Plastics Crises

Plastics Crises

Hello Readers, Today I am starting with world most one of crises i.e. Plastics –A material which is very helpful in our daily life,it can be use anytime and anywhere .The use of plastic in our life is magnificent. I know that plastics make our life easy with usage from tiny pin to large Airplane. But you know that plastics become dangerous things for our mankind. It’s bad impact is on the rise. Some of the major compounds (vinyl chloride, dioxins, and plasticizers) are major factors of hormone-disruption, reproductive dysfunction, breast growth and testicular cancers. The harmful effects are also reflect in newborns via mothers during pregnancy. Recycling is one of the most sufficient and easiest ways. Smarter sorting, energy efficient ways, developing smarter plastics and research to develop certain fungi and bacteria are needed to resolve this issues. So, Recycling, Reduce and Reuse are 3R’s are three major aspects which control the plastics pollution. Biodegradable plastics have additional quality of being able to naturally decompose and break into natural and safe byproducts. Bioplastics, nature derived plastics, are derived from biological sources such as sugar cane, cellulose etc. and these either degrade in open air or are made to compost using fungi, bacteria or enzymes. Hence,we use the plastics only when we have no other substitute.

If we define plastics at molecular level, it is a kind of organic polymer, which has molecules containing long carbon chains as their backbones with repeating units created through a process of polymerization. Plastics also play a very vital role in hospitals and medical field at large scale. The daily plastic waste generation includes disposable syringes, I.V sets, glucose bottles etc. are disposed of on daily basis. Plastics may be easy and convenient for everyday use, but their negative impacts on our health cannot be overlooked. Due to its non-biodegradable nature, it keeps on piling in the environment and is creating tons of trash around the world , which make this issue very serious..

BAD IMPACT

Being composed of toxic chemicals and most importantly a nonbiodegradable substance, plastic pollutes earth and leads to air pollution and water pollution which makes plastic is one of the major toxic pollutants of present time.

This also mixes with food chain effecting Environment Humans and animals. There is no safe way to dispose plastic waste and waste causes serious damage to environment during its production process, during its usage and during its disposal process.

Toxic chemicals release during manufacturing process is another significant source of the negative environmental impact of plastics. Some of the major compounds include vinyl chloride (in PVC), dioxins (in PVC), benzene (in polystyrene), phthalates and other plasticizers (in PVC and others), formaldehyde, and bisphenol-A, or BPA (in polycarbonate). Many of these are persistent organic pollutants (POPs)-some of the most damaging toxins on the planet, owing to a combination of their persistence in the environment and their high levels of toxicity.However, their unmitigated release into the environment affects all terrestrial and aquatic life with which they come into contact.

Natural organisms have a very difficult time breaking down the synthetic chemical bonds in plastic, creating the tremendous problem of the material’s persistence. A very small amount of total plastic production (less than 10%) is effectively recycled, the remaining plastic is sent to landfills, where it is destined to remain entombed in limbo for hundreds of thousands of years, or to incinerators, where its toxic compounds are spewed throughout the atmosphere to be accumulated in biotic forms throughout the surrounding ecosystems.

Unfortunately, because of plastic’s low density, it frequently migrates “downstream,” blowing out of landfills and off garbage barges. In 1997, Captain Charles Moore discovered widespread plastic garbage contamination area, called a gyre, in the North Pacific Ocean. By 2005, the estimated area of contamination expanded to 10 million square miles. 90% of this garbage was determined to be plastic, and 80% was originally sourced from land, such as construction waste.

The harmful effects of plastic on aquatic life are devastating, and accelerating. The impacts of plastic waste on our health and the environment are only just becoming apparent. Most of our knowledge is around plastic waste in the marine environment, although there is research that indicates that plastic waste in landfill and in badly managed recycling systems could be having an impact, mainly from the chemicals contained in plastic.

Ingestion of plastic occurs more frequently than entanglement. The MFSD has identified ingestion of waste as an indicator for monitoring environmental status. Ingestion of plastic waste has been documented in a number of species. For some species, almost all individuals contain ingested plastic including sea birds, fish, turtles, mussels and mammals. Clearly different species ingest different types and sizes of plastic debris. Many animals mistake plastic waste for prey, for example, fish can confuse plastic pellets for plankton, birds may mistake pieces of plastic for cuttlefish or other prey.

There are several chemicals within plastic material itself that have been added to give it certain properties such as Bisphenol A, phthalates and flame retardants. These all have known negative effects on human and animal health, mainly affecting the endocrine system. There are also toxic monomers, which have been linked to cancer and reproductive problems. The actual role of plastic waste in causing these health impacts is uncertain. This is partly because it is not clear what level of exposure is caused by plastic waste, and partly because the mechanisms by which the chemicals from plastic may have an impact on humans and animals are not fully established. The most likely pathway is through ingestion, after which chemicals could bio accumulate up the food chain, meaning that those at the top could be exposed to greater levels of chemicals.Plastic waste also has the ability to attract contaminants, such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Plastic could potentially transport these chemicals to otherwise clean environments and, when ingested by wildlife, plastic could cause the transfer of chemicals into the organism’s system. However, in some conditions plastic could potentially act as a sink for contaminants, making them less available to wildlife, particularly if they are buried on the seafloor. With their large surface area-to-volume ratio, micro plastics may have the capacity to make chemicals more available to wildlife and the environment in comparison to larger sized plastics.Unfortunately, the properties of plastic that make it so valuable also make its disposal problematic, such as its durability, light weight and low cost. In many cases plastics are thrown away after one use, especially packaging and sheeting, but because they are durable, they persist in the environment.

Real Example

Plastic waste is a major environmental and public health problem in Indian set up particularly in the urban areas. Plastic shopping or carrier bags are one of the main sources of plastic waste in our country. Plastic bags of all sizes and colors dot the city‘s landscape due to the problems of misuse and overuse and littering in India. Besides this visual pollution, plastic bag wastes contribute to blockage of drains and gutters, are a threat to aquatic life when they find their way to water bodies, and can cause livestock deaths when the livestock consume them. Furthermore, when filled with rainwater, plastic bags become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which cause malaria. We have become so accustomed to the ubiquitous presence of plastic that it is difficult to envision life when woods and metals were the primary materials used for consumer products. Plastic has become prevalent because it is inexpensive and it can be engineered with a wide range of properties. Plastics are strong but lightweight, resistant when degraded by chemicals, sunlight, and bacteria, and are thermally and electrically insulating. Plastics have become a critical material in the modern economy; the annual volume of plastics produced exceeds that volume of steel.The kind of recycling practiced in India is quite different from what is practiced in the rest of the world, in that state of the art technologies are not employed here. The starting point is the sorting of plastic waste. The sorted waste is then sent to the granulators to obtain granules using with the traditional mechanical and grinding techniques. This recycling is usually results in the down cycling of plastics into lower-quality products that have higher and more 4 leachable levels of toxic additives . During recycling, the plastic scrap is cleaned to remove the dirt and foreign matter adhering to it. The wastewater generated used for this purpose is finally disposed of into open drains.

The final stage in the life cycle of plastics is disposal. In India, there are three common ways of getting rid off plastics - by dumping them in landfills, by burning them in incinerators or by littering them. In the case of littering, plastic wastes fail to reach landfills or incinerators. It is the improper way of disposing plastics and is identified as the cause of manifold ecological problems. Incineration of plastic wastes also significantly reduces the volume of waste requiring disposal . It is believed that the volume reduction brought about by incineration ranges from 80 to 95%. But the burning of these chlorine-containing substances releases toxic heavy metals and emits noxious gasses like dioxins and furans. The latter two are two of the most toxic and poisonous substances on earth and can cause a variety of health problems.

TO GET RID OF THIS

Recycling

Among the existing solutions recycling is one of the most convenient and easiest ways. There are various ways to participate through government programs or programs run by environmental organizations. As consumers, the recycling only requires one easy step of putting plastic wastes in right bins for disposal. Separating the plastic waste from other waste will prevent plastics to be land filled and will allow it to be recycled with other plastics of the same kind.

Recycling techniques deals with the tones of plastic waste that is choking earth. So in addition to developing smarter plastics that takes the place of conventional plastics, there is emergent need to deal with the immense quantities of toxic wastes already out there and hurting humans and the environment. Smarter sorting of plastic Wastes, energy efficient ways of getting rid of the plasticizers and increasing the scale of this entire process is very vital to overcome this challenge.

REDUCED

Plastic pollution can be reduced by using less plastics products and switching to alternatives. Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year or in landfills. Now focus on another important part of eco-friendly living, reduce your use of plastic. Source reduction can occur by altering the design, manufacture, or use of plastic products and materials.

REUSED

We must reuse i.e. use of plastics product again and again for different purpose.For e.g. You decorate your house by coloring of bottle and making of toys etc.

So, Other ways to handle this situation is:-

Chemical decomposing is otherwise a very effective solution to plastic pollution, since the non-biodegradable property of plastic is the main cause of plastic pollution. However, no technology has been developed yet to set up an economical and effective large-scale plastic decomposing facility. But chemical decomposing is still a field that has a great potential to develop in the future.

There are mainly two ways to decompose conventional plastics. Decomposing plastics by microorganisms is one of them. Daniel Burd, a Canadian high school student, found out that there are three kinds of microorganisms in the earth from a landfill that can break down the molecules of plastic bags. However, since this is a relatively new discovery, it is not applied industrially yet. Its economical applicability still needs to be discussed, but according to Burd, this decomposing method is possible to be applied on an industrial scale. Another way to decompose plastics is by combustion. This is a relatively easy and inexpensive way compared to using microorganisms, however, odor and toxic gases produced during combustion is a big problem. Currently, some companies have already applied this method, and Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. is one of them. In Wheelabrator’s clean energy plants, waste are burned and heat generated from combustion is turned to electricity with emission air control . These waste-to-energy plants not only handle municipal waste environmentally, but also provide electricity to households and businesses.

Biodegradable Plastics

This is one of the options to the conventional plastics. One of the common constituents of BDP is polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). The BDP are similar to conventional plastics in all aspects with the additional quality of being able to naturally decompose and break into natural and safe byproducts. Hence if all plastics in the city waste were biodegradable, it could simply be allowed to decompose along with the food and other non-recyclable but biodegradable articles like wet paper and cotton fibers.

Since the technologies to manufacture BDPs are relatively new and not widely prevalent, the production cost is higher. Therefore, further research in areas of more cost effective and energy efficient manufacturing methods for biodegradable plastics is the call of the hour . The incorporation of BDP is a progressive approach to a greener, healthier, and a better environment. The progressive development of several biopolymers over the years has stirred the plastic industry. The induction of biodegradable plastics is a promising and progressive prospect and will greatly reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. At the present time, it is only an option over traditional plastics, but if it is to replace traditional plastics completely, people would have no other option but to use them. Incorporating biodegradable plastics in everyday use would not only take the pressure off fossil fuels but also encourage agricultural producers who are interested in exploring and developing the natural fiber processing industry. A lot of income from agriculture can be generated if biodegradable plastics can be made mainstream. Aside from the obvious economic and environmental benefits, biodegradable plastics are progressive from scientific point of view as well. In addition to being useful for everyday life purposes, biodegradable plastics also have a great scope to be used in medicinal field.

Bioplastics

A bioplastic is a plastic that is made partly or wholly from polymers derived from biological sources such as sugar cane, potato starch or the cellulose from trees, straw and cotton. Some bioplastics degrade in the open air, others are made so that they compost in an industrial composting plant, aided by fungi, bacteria and enzymes. Others mimic the robustness and durability of conventional plastics such as polyethylene or PET.Hence, further research should focus on developing bioplastics that are both biodegradable and also energy efficient to produce. Recycling is almost always more energy efficient and releases less carbon dioxide than making a new product. One major problem with efforts to recycle bioplastics is that if they become mixed with petroplastics they can contaminate the whole batch.

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