In a modern society such as ours you’d think that by now we could be solving the big issues. It seems to me that we are only getting started. A big issue for many environmentalists is the plastic battle. Plastic was first demonstrated in 1862 by Alexander Parkes but it was Leo Baekeland who made the patented Bakelite in 1907 as the first entirely synthetic plastic. About thirty years ago is when plastic became popular in America.
So what’s wrong with plastic? Well for an obvious starter, plastic does not biodegrade. Plastic bags often become litter and end up in the trees or clogging the seas which can kill the fish. Every time someone goes to the grocery store and uses one, just one plastic bag, it ups the demand in oil. The United States alone uses 380 billion bags and wraps in a single year. You now how many plastic baggies get recycled? Only five percent. Also 60,000,000 plastic bottles are tossed onto the Earth each day in the U.S., that’s 21,900,000,000 plastic bottles in a landfill each year. Did you know that a hungry animal walking along who finds a plastic bag will consume it and then suffer health problems? The plastic rings that connect your soda cans and what-nots can severely injure or kill wildlife and even domesticate animals, too. The rings should be cut and recycled to avoid a bird getting choked to death or a deformity caused by the permanent placement of plastic rings around the bodies. Bisphenol-A (BPA) found in plastic has been linked to breast cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. This chemical which is found in Plastic can enter the body through a number of ways and can cause some severe health problems to people.
So how do people start watching out for the environment, animals, and people? Well we start by the easiest steps. Such as recycling and reusing. We buy our one water bottle and use it and it alone instead of buying a pack of twenty-four. This also helps people on a tight budget. I know many people want purified water and that’s why they get the plastic bottles but installing a tap purifier is better in the long run or the more primitive way, I used to boil my water and then let it cool before putting into a huge glass jug that I then kept in my fridge. Buying a few of the reusable cloth bags helps a lot. Always keep them with you in case you stop in at the store. It’s the simplest and cheapest tricks that can make a big difference for everything and everyone. For more ideas and ways to help out, I usually Google “alternative to plastics.”
