Our Planet Is Slowly Sinking In Plastic & We're Doing A Terrible Job Of Keeping It From Dying

Enough is enough. It¡¯s high time we saw and acknowledged the terrifying effects of plastic pollution around us.

From our homes to our surroundings outside, we're all slowly sinking in plastic. The entire world can be said to be wrapped up in plastic, if you come to think about it. Everything in your fridge, your bathroom and even everything on your desk right now is plastic.

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So what¡¯s the problem?

Well, to begin, plastic takes a minimum of 450 years to break down once it reaches the sea. Plastic, even if it's ground down into tiny pieces, doesn¡¯t dissolve. The oceans are slowly being choked with it: there's an estimated 8 trillion kilograms of plastic that lands up there every year.

By 2050, it's estimated that there will be more plastic in the sea than fish.

This plastic then makes its way to our dinner tables, and eventually ends up inside us. To put it bluntly, humans could be ingesting as much as 5 grams of plastic each week.

Reuters

The effect?

Environmentalists have warned us for a long time about the 'environmental travesty' if we don¡¯t change the way we¡¯re living on this planet.

We believe that the time for these kinds of warnings is officially over. Our oceans are already sick and the ecosystems are half dead or dying. Not just fish, even sharks and dolphins aren't immune. They're all heading towards extinction.

Plastic is also a sincere waste of our planet¡¯s natural resources. It¡¯s estimated that it takes around 100 million barrels of oil to make the world¡¯s plastic bags. And plastic also contains toxic acid chemicals which adversely affect our health. Yet we keep going.

The solution?

Here we've listed a number of ways that can help you reshape your relationship with plastic usage:

1. Educate yourself.

For you to succeed at this kind of activism, you need to start learning about the environment. We¡¯re here to help. Get on the internet and search the following:

1. Please go sign the petition ¡®A Million Acts of Blue¡¯ that is right now urging the CEO¡¯s of companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi and other corporations that package their products in plastic to stop. This is important as the responsibility needs to be put back on these companies for creating plastic products in the first place.

2. 16-year-old Hannah Testa is taking on the plastic crisis head on. Hannah has been urging companies to use cups that are more biodegradable, as regular plastic cups often have an inner plastic lining. She also works with local restaurants and is helping them switch from plastic straws to paper straws. About five years ago, she convinced the first restaurant in her community to make that switch.

3. Instead of watching a romantic comedy tonight, please spare an hour to watch the documentary A Plastic Ocean. In A Plastic Ocean, Australian journalist Craig Lesson teamed up with free diver Tanya Streeter, scientists and researchers to uncover the alarming impact of plastic on marine ecosystems around the world.

2. Say 'no' to single-use plastic.

By single-use plastic we mean anything you use once and throw it away: water bottles, straws and plastic bags. Stop paying for plastic and eliminate it from your life stat.

3. Stop buying water bottled in plastic bottles.

We as consumers really need to go hard on packaged drinking water that comes in plastic bags. 39.5 million are bought everyday in India, and only 10 per cent percent of them are properly recycled. The remaining find their way into a landfill or our water bodies.

4. Accept restaurant deliveries without plastic.

Most online food-delivery apps today have a section for special instructions. All you need to do is copy-paste the following:

¡°Please don¡¯t send me any plastic cutlery, tissues or any single-use plastic.¡±

Majority always wins, right? So if a lot of us start placing such requests, restaurants might stop purchasing or restocking their plastic inventory which will then reduce the demand of these products and that itself will make a huge difference.

5. Start swearing by reusable cups.

Sounds pretty straight forward right? Just remember:

Coffee at work? Get a cute mug. Water on the go? Get a steel bottle. Most of them keep water chilled all day long. Water at home? Grab a glass or glass bottle.

6. Avoid plastic straws.

Every year, Indians use 390 million straws per day. Currently, plastic straws are the eight most found plastic trash in the oceans. Switch to metal straws because by carrying your own straw, you are actually saving a plethora of sea animals and fish.

7. Use bamboo products.

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Since bamboo requires no chemicals and very little water to grow, it is a wonder plant. It also releases more oxygen into the environment which improves air quality.

That¡¯s why it makes sense to switch from plastic to bamboo products: really great quality bamboo toothbrushes, hair brushes and even cotton swabs. Also, they are priced quite cheap too.

8. Avoid purchasing cheaply-made, fast fashion clothes.

'Wear better quality clothing and wash them less often,' is the key message of a new report on the growing problem of micro plastics finding their way into the marine environment and ultimately the human food chain.

9. Stop eating fish.

We¡¯re missing the obvious in our public conversation about plastic-straw bans: the fish on our plates. We need to pay more attention to how our choice to eat fish results in depletion and pollution of oceans.