Today is world environment day, and the message is pretty straightforward: reject single-use plastic. Refuse what you can’t re-use, and together, we can chart a path to a cleaner, greener world.
The target for this year is to work towards reducing plastic pollution, with efforts targeted at encouraging everyone to find different ways to handle the issue.
This includes insisting on reusable plastic instead of the one-use variety, rejecting what you cannot reuse, and finding ways to ensure that these items are properly disposed off instead of being dumped in very unsuitable locations. These include plastic bags and bottles in the oceans.
The effects of some of these plastics on the environment are so damaging that it could take decades or more for it to recover.
Research has shown that though it only takes about 72 seconds to make a plastic bag, it takes about 500 years, or more in some cases, for it to completely decompose in a landfill. That’s at least about 5 generations of one family.
By the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, which is the target for all efforts at resolving this issue, it is hoped that this great environmental challenge would at the very least be manageable, but it takes each and everyone to be involved in the solutions.
Photo Credit: U.N
