Have you ever asked yourself: what happens to
that plastic bottle of coke or water once it’s empty? Can you guess how long it
takes for plastic to actually decompose? Or have you ever wondered how many plastic bottles, straws, cups
and bags end up in the oceans every year? Please, try to give it an answer and after
reading publish it along with your thoughts.
Plastic was discovered in 1870 by John Hyatt,
an American inventor. Hyatt wanted to put an end to the use of animals for
production by introducing a substitute artificial material. One of the most
renown examples of such change were billard balls, which up until then used to
be made out of ivory. Production of plastic was easier, cheaper and more
efficient. It was very strong: it allowed for lifting of heavy objects, even up
to hundred times heavier than itself. It was also elastic and stretchy, which
paved a way too many fields, such as engineering or architecture. However, it also found use in more
nefarious areas. Polymer, which is a type of plastic, was the most widespread
material for gun production during World War II, and that trend have continued for the wars to come.
At some point in history, people started to believe that plastic is the optimal solution for storing food and thus wasting less of it. We started to make clean, cheap, single use dishes, bags and packages, and a lot of them. No one could suspect that in such short time, plastic will go out of control.
At some point in history, people started to believe that plastic is the optimal solution for storing food and thus wasting less of it. We started to make clean, cheap, single use dishes, bags and packages, and a lot of them. No one could suspect that in such short time, plastic will go out of control.
Nowadays,
300 million tons of plastic are being produced every year, and half of it is
for single use only! More than 8 million tons of plastic per year is thrown
into the ocean. Many paradise resorts, like Indonesia, are becoming garbage
dumps with shores of ever-floating bottles and bags. Frankly speaking, plastic
is never fully decomposed. It is just partitioned to little pieces, invisible
to human eye, called microplastic. It is consumed by fishes, which are consumed
by bigger fishes, etc., which in the end of food chain are consumed by us,
humans. And even though it is in tiny little pieces, it is still plastic lying
there in our stomachs.
It may
sound like there is no hope for human race, seeing the pace at which global
amount of plastic grows each year. Fortunately, that is not true. Repetitive as
it may sound, recycling is our only
option to survive. If you want to have a planet live on, always remember to
segregate. You can also investigate how recycling solutions are carried out in
your neighborhood or advocate recycling to other people. Small actions like these
matter most.
1. Do you
recycle and segregate garbage? Why?
2. What do you
think about predictions that in 100 years we won’t have planet to live on?
3. Do you
have any other idea of helping our planet?
Sources:
Comments
So, answers for your questions:
1. Yes, I do. Because I do care about animals.
2. We will still have something here, but it will radically change
3. Do not use plastic, try to reduce and recycle it. Participate in development of pure energy.
1. I do recycle and use things made from recyclable materials but I do not segregate much because all the companies which dispose our garbage say that it's better for their business to sort it themselves and they put all the thrash in the same container anyway. You can easily find interviews with CEOs where they confirm this.
2. I feel like future will be brighter than it seems from reading all the mainstream media headlines. Information services tend to frighten their audience just to raise awareness and educate but the situation isn't as awful as they portray.
3. Invest more in recycling technology and behave like a human being and not like littering animal without the concept of the future. Also don't smoke because it's dowdy and cigarette's butts are as bad for environment as plastic straws.
2. I hope that in 100 years we will have a place to live. But I do not think everyone has the opportunity to live a comfortable life on the planet. If the situation does not change then the richer society in a moderate climate will struggle with the wave of immigration and land wars.
3. I have the opinion that people are able to change if something is convenient and/or pays off. We should try, we as a society, we as companies originating from our countries, cause that taking care of the environment becomes profitable. The problem that I do not know how to deal with, are the third world countries that produce huge amounts of waste without any reflection and we have no influence on them.
1. Do you recycle and segregate garbage? Why?
I do, because it’s save money and time for companies who take our garbage, and they can recycle more garbage, but i think it’s nothing, Plastic ocean input from top 20 rivers(2015), Asia 86%, Europe 0.28%,just think about it.
2. What do you think about predictions that in 100 years we won’t have planet to live on?
it’s like “If I smokes 2 packs of cigarettes a day, will I die in 20-30 years?”, or
“I do not change the engine oil, will engine break in 50-100 thousand km?, yes, but we have time to do something with it.
3. Do you have any other idea of helping our planet?
The age of the Earth is 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years, we just a second for our Earth, no need to help the Earth, we need to help ourselves
To refer to your questions:
1. I do recycle and segregate waste because I'm not insensitive to the future of earth and I strongly believe it will influence our future life.
2. I think that in the end we will still have a place to live but we have to change our harmful habits immediately when it is not to late.
3. First of all, like I said, people have to change their harmful habits. An excellent way is presented by McDonald's where they force their clients to segregate waste. It could be quite a good idea to propagate to other restaurants.
I do, but I do not think that this is the most important thing in the world to be "eco". I do it mostly because we should do it by law :P
2. What do you think about predictions that in 100 years we won’t have planet to live on?
It would be quite nice, but I do not think what will happen. None of us knows, I'm afraid. Predicting future is really damn hard and there were just a few good predictions in our history. Still, it would be nice if people would stop using plastic.
3. Do you have any other idea of helping our planet?
I mean, there is a really lot of examples how people try to be more eco. For example:
- electric cars
- renewable energy
- using plastic alternatives
- using material bag for you grocery
- electronic documents instead of paper ones
Also there are a plenty of projects that are supposed to clean forests or oceans (some kind of robots etc.)
Yes I try to recycle and segregate garbage because I really think that it might help our planet. The second thing what I'm doing it is because In Poland when we are not segregating garbage there are some fines so the bills are more expensive.
2. What do you think about predictions that in 100 years we won’t have planet to live on?
I think that if we won't change anything in that time it might be true and I think we have to figure something out to help our planet. As we all know predictions wont be the same as the future but it might be similar maybe after 100 years maybe a little bit longer than that but it is still inevitable for now.
3. Do you have any other idea of helping our planet?
I think that Elon Musk is making a great job with electric cars. I think that this is one of the most important things right now. Second thing is that we should stop using so many plastic straws and bags but it is happening right now. As technology is getting better and more popular I think that books, notebooks and some sort of documents could be changed with electric tablets. I highly prefer paper books but I guess it would help the future.
Unfortunately the house where I live no separate containers for different types of garbage. And it's very strange I see No reason to sort if it all, will throw in a single container(
2. What do you think about predictions that in 100 years we won’t have planet to live on?
We will have a planet to live on ,but it will be in a very sad state if we do nothing. But it seems to me that we are moving in the right direction, some countries in 2020 will completely abandon conventional cars. Even now in Poland already go hybrid buses.
3. Do you have any other idea of helping our planet?
-Buy something you can reuse. For example, buy a glass container instead of a thin plastic one.
-Use rags instead of plastic bags.
-Avoid goods in multi-layer packaging, whereas just one layer would be enough. About a third of our waste is packaging.
-Use reusable utensils and plate instead of disposable. Also use reusable storage containers instead of foil and food film.
2. Well, in the Middle Ages people were afraid that roads would eventually become totally blocked by horses’ excrement. It is possible that we would have a problem in 100 years, but I honestly don’t believe that Earth would become totally destroyed by garbage. I think that it is more likely that during that time the problem will be solved by modern technology.
3. It is worth mentioning that according to some sources 90% of oceans’ pollution comes from 10 rivers, most of them in Asia. There are countries like China which doesn’t care about natural environment at all. The worst aspect of that problem is that people all around the world are making sure that their economy grows by buying cheap low-quality items whose production makes tremendous damage to the nature. That may sound a little strange and unrelated, by I think that another way of helping our planet is to stop the expansion of China by trying not to buy Chinese products.
Yes, I am trying to segregate rubbish whenever it is possible. However, why am I doing this? Mainly because natural resources are limited, and re-use of materials is important for the environment as well as for people. However, what comes out of the sorting is the second thing. I often see a sad picture, where the segregated rubbish is mixed together again in the garbage truck that came for it.
2. What do you think about predictions that in 100 years we won’t have planet to live on?
Of course, if we won't change our habits, this prediction may become truth. We should start working on the waste we generate every day. A good example and direction in which we should follow are the biodegradable bags that Lidl introduced on fruits and vegetables.
3. Do you have any other idea of helping our planet?
There are many possibilities to help our planet. Starting from the smallest things, i.e. using biodegradable packaging, going through the use of materials allowing reuse, and ending with ecological means of personal as well as urban transport.
If being serious though i think that garbage recycling is one of the bigger needs of modern day and demand for an automated and technological solution will grow more and more, so planet would not cease to exist just because someone(usually not the people in developed countries who care about such questions) throws some garbage where it does not belong.
To help our planet we need to lessen the taxes so people who have business ideas about technological recycling of garbage would be able to implement them much easier.
all bio-waste is thrown into the composter, paper and cardboard can be burned in the oven.
2. I used to think that it was impossible but recently I am really starting to change my mind about it.
Above all, I can see very large warming of the climate, even terrifying for some zones. I am afraid that it may have fatal consequences in 50 years.
3. Sometimes I have the impression that nothing can be done anymore. Of course, we can slow down the process but is too late to reverse it.
A couple of days ago I saw on the news of the death of a whale, which was cast ashore, his death was due to plastic poisoning. About 40 kg of plastic trash was found in his stomach. In this way, we slowly lose the diversity of the animal world.
Unfortunately, in the area in which I live now, there is no separation of garbage, but if I have the opportunity to share, I take this opportunity.
It is necessary to pay great attention to the processing of plastic and other artificial materials, and convey to people the need for proper waste disposal.
It seems to me that all is not lost. But if humanity does not put forward this problem, then our planet will face a sad outcome.
2. This is very difficult to predict. We can't predict what will happen tomorrow. It may be the third world war, atomic bomb, UFO invasion. We must live in a moment and we couldn't worry too much about the future. Que sera sera ;)
3. Renewable energy, electric cars, more green areas, using environmentally friendly materials. In my opinion, this will certainly help the planet.
Yes I sort the garbage! I do this because I care about the environment. The segregation of rubbish itself has a big impact on reducing the pollution of our planet.
2. What do you think about predictions that in 100 years we won’t have planet to live on?
It's hard to predict what will happen in 100 years.
3. Do you have any other idea of helping our planet?
Reduction of plastic produced, water saving, installation of catalysts on factories, use of renewable sources
If we keep up with garbage production as we do now i think we will have major problems even sooner than 100 years, and yes in 100 years we might even be done for.
One of my colleagues has brought to my attention that we should explore ways to make recycled materials in consumer products more appealing or even make it legal (profitable) to use recycled materials without consumer use, normal consumer user will not spot that his phone case is made from 100% recycled plastic but when he hears that he thinks "lesser quality" and we need to change that.
1. I was recycling before it was cool!
2. We are not even using 40% of earth's surface so guess we still have some space to live. Lately i watched a video about sending trash as close as it's possible to the sun to burn it. It could be a solution.
3. Am not sure if there is something we can do right now because our technology is not good enough to deal with such a big problem so I guess we have to wait and hope that in the future someone will come up with a brilliant solution.
Yes, of course. I segregate my waste as much as I can. My house'e administration requires garbage to be segregate separatly. Othervise I would have to pay 6 times more that I'm paying now. But that's not the main reason why I do it - I can easily say that I'm caring for our enviroment. It's only half a second more to decide which conteiner I should choose to throw a garbage. If we want to change the way society works, we should start from ourselfes.
2. What do you think about predictions that in 100 years we won’t have planet to live on?
I think it'll happens in more than 100 years from know, but at some point we'll have to face with that problem. More and more people know, are aware of the consequences of their actions - and that's a good thing.
3. Do you have any other idea of helping our planet?
More advertisement and content about how to help clean and mantain our planet. In my opinion awareness is the key. You can't fix the problem, when You don't see it 😉
2. I think that this is exaggerated, there are people that work on technologies that will help us save our planet. This prediction is based on assumption that nothing will change, but people are unpredictable in bad way and also in good way. If we would believe in every prediction, then our world would end in 2000.
3. Most people are lazy so only solution is inventing technologies that are convenient and easy to use. Second will be educating new generation of people about consequences of pollution and teaching them new environmentally friendly habits.
Of course I recycle. For one our town has a deal with a disposal firm. It would be more expensive to dispose of the waste on my own. It’s also just common sense at this point. Fortunately recycling is becoming a business. It’s a matter of time before someone realises the oceanic garbage dumps are basically free resources ready for harvest. I would imagine a handsome subsidy for such an enterprise would be a given.
2. What do you think about predictions that in 100 years we won’t have planet to live on?
The planet isn’t going anywhere and humanity will always find a way thrive. The question is how awful it’s going to get, and that is impossible to say for sure. It sure looks grim thou.
3. Do you have any other idea of helping our planet?
We have to stop printing paper recites. They are not even recyclable.
2. If we do not change anything in our behavior, people may have a serious problem with survival.
3. Plastic from bottles can be used for 3D printing and 3D printing for construction of many everyday items or even entire homes.
1. Not yet, my parents did, living by myself I stopped doing it but I would like to start again.
2. I think it's horryfing and I hope that we can prevent this dark future.
3. Creating reserves and protected areas- much more than we have right now.