Detrimental Effects of abuse of Plastic
Shipra1*, Akshika1, Vaishali2 , Devender Choudhary2
- V.Sc scholar, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology, RAJUVAS, Bikaner
- Assistant Professor, Animal Biomedical Waste Technology Disposal Center, RAJUVAS, Bikaner
*corresponding author: sewdashipra2805@gmail.com
Plastic has become a common word now a days. Starting from small spoon used in our homes to be used in spacecrafts, plastic is something we are quite surrounded by. Plastic is non-biodegradable compound that lasts forever in the environment. Since its, fully synthetic plastic, invention in 1907 by Leo Baekeland, plastic has been reformed in many ways. Due to their low cost, ease of manufacture, versatility, and imperviousness to water, plastics are used in a multitude of products of different scale. As plastics don’t degrade over time, they just remain in the environment for years and thus polluting our surroundings.
People use 33% of plastic in form of carry bags, water bottles and dispose them after single use. As plastic is light weight, cheap and strong, it is feasible for every consumer to obtain a plastic bag and use it for once and discard it. A rough estimate in 2007 in Australia says that 2.96 billion of the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bags which are for a single use came from supermarkets out of a total of 3.9 billion. 300 million euro is the turnover of plastic industry in Europe alone. An estimate suggests that a hundred billion of plastic bags are used by people in US alone every year. And then considering about huge economies and populations like China and India, the numbers can be very disturbing and staggering.
Plastic itself is non-biodegradable and is produced from the non-renewable source of energy i.e. petroleum. The plastic ingested by the animals is more harmful as it chokes on the life of animals and remains intact even after death and decomposition of animal. It is more dangerous as it becomes a source for other animals to ingest. Plastic debris is both micro (2-5 mm) and macro (>20 mm) type. Nurdles is the micro debris that is recycled to make new plastic items and scrubbers is the micro debris from cosmetic industry. Macro debris includes mostly fishing nets, plastic grocery bags. Most of the plastic is dumped into the landfills. Every city has its dump yard on the outskirts and they burn the plastic and toxic gases get infused in the air producing respiratory distress. After being dumped into the landfills, plastic finds its way to water bodies, parks, streets and beaches. The impacts of plastic can be seen everywhere, on humans, animals and marine life. Government has taken initiative at every step but it has never proved to be long lasting. Single use plastics are discarded on a large scale daily and they block the drainage system and this is a major problem for developing countries. We as individuals have to take step to stop pollution by plastic. The question for us is why is plastic harmful? And the answer is clear to us, but nobody accepts it. It’s not the plastic that is problem, it’s what we do with plastic is a major threat.
Plastic is very harmful for human beings. Plastic disintegrates into small molecular level releasing toxic chemicals like PCBs, dioxins, phthalates, bisphenol A and polystyrene derivatives which are carcinogenic, hormone disrupting and neurotoxic and causes respiratory problems. Humans are easily exposed to these harmful toxins through skin, nose or mouth. Depending on the age and geography, the intensity of the harmful effect on human varies. It can cause dermatitis and eye sore. BPA affects fertility, can act as antiandrogen and affect sexual maturity, disrupt sperm production, reproduction, affects gene expression, decrease thyroid hormone receptor leading to hypothyroidism.
According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) plastic consumption in 2007 in India was 8.5 million tonnes. The use of different type of plastic and polymer used in them by a rate of 22% annually. The 5Rs (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Recover and Residual management) are the common base for waste management to promote ecological balance. The high-risk waste contains cyanide waste, dioxin-based waste, polychloro biphenyl (PCB), chlorinated solvents are highly mobile, toxic and bioaccumulative. The hills in India are major destination for tourists and a revenue source for people. But there is a great increase in nuisance by people as they generate landscape degradation. By 2018, the world started reducing the flow of microplastics by 1-2 % to eliminate micro beads from “rinse-off”.
8.8 million metric tons of plastic waste are dumped in the world’s oceans each year. Asia is the leading source of mismanaged plastic waste, with China alone accounting for 2.4 million metric tons. The major reason for decline in diversity of the world is activities of humans. Plastic has heavy harmful effects in every stage of its life cycle. Plastic affects animals on land as well as in water bodies. On land, plastic is moved around by wind and seen stuck on trees, traffic lights, fences and other places. It becomes easy for stray animals to ingest plastic that is scattered everywhere. People in India leave out their left over food in plastic bags and throw them directly into the garbage. Stray animals while ingesting food, take along the plastic, which chokes them to death and produce harmful toxins. The plastic that enters water bodies finds its way to oceans and is affecting our marine life. One of the major threats to oceans today is plastic pollution. A number of marine species are killed by plastic debris that is made of synthetic organic polymers. Plastic are mistaken for food by sea birds, fishes and other mammals and once they entangle it, they drown or become injured leading to impairment. Fishes and marine animals can also get entangled in the plastic nests and rings leading to death. Majority of sea turtles and black-footed albatross are affected. Every year, twenty tons of plastic debris are washed up on Midway and five tons of plastic ends up in gastrointestinal tract of albratoss chicks. Fishes, sharks and whales mistake plastic as source of food. Marine plastic facilitate the growth of invasive bacteria which kills the local colonizing ecosystem.
The Pacific Ocean has a great patch which constitutes of the garbage i.e. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The major zone of waste from Asia lies between Hawaii and California. The major project highlighting plastic in the patch was The JUNK Raft Project in 2008. The Clean Ocean Project (2008) was founded to decrease the marine pollution, in California. Boyan Slat started a project The Ocean Cleanup founded in 2013 using surface currents to collect debris with a goal of cleaning up half of the garbage of Pacific patch from 2020 in 10 years. A V shaped wall was placed in the middle of ocean to accumulate plastic floating in the ocean. The Mega Expedition found that majority of plastic floated within 3 meters of top surface. The Aerial Expedition emerged after the mega expedition when they collected debris of ~1m in size and the large debris remained intact. Several companies did multiple surveys and take part in Ocean cleanup in that area. In June 2019, Ocean Voyages Institute, the same organization behind the 2009, 2010 & 2012 expeditions, conducted a cleanup in the gyre and removed over 84,000 pounds of polymer nets and consumer plastic trash from the ocean.
Major steps are being taken by government agencies and private companies. But every individual plays an important role in combating with the pollution produced by plastic. Efforts are being put to use recyclable plastic. Places like super marts have started charging consumers for plastic bags and are emphasising more on the fact that people should carry paper bags or hand bags instead of plastic bags. 60% of plastic used in medical is now incinerated. Various food and environmental agencies have banned BPA from being incorporated into baby bottles and children’s cup. People are becoming more aware and have started taking a step ahead to not using plastic and making this world a safe place for themselves to live in. The Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, initiated a program to ban single use plastics and requested the public of India to join this mission and remove any single use plastic from day to day use. The ban aims to remove 6 single-use plastic items nationwide, including plastic bags, cups, plates, small bottles, straws and some types of sachets by 2022. The ban implanted from 1st July 2022. The CPCB Report (2019-20) states that 3.5 million metric tonnes of plastic waste are generated in India annually. This may improve the status of plastic pollution in India to a great extent. At the end of the day, it depends on the people of the world to acknowledge the issue and stop use of plastics as much as they can on daily basis. This has become a global issue and together we can limit the extent of the plastic pollution.
