Paper VS Plastic

Nothing describes the plastic pollution crisis better than what Laura Parker of National geographic wrote in the opening sentence of an article to explain the plastic pollution crisis the world is facing … “ Much of the planet is swimming in discarded plastic which is harming animal and possibly human health. Can it be cleaned up?”

Excerpts from the article amply describes the alarming situation …

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them.. Plastic trash has become so ubiquitous it has prompted efforts to write a global treaty negotiated by the United Nations.

The conveniences plastics offer, however, led to a throw-away culture that reveals the material’s dark side: today, single-use plastics account for 40 percent of the plastic produced every year. Many of these products, such as plastic bags and food wrappers, have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years



Key facts about plastics:

• Half of all plastics ever produced have been made in last 15 years
• Production increased exponentially; from 2.3 million Metric tons (MT) in 1950 top 448 Million MT by 2015 .
• Production is expected to double by 2050 (if NOT reduced)
• Every year 8 Million MT plastic waste escapes into the oceans from coastal nations alone.
• Plastics often contain additives, which makes them stronger, flexible and durable. These same characteristics extend their life if they become litter and may take 400 years to break down (and some may still remain in the form of micro or Nano particle)

How plastics move around the world

Most of the plastic trash in the oceans, earth’s; last sink, flows from land. Once at sea, much of the plastic trash remains in coastal waters. Once caught up ocean currents it can be transported around the world.

Over the years these plastics may be broken down into Micro plastics and then into Nano particles but still shall remain on earth as a deadly pollutant and harmful to all animals and humans.

Plastics kill millions of animals every year, from birds to land animals to fish to other marine organisms. Most of deaths to animals are caused by either entanglement or starvation. Plastics have been found to block digestive tracts of many animals resulting starvation and ultimately death.

Tests have also confirmed liver and cell damages and disruptions in reproductive systems prompting some species to produce fewer eggs. New research also shows that larval fish eating plastic Nano fibers in early days of life raising new questions about the effects of plastics on fish populations.

SOLUTION

The only solution is to reduce production and consumption of SINGLE USE PLASTICS (wherever possible) and recycle as much as possible thus preventing plastic waste to litter.

Improved waste management system, recycling and avoiding single use plastics can certainly mitigate this global problem.

Single-use or disposable plastic is commonly used for plastic packaging and includes those items that are intended to be used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. This includes plastic bags, bottles, straws, disposable coffee cups and lids, cutlery and plates and takeaway containers.

Major difficulties in Plastic waste management and recycling

• Plasticity is the general property of all materials, which can deform irreversibly without breaking but, in the class of mouldable polymers, this occurs to such a degree that their actual name – PLASTIC derives from this specific ability.
• Since it is produced by a polymerisation process all plastics have long chains of molecules linked to each other which provides it’s biggest positives characterics such as strength, durability, inertness (non reactive surface) are also it’s biggest negatives when it comes to waste management … it is totally NON BIODEGRADABLE and NON COMPOSTABLE.
• Many additives added to various plastics makes them even tougher to break down under the influence of environment
• Plastic is a family of polymers hence most plastics differ from each other in chemical composition hence are NOT compatible to collective recycling.
• This make it even more difficult to collect, segregate and recycle. For example Low density Polyethylene and polypropylene belong to same family of thermoplastics yet melting into granules cannot recycle them, as their melting points are different.
• Not all plastics can be reduced to a single common ingredient
• Very difficult to identify polymer from it’s finished packaging product hence difficult to segregate.
• Even if they are recycled a few times ultimately they will remain a burden on mother earth.

In comparison, Paper tends to come from a renewable resource in wood pulp, and other cellulose fibers hence are BIO –DEGRADABLE and compostable.
Paper can easily be recycled into pulp and then converted into paper, board and pulp board.

At the end of the day, by using paper and paper based products (wherever possible) even if it costs more in comparison to plastics (especially in packaging), user would be doing a great favour to mother earth and certainly to future generations.

Point to ponder….