Five things to know about plastic waste

By Bisola Adeyemo

As the world’s population continues to grow, so does the amount of garbage that people produce.

On-the-go lifestyles require easily disposable products, such as soda cans or bottles of water. Still, the accumulation of these products has led to increasing amounts of plastic pollution around the world.

As plastic is composed of major toxic pollutants, it has the potential to cause significant harm to the environment in the form of air, water, and land pollution.

Plastic waste, or plastic pollution, is the accumulation of plastic objects (e.g. plastic bottles and much more) in the Earth’s environment that adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitat, and humans.

The United Nations Environment, mandated to protect the environment, has warned that by 2050 there will be more plastics in the oceans than fish.

Plastic wastes that find their way into the ocean will remain there for hundreds of years because plastic does not rot. Plastic is so durable that the United States Environmental Protection Agency says, “Every bit of plastic ever made still exists.”

Five Danger Plastic Waste poses on Environment, Aquatic Animals.

1: Plastics are one of the main products of fracking. Fracking is bad for the planet, it pollutes water, soil, and air with toxins, it creates underground cavities that collapse into sinkholes and it raises the pressure in underground rock formations, destabilizing them and leading to earthquakes, even in places where earthquakes are uncommon.

2) Plastic bags kill about 100,000 animals annually. Many animals, including whales, dolphins, turtles, penguins, and dolphins, ingest plastic bags as they mistake them for food.

3) Not all plastic is recyclable and not all recyclable plastic is recycled. Some of these plastics are found everywhere clogs street drainages and litter the environments.

4) Plastic takes 400 years and even more to Decompose. The chemical bonds that make-up plastics are strong and made to last. The decomposition rate of plastic typically ranges from 500 to 600 years, depending on the type.

5) Burning plastic is incredibly toxic and can lead to harmful atmospheric conditions and deadly illnesses.