塑膠污染 | Plastic not fantastic

No, plastic is not fantastic, and if you haven’t woken up to this fact yet, you are in for a rude shock. Despite the fashionable trend towards banning single-use plastics in some cities around the world, and the somewhat Quixotic efforts at recycling, the reality is that all these amount to just a tiny drop in the ocean, because we are generating a tsunami of plastic every day.

Plastics are poisoning our waterways, contaminating our air, killing our wildlife, and poisoning us, and yet plastic continues to be produced in almost everything we buy, or else is wrapped around it. If you are under the impression that all that plastic you buy is going to be efficiently recycled, or that technology will save the day, then these following articles will hopefully disabuse you of these completely erroneous notions. The gist is as simple as this – stop buying products made of plastic.

However, since a seemingly endless stream of articles highlighting the catastrophic perils and tragedies caused by modern society’s love-addiction with plastic just do not seem to be getting the message through. Perhaps a comic strip will make a stronger impression, showing us that at least 91% of the plastic that is disposed of is just thrown into dumps, ends up in the environment, or is incinerated, all of which leads to extremely toxic pollution that will continue to break down and pollute the environment for hundreds or thousands of years. Half of all the plastic created since 1950 was made after 2005! That’s right, you (and everyone else alive today) are directly responsible for this global disaster.

If you have been to a beach anywhere in the world in recent years, you will have noticed the increase in plastic waste everywhere. As the third article points out, there is nowhere untouched by plastics, and many places are already inundated with it.

It’s very easy to point the finger at China, which creates at least a quarter of the world’s plastic, and also Asia, which is responsible for half of the global total. But in reality, if you buy plastic, you are part of the problem. Simply dismissing one person’s individual contribution as insignificant is shifting the blame and rejecting personal responsibility. Our lifestyles, including buying patterns and eating habits must change, because if we don’t stop buying this crap, we will soon be buried in it.

參考資料:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/23/upset-about-the-plastic-crisis-stop-trying-so-hard
 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/23/all-the-plastic-ever-made-study-comic
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/16/414-million-pieces-of-plastic-found-on-remote-island-group-in-indian-ocean
https://committee.iso.org/files/live/sites/tc61/files/The%20Plastic%20Industry%20Berlin%20Aug%202016%20-%20Copy.pdf