From bags caught in the hedgerows to plastic bottles floating in the ocean, the signs are everywhere that plastic pollution is at its peak. We know plastic pollution is a problem, but we won’t discuss how it contributes to climate change.
Plastic waste surrounds us in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, and in food like fish. Reducing plastic pollution can save our ocean, animals, and climate.
How Plastic Pollution Causes Climate Change
1. Extraction and Production
Nearly all synthesized plastic we use today derives from fossil fuels consisting of natural gas, crude oil or coal. It simply means the material used to make plastic is extracted from Earth by gas, oil drilling or mining. These activities contribute to climate change; however, it’s just the first step towards plastic pollution. Once these materials extract, they are transported to different industries where different plastics are made, and the process is called polymerization or polycondensation. Once this stage finalizes, the products are turned into plastic products.
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2. Consumption
We consume plastic in the form of different products we purchase. The idea is to use less plastic to save our oceans, but that’s not the case when the consumption rate of plastic is high. We think if we dispose of plastic in the bin, it suddenly goes away, but that’s not possible. It creates a more significant problem, and this is just the beginning of plastic pollution.
3. End of life
When plastic is not disposed of in a controlled manner, the discarded plastic waste generates GHG emissions when exposed to air and water. GHG emissions are greenhouse gasses with high amounts of CO2, which can harm the environment. There are many ways to reduce plastic pollution, which can result in putting an end to manufacturing plastic.
4. Recycling and Closing the Loop
One of the ways to reduce plastic waste is to recycle the existing plastic. Recycling would reduce the use of plastic waste and will help save world from plastic pollution. It is also essential to work towards building a plastic pollution solution, ensuring that any plastic waste generated can be reused again. Another set of ideas to reduce plastic waste is to turn plastic into plastic feedstocks that can be used in industries to make new plastic. It’s just one of the many ways to reduce plastic pollution.
5. Ocean Plastic Pollution Solutions
Microplastic is the little pieces of plastic that enter the ocean. Unfortunately, our marine life is most affected by mistakenly consuming plastic as food. So how are seas contributing to climate change? Well, Oceans are known as carbon sinks. A carbon sink is something that absorbs more carbon than it produces. Ocean takes up half of humans’ carbon dioxide and stores it at the bottom of the ocean. Algae uses CO2 for fuel and is consumed by marine life, which then turns into organic carbon. Microplastic interferes with the process as less carbon is stored at the bottom of the sea instead of being released into the atmosphere.
How to Stop Plastic Pollution
There are tips to reduce plastic waste but we need to understand the fact that plastic pollution is not going anywhere anytime soon. The increasing demand for plastic is making it difficult for us to reduce plastic waste.
- One of the solution of plastic pollution is to reduce the use of single – use of plastic. That means not using any plastic cups, straws or any shopping bags.
- Another way of reducing plastic pollution is to participate in ocean cleanup programs arranged by different organizations.
- One of the simplest ways is to recycle your waste so that companies would sort them out accordingly.
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Plastic pollution is a severe problem, and we must reduce plastic waste to take care of Earth. Plastic waste is harming the environment and affecting marine life, which can be harmful to us as we consume them indirectly as a source of food. So, it’s a cycle where one factor affects the other, and to break the process, we must end plastic consumption.