Plastic Pollution
What Is Plastic
Before we talk about plastic pollution we will briefly talk about what is plastic and a brief history of plastic. Plastic has become one of the most used material in the world, everything that we use contains some sort of plastic. It’s impossible to go through a day without encountering some kind of plastic.
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Plastic is a loose term for describing materials that can be formed and molded under heat and pressure. Plastics are a specific type of synthetic polymer with a large molecular mass where the structure is mostly linear. Plastics are made from natural materials such as cellulose, coal, natural gas, salt and crude oil through a polymerization process. Polymerization is a process in which smaller molecules called monomers are combined through heat and pressure to create a chain of repeating monomers which will become a large molecule called polymers.
History of Plastic
In the middle of the 19th century, some animal-derived materials had become increasingly scarce, before plastic was found, animal derived material like elephant ivories were used to make piano keys and billiard balls, turtle shells were used to make combs. At that time because the demand for these animal derived material are high, these animal were facing extinction. To solve this problem, some inventors are trying to invent materials to replace the animal derived material. Alexander Parkes was the inventor of what is now recognized as the first fully synthetic plastic. Alexander Parkes invented a new material called Parkesine, it was a cheap and colorful substitute for ivory or tortoiseshell. Since then, inventors keep on trying to make new materials and now there are different types of plastics.
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Polyethylene is one of the most used plastic due to its strong, flexible and heat resistant properties. Polyethylene was found because of an accident. In 1933, a team at ICI(imperial chemical industries), a British chemical company, were attempting to combine ethylene and benzaldehyde under great pressure and heat. The experiment failed. Instead, due to a leak of oxygen into the vessel, they found a white waxy substance in a reaction tube. This was found to be a polymer of ethylene which is called Polyethylene. Polyethylene has since been used as a material for various consumer goods.
Why Plastic Pollution Is a Problem
The chemical properties that have made plastic an incredibly useful and durable material is a blessing and a curse. Due to its properties, plastic is difficult to dispose of, some types taking thousands of years to degrade in landfill. The degradation itself is also an environmental issue, as the breaking down of plastics into microplastics pollutes our land, air and ocean. When larger pieces of plastic waste are disposed of in the environment they get weathered and degrade. These larger pieces of plastic break down into smaller and smaller pieces and are eventually reduced to microplastic particles. The problem is that these particles are entering the food chain.
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According to a study done by United Nations Environment Programme, microplastics pollution on land has led to the decrease of species that live below the surface, such as mites, larvae and other tiny creatures that maintain the fertility of the land. This is because plastic can release harmful chemicals into the surrounding soil, which can then seep into groundwater or other surrounding water sources, and also the ecosystem. This can cause a range of potentially harmful effects on the species that drink the water.
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Plastic waste are burned to create energy. Some incinerators can produce enough heat and steam to turn turbine blades and generate electricity for the local grid. Burning plastic trash to create energy sounds sensible but there are some negative effects to it. The burning of plastics releases toxic gases like dioxins, furans into the atmosphere, and poses a threat to vegetation, and human and animal health.
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Plastic are also polluting the ocean. When plastic are thrown into the ocean, it will eventually degrade into microplastics. These microplastics are then scattered throughout the ocean because of the waves, these microplastics are harmful to the marine creatures. Some creatures may even accidentally eat these microplastics, these microplastics may also eventually end up on our body if we eat seafood.
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Microplastics can enter the human body through ingestion and inhalation where they may be taken up in various organs and might affect health. According to a study done by Kari Nadeau, plastics identified in lungs could cause lung irritation, dizziness, headaches, asthma, and cancer
Single Use Culture
Single use culture is a term for when we use things just once and throw them away. For example, when we buy a bottle of water from a supermarket. After we finished drinking the water we don't think about keeping the botte, we just throw the bottle away after one use. It has led to this culture because PET bottle is very very cheap so it is convenient to just throw it away. The single use culture is a problem to the world. Because of single use culture the amount of plastic waste in the world is massive and the problem is, it is difficult to dispose plastic. When plastic are not disposed correctly, they are scattered anywhere and degrade into microplastic which could harm the environment. It is hard to stop the single use culture because it is just so convenient.
How to Solve This Problem
Many of our plastic problems began in the post-war period, when plastic began to replace the more expensive materials used in throwaway items, such as consumer packaging. One of worst offenders is the PET bottle. PET bottle has many advantages over other materials like glass, it is cheap, lightweight for transport and durable so that it is hard to break. These PET bottle have led to a single-use culture. It has led to this culture because PET bottle is very very cheap so it is convenient to just throw it away. The majority of these bottles end up in our oceans, degrading into microplastics.
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One of the way to solve this is by recycling the PET bottle. Instead of letting the PET bottle become a waste by letting it degrade in the ocean or other places, we can collect the used PET bottle and recycle and reprocess it into a new PET bottle. If we do this, the plastic wont be wasted after a single use, we can infinitely recycle and reprocess it.
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Theta Plastic is here to contribute solve this problem by collecting the used PET Bottle. We are here to collect and sort PET bottle from other wastes. We provide PET Bottle that are ready to be cleaned, processed and recycled.
Other than the recycling itself, awareness also needs to be raised towards the recycled products. The market need to be educated about the recycled products. People might think that recycled products are dirty and much worse in quality compared to products made with virgin plastic. If the market are not aware of recycled products, there will be no market demand. With few market demand, all the recycling process that have been done will be for nothing because nobody will buy the product. If the demand is low, the producer will also eventually stop producing the recycled product because there is no point in producing it if nobody buys it.
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We can also apply the concept of circular economy to reduce plastic pollution. The old system or the usual economy system is called linear economy, which is where natural resources are turned into products that are ultimately destined to become waste because of the way they are designed and manufactured. A circular economy is a model of production and consumption which involves reusing, repairing and recycling materials as long as possible. The goal of circular economy is to minimize emissions and consumption of raw material. By applying circular economy, it creates a loop system that reduces the use of resource inputs and the creation of waste , pollution and carbon emissions. The circular economy aims to keep products, materials, equipment and infrastructure in use for longer, thus improving the productivity of these resources,