Time to Reduce Use of Plastic

Bishaldeep Kakati

(The writer can be reached at deep.kakati99@gmail.com)

For a person living in the 21st century, it is nearly impossible to imagine his life without using plastic. That is why it is quite often quoted that, “Plastic is the fourth essential necessity, after the three basic necessities of life.”

The palpable fact is that be it for carrying commodities, packing items or for storing essentials, it is plastic that is more often than not the go-to solution for any individual. And the obvious reason for it is the fact that plastics are lighter that make it easier for persons to carry, and most importantly it is cheap which makes it commercially viable. The dominance of plastic is such that be it a place of residence or a place for carrying out official work, most of the items in such places are made up of plastic, making it one of the highest used item. However, there is another angle associated with the use of plastic that the people of the modern era intentionally or unintentionally try to ignore, and that is bringing some catastrophic effects to the biodiversity as well as to the planet as a whole.

The fact which most of the educated people are aware of is the paramount concept of ‘food chain.’ And to particularly know about the concept of food chain, we have to simply flip over the pages of the environmental science book that we read during our school days. The environmental science book clearly depicted a picture, where it was shown that the energy of the sun is used by the plants, and then those plants are eaten by small insects, small insects thereby are eaten by reptiles, and then the reptiles are eaten by dominant predators like eagles, vultures etc and in that way the chain goes on. Thus, the nature is designed in such a way, where one living being is dependent on another, and under that chain, human beings too occupy a pivotal place. But if by any means this chain is disturbed, the whole ecological balance would be in disarray and the conspicuous fact is that directly or indirectly the use of plastic by human beings is destroying the balanced food chain. However the pivotal question is: how is plastic affecting the food chain?

Plastic being a non-biodegradable material remains rooted to the earth surface without getting decomposed for thousands of years. And when that happens, it slowly snatches away the fertility of the land, making it a dead and barren land where the autotrophs (green plants) cannot grow. Thus this destroys the food chain to a large extent affecting the animals, but the main reason that has led to talks like banning of plastics, is its perilous impact upon marine life.

The lack of civic sense and carelessness among some human beings have made them believe that throwing of plastic wastage like bottles, polythene bags etc anywhere and at anytime is not a big issue. However, while believing so, they tend to completely forget the fact that those plastic items might be swallowed by animals, and that could lead to their death due to chocking. This attitude of human beings has unfortunately destroyed the life of many aquatic animals, with the recent case of the death of a whale due to plastic consumption on the Murican coast in Southern Spain being no different either. Moreover, videos circulating over social media showing tortoises being operated because of plastic accumulation in their nostrils, paint the painful picture of cruelty to animals because of unethical behaviour displayed by humans. Moreover, the astonishing fact is that India itself generates 56 lakh tonnes of plastic wastage annually according to a report by swachhindia.ndtv.com. And taking that into consideration, we can simply imagine how much the world as a whole would produce plastic wastage.

However, now it is high time some substantial steps were taken, globally or by individual countries in order to tackle this grave issue. Although it might not be possible to ban the use of plastic materials globally, but their use can of course be reduced by altering it with biodegradable products. Countries of the world can also take examples from specific countries like France, Rwanda, Sweden, Ireland, China etc where they have dealt with the issue of overuse of plastic in a serious manner, by implementing laws peculiar to those countries. The concept of ‘Go Green’ can also be further strengthened by opting for things made of jute, coconut etc for carrying items, and for the purpose of storing items, things like steel and copper might be a good alternative to plastic. People, on the other hand, must also be cautious about proper disposal of plastic items and they should not at any cost throw plastic debris in water bodies or in land areas which are common habitat of many species. Thus a little bit of effort on part of the humans might come in handy in order to eradicate the threat imposed upon the environment by the use of plastic.

Furthermore, it’s known to one and all that in the current context, the problem of plastic wastage is regarded as a more serious threat to the environment, even bigger than the threat of nuclear wastage. Experts have already estimated that in the near future, plastic wastage would turn hectares and hectares of fertile soil into barren lands. And the particular case of the death of the whale due to consumption of 64 pounds of plastic debris has once again questioned the logical interpretation of human beings.

Plastic in appearance might not look that threatening, but in reality, it can seriously lead to the extinction of many species, including human beings. But the sad fact is that no one can exactly tell the perfect solution for this problem since the use of plastic is an indispensable element of our day-to-day lives. Thus in the near future, it would be interesting to see the steps taken by the countries to reduce the drastic impact of plastic upon the environment. However, in the present time, more than anything else it is the change in the human attitude while dealing with the use of plastic that might necessarily turn out to be the game changer. But if the opposite happens, then slowly and slowly human beings would directly invite their doomsday.