The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has said, “polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polystyrene, flood our drains, block our rivers and choke our oceans”.
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| Ocean polluted by plastic waste. Photo: Getty Images |
According to unep.org:
Polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyester, polycarbonate, polypropylene, and so much more. Since their invention over the last century, these materials have become part of our lives. In the early 1950s, when the materials were mass-marketed in commercials and ads, the adds had to emphasize that we were to throw the materials away after use. This was an entirely new concept.
We were in the post Second World War world, and no civilization had lived with the concept of using a material — a bottle, a plate, a fork, a container, a cup, a bag – only once. We had to learn that. But both the convenience and the apparent low cost made us quick learners. And just some 75 years later, every child sees this throw-away world from the moment she opens her eyes. Every child grows up in “a-use-once-and-throw-away world”.
But the apparent convenience that this throw-away society brings has wrought environmental catastrophe on our ecosystems. It floods our drains. Blocks our rivers. Chokes our oceans. And enters our bodies. We have come to realize that the throw-away world cannot work.
More about how plastics pollute our environment HERE
