We are fascinated by plastic, its look and usefulness, and have totally ignored the damage it causes to our health and in the environment. Plastic is a poison. Toxic plastic waste cannot ever be effectively managed. The extent of its contamination of our life supporting Earth is catastrophic and this has finally reached global public awareness.
Pollution
Petrochemical Industry – The Lies about Plastic
Plastics production is increasing exponentially when it should be decreasing. Petrochemical companies are now not only responsible for climate change but also for trashing the planet with plastic. Scientists have warned us that the planet is risking permanent and irreversible contamination by plastic as we speak.
Shipping Responsible for Massive Air Pollution
It seems that in shipping and political circles human life has a price. The estimated sixty thousand people dying worldwide from this pollution appears to be acceptable as long as we continue along the path of indiscriminate economic growth at all costs.
Cruise Liners are Heavy Air Polluters
Passengers on cruise liners could be exposing themselves to dangerous levels of pollution, according to an investigation by UK’s Channel 4’s Dispatches team that found some public areas on the ships’ decks were more polluted than the world’s worst-affected cities.
Cigarettes Kill Wildlife – Environment NOT your Ashtray
Smoking cigarettes kills 7 million people a year globally, and it scars the planet through deforestation, pollution and littering. Details of the environmental cost of tobacco are revealed in a study on the global tobacco epidemic released in 2017 by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Plastic Waste: We are the Problem
Worldwide 80% of plastic waste ends up in landfills and the environment. There it multiplies by breaking down into smaller pieces, up to sizes that are measured in microns (1000 microns = 1 mm). All the plastic ever manufactured still exists somewhere on Earth, most of it too small to see. It enters the food chain via packaging, water, agricultural produce and other species we consume, and ends up in us.
Plastic Pandemic is now a Global Crisis
We are forced to deal with plastic pandemic with urgency as it has now reached global proportions. It is estimated that there was the equivalent of 200 million garbage-truck-loads of plastic in the oceans and landfills at end 2015 and that this will become the equivalent of 500 million garbage-truck-loads by 2050.
Plastic Waste: Last Nail in the Coffin of Marine Life
A new global study published in July broke new ground by presenting the first global analysis of all mass-produced plastic ever manufactured. It is estimated that 8,300 million metric tons (Mt) of virgin plastics have been produced to date worldwide and the vast majority has ended up in our environment.