plastic problem in a manner that converts the problem into a giant, profitable opportunity that creates decent livelihoods, profits and sustainability. This, of course, is a bit more complex than a simple, unenforceable ban. But it is also more sustainable.
Different countries are preparing to ban plastic. Several states and cities in India have already put in place bans on plastic in general or on single-use plastic. These bans basically serve to add to the income stream of protection racketeers, some of them entrenched in the state machinery, who would allow people to carry on with business as usual, occasionally penalising some offenders to demonstrate what would happen to those who refuse to pay the protection fee.
Plastic breaks down into smaller pieces and those small pieces into even smaller pieces, resulting in the end in things called microplastic. When polyester clothes are washed in a machine, very small particles of the material used to make the fibre break off and join the drained water, and these microplastics eventually reach the ocean. Using liquid detergents, rather than powder, reduces the abrasion and breakage of fibre when synthetic clothes are washed.
Reduce, reuse, recycle (RRR) is often prescribed as the most effective mantra for the problem of plastic persistence; some estimates hold that there are more plastic parts accumulated in the ocean than there are fish. Microplastic can enter the food chain and ultimately the human body. The consequences could be quite damaging. The problem is real, but the solution is not to ban plastic. Plastic is useful in ways that are beyond enumeration. From packaging to medical gear, from spectacle lenses to aircraft windowpanes, from strong but light machinery parts to the housing of most electronics, plastic is the mainstay of modern life.
Already, technology exists to make some kinds of plastic biodegradable. Polyolefins, a term used to describe both polyethylene and polypropylene in different forms, can be rendered degradable at speed by adding chemical additives called d2w and d2p, which make polyolefins biodegradable in the presence of oxygen.
The point is to find solutions to the plastic problem in a manner that converts the problem into a giant, profitable opportunity that creates decent livelihoods, profits and sustainability. This, of course, is a little more complex than a simple, unenforceable ban. But it is also more sustainable.
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