Harmful Effects of Plastic Packaging
How much plastic do we buy every day? Does it all get recycled? These are the questions which we should be looking at with attention. We are surrounded by plastics. Much of our furniture, clothing, electronics, and food packaging is made from it. If not recycled properly or not disposed of in the proper way, it poses a threat to us and the environment.
These commodities packaged in are however single-use plastic. To refill and reuse them for other purposes is harmful for human health and the environment. To avoid from plastic getting dumped into landfills, here are some of the reasons why single-use plastic packaging is harmful to use and reuse:
- Effects on Human Health -
Harmful toxins that cause damage to our health get released in reused plastic water bottles and other plastic products as much as you reuse them for consumption purposes. At this stage these toxins and microplastics can be consumed which may harm your cells. Even though these are very little in size, microplastics and toxins leach into the product and are consumed by us as they are invisible to the naked eye.
2. Marine Life is damaged -
Most of the trashed plastic ends up in the sea and oceans. So much of these plastic items have been thrown through water streams that a garbage patch namely the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ has been formed and expanding over the years causing great harm to marine life as this plastic does not decompose but degrades into tinier particles of plastic. The fish, turtles and other sea creatures could consume this plastic and can injure themselves or befall to their deaths because of plastic blockages.This is a serious threat to marine life.
3. Pollution -
As consumption rises, so does waste generation which inlead turns into pollution. If not recycled properly, these plastics are a nuisance to the environment if only dumped in landfills. Because Plastic items take 500 years to decompose, they pollute everywhere they land. Pollution because of plastic products has been a major issue since the beginning of the production of this plastic packaging.
To conclude, we should minimize the use of plastic packaging. However, if used, we should dispose the plastic responsibly through waste containers to avoid littering. Poor awareness about recycling these items has also been the reason why plastic for packaging ends up causing more harm to the environment than needed. Recycling is the only solution to this and without recycling single-use plastic is going to keep inflicting harmful effects on the mankind as well as the environment.
Social Lab Environmental Solutions is a waste management consultancy company providing end-to-end consultancy services to the ULBs on solid waste management and plastic waste management. Our core expertise includes capacity building, waste assessment, IEC campaign design & implementation, scheme compliance documentation, GPS collection route designing, and monitoring, and providing technical advisory and market linkages for efficient wet and dry waste management.
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