Recently there have been a lot of awareness of the usage of plastics and how it is harmful to our planet. We are accumulating so much plastic waste and that goes and mixes with drainage and sea beds causing a big blender. We have lost many coral reefs and other sea-based organisms because of plastic and microplastic pollution. Scientists and doctors have also identified that we as humans also have harmful effects from plastics and plastic pollution. Microplastics get into our body through various means and we end up getting diseases like cancer and other disorders.
I'm glad to see that people are understanding this problem and today we have many plastic alternatives available in the market. The good thing is that we are also able to tell this to our children. The bad thing is that we continue to produce hell amount of plastics for which we still don't have a proper plan to decompose.
Innovations around plastic recycling
This is one of the biggest problems we have with plastics. Recycling is a pain because we currently don't have a proper solution. We do have some experimental solutions available but they are not fully feasible yet. We need more innovations around recycling plastics or making them easily biodegradable. The current microorganisms that we have in our regular sand don't eat plastics and even if there are a few, the process is very slow. They say it can take several hundred years for plastics to decompose. Even if they decompose, they end up being harmful to the soil.
Cloth bags are the best alternatives
Someone showed me an advertisement from the late 80s where they used to promote plastics to the people to use them as an alternative to cloth bags which was popular back then. Today the advertisement is reversing and people are understanding the importance of cloth bags and they have started using it as an alternative to plastic bags. It is still very convenient to use plastic bags but maybe we have to use it only if there is a dire need.
Marriage return gifts are given in cloth bags on these fully biodegradable days. People have started using that as an alternative to plastics. Many big shops are also giving out carry bags in cloth material instead of plastics. This itself is a great change and I wish this continues.
Costly but we have to change
Many people think that having cloth bags or other alternatives to plastics is a costly change that not everyone would accept. But I have seen this change happening in many places already. Some of the shopping malls have started charging people for carry bags. If they want to bring their carry bags, they can bring it but if the shops have to offer them carry bags, it is either made of paper or it is made of cloth material and they charge a small amount for carry bags which is perfectly fine. Sometimes it is costly but it is affordable.
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