2021 APRIL
BOOK REPORT - HOW TO GIVE UP PLASTIC
Written by Andrew Sia
Introduction
At first this was inspired by the book, How to Give Up Plastic, a book written by Will McCallum and it initiated me to write the book report. But I have also been following the 4ocean who has been dedicating on a mission to end the ocean plastic crisis. 4ocean is a Public Benefit Corporation and Certification B Corp. and it is not a nonprofit organization. I’ll come back another time and introduce more the background of 4ocean but in the meantime I would like to make the report of what they have been doing to help to introduce this article.
Plastic Pollution in the Air in India
In low-income countries about 90% of the waste ends up in open dumps or it burns in the open air. When you set fire to plastic, it rapidly reveals its origin as an oil-based product by producing copious amounts of black smoke. The research reveals that the soot from open waste burning has a global warming impact equivalent to somewhere between 2% and 10% of the global emissions of carbon dioxide. And burning plastic releases also large number of dioxins and other highly toxic pollutants that can persist in the food chain.
The modern waste incinerators in the developed countries can reduce those toxic emissions but there is no protection when waste is burned in the open.
It is found that the thick smog in Delhi is heavier than Beijing for instance, and the extra chloride has been creating chemical reactions between the different air pollutants and it is adding to the ground-level ozone across India. It is estimated to reduce yields of some Indian crops by 20 to 30%.
It is recommended to have a better waste management to eliminate plastic pollution especially in the low-income countries like India.
Single-Use Plastic Will be Ban in 2023 by Victoria, Australia
Victoria is the third Australian jurisdiction to ban single-use plastics, including polystyrene containers, straws, plates and plastic cotton bud sticks. The use will be ban from cafes, bars and restaurants. The single-used plastic items account for one-third of Victoria’s litter, and each Victorian resident is responsible of 68 kilos of plastic waste to end up in the landfill.
Already South Australia and Queensland were the first two states to announce the ban of using the single-use plastics.
Plastic waste has caused destructive effects on marine life and waterways. It is playing part of the carbon emissions to the atmosphere.
Plastic Problem is Inseparable from Climate Change
When plastic was first invented, it was thought to be a miracle invention that made life nicer and easier for family. But now plastic pollution is becoming an issue and it is also part of the climate change because of the global warming when it is being disposed. Plastic has not been renewable and the pollution has infiltrated every part of our planet, from mountain lakes to deep oceans to the very air that we are breathing.
The small particles discomposed from the plastic have been found to have incorporated into living organisms, and even settle to the bottom of the ocean as aggregates of plastic and organic matter. It is also releasing greenhouse gases at every stage of its life cycle—from production to transportation and to waste disposal.
It is bringing implications for the livelihoods of ecosystems and the well-being of living organisms.
Plastic polymers are made from petrochemical and all its compounds are refined from fossil fuel, and we know that when we burn the plastic, it emits carbon dioxide. To find the way to replace plastic and to mitigate plastic production will take a lot of studies and decisions. It is a complex issue and there is no one single action that can fix this problem.
Book Review
How to Give Up Plastic: A guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time
By: Will McCallum
Available from Amazon
Paperback @$12.79
The author, Will McCallum, is a Greenpeace activist, and this book is a straightforward guide to eliminating plastic from your daily life.
In this book the author is teaching us to live in a plastic-free lifestyle starting from our bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and extend it to shopping and bring it to our workplace and eventually our community.
And because he is an activist, in fact he has been the Head of Oceans at Greenpeace UK, and it is no surprise that he would encourage us to use the media, organizing petition, even protest to draw the attention.
I would suggest to use the book for knowledge and to think deeply for what we can do and how to extend this to people surrounding us. And without doubt that plastic has been one of the greatest inventions to mankind in our last century.
Closing Remark
For what is happening to our planets, the hottest topic has been the greenhouse emissions, and occasionally we would raise the concern of the plastic footprint. How can we not be taken by awe that in the Antarctic, the scientists have found plastic coming off from the microfiber fabric from our clothing after washing, or the microbeads from our toiletries and skin care products.
Earlier on we wrote about the plastic bottles being discarded into the oceans and created the Western Garbage Patch and the Eastern Garbage Patch that is affecting both the marine and the human life. You can refer to our article under the April 2020 issue under the title of Progress Report on the Paris Climate Agreement – Part 7.
But lately we read that these garbage patches are better known as gyres, and gyres are large areas of open ocean where slow-moving currents converge from light plastic waste.
In our oceans, there are six main gyres:
North Pacific Gyre – West, together with East Pacific Gyre, this is the world’s largest gyres;
North Pacific Gyre – East, in this gyre there are nearly 40,000 pieces of rubbish per square mile;
North Atlantic Gyre – stretches from near the Equator almost to Iceland, and from the East Coast of North America to the west coasts of Europe and Africa;
South Pacific Gyre – Even being the farthest from any continents and productive ocean region, it has a lot of plastic drifting in it; South Atlantic Gyre – stretches from the eastern coast of South America to the south coast of Africa;
Indian Ocean Gyre – are caused by the rivers flowing from Southeast Asian countries take along vast quantities of plastic litter into the ocean.
We have to know that 90% of all litters floating on the ocean’s surface is plastic. The plastic litters are the packaging, consumer products, fishing nets that are being discarded into the oceans. Not only that they can kill sea creatures, the plastic particles are containing concentrate pollutants and via filter-feeding plankton, they enter into our food chains.
During this period of the Covid-19, the restaurants, cafes and bars are closed and we are buying takeaway from the restaurants. We have found that all the food containers are made of plastic that are only used for one single use. The waste created must have been increased tremendously and reach the level we could not have been able to calculate. Together with the plastic bags that are used to carry them, I am afraid that this is going to be another alarming situation.