Plastic-Free Communities and Alternatives to Single-Use Plastic
Plastic is now all around us in all parts of our lives. Plastic is a huge part of all stores. We drink and eat out of plastic. Unfortunately, it is a huge part of our lives because we throw plastic out so easily and so often. The problems with this behavior is that plastic does not go away. Plastic can be around for hundreds of years.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), each year the world creates more than 400 million tons of plastic waste. About 200 million of this plastic waste is created with the purpose of being used only once. There is a huge problem with people being able to justify using a product for a few minutes that could be used hundreds of years later.
Plastic is used to create many items to complete everyday tasks like shopping bags, straws, cutlery, food packaging, and plastic bottles. There is huge convenience in the use of all of this plastic. But convenience is never free. Convenience can be the largest payment of all. We ruin our planet with convenience. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) explains that harming plastic is so common for many marine animals now that it has become a form of food to them, and because of this many marine animals die of starvation.
Because of so many of these problems, many world communities have started to try to create plastic free communities. Plastic free communities does not mean there is a total elimination of all plastic. That is the largest goal of all to achieve and not realistic at this point. A more reachable goal, and what a community can actually work towards, is the reduction of the community’s need for using plastic in a wasteful manner and the creation of more sustainable ways to fulfill these community needs. Some communities are setting great examples. In India, local governments, schools, and community members are utilizing cloth bag campaigns, waste segregation programs, and plastic collection drives. Habitual change on a large scale requires small consistent efforts.
What can alternatives to single-use plastic look like? Cloth bags are one of the simplest alternatives. They can be used many times while plastic bags can only be used once. Another option is using a stainless steel water bottle. This decreases the need for plastic water bottles and can be used for years. Cafés and restaurants have also begun using paper packaging, bamboo utensils, and plant based compostable containers.
There are also some innovations worth getting excited for. Bioplastic materials are being developed from seaweed, corn starch, and sugarcane waste. They can greatly reduce the waste plastic offers to the environment and also decrease the plastic pollution. They are not a perfect answer to the problem as they still require a lot of consideration for disposal. Finally, there are options available to consumers. They may be small changes such as not using a straw, or introducing a metal or wood utensil, or a bag while shopping to reduce the use of plastic, but when done by many consumers the impact is actually large.
Key Data on Plastic Pollution
- The world produces over 430 million tonnes of plastic every year, and about 50% is designed for single use(UNEP).
- Only 9% of plastic waste is recycled, while most ends up in landfills or the environment (OECD).
- A plastic bag is often used for just a few minutes but can take hundreds of years to decompose, whereas a cloth bag can be reused hundreds of times (UNEP).
- People buy around 1 million plastic bottles every minute worldwide, making reusable bottles a much more sustainable option (UNEP).
- About 11 million tonnes of plastic enter oceans annually, harming over 800 marine species through ingestion and entanglement (UNEP, IUCN).
- Studies suggest that the average person may consume the equivalent of one credit card’s worth of microplastics each week through food, water, and air (WWF).
- Conventional plastics can remain in the environment for centuries, while many biodegradable alternatives can break down within months under proper conditions.
Ultimately the change cannot be the burden of the consumers. Businesses need to change their packaging. There also needs to be an investment in the infrastructure for waste management, and stricter laws from the government. True change is an intersection of all of these factors.
Plastic pollution develops gradually and so does plastic waste removal. Lots of motivated communities across the world are helping the planet. They limit single-use plastic consumption and maximize their use of plastic alternatives. They are creating cleaner environments and healthier ecosystems and decreasing their plastic waste. Positive environmental changes can start with just the choice of eliminating the use of plastic bags.
References
- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – Beat Plastic Pollution
- UNEP – Turning Off the Tap: How the World Can End Plastic Pollution and Create a Circular Economy
- World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – Plastic Pollution and Marine Wildlife
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – Global Plastics Outlook
- United Nations – Plastic Pollution Facts and Solutions
- World Bank – Addressing Plastic Waste Pollution
- International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – Marine Plastic Pollution
References for data