I For the last two years, the world has been confined to homes. Daily activities that couldn’t be managed without getting out came indoors all at once – from the office to grocery shopping and schools. As the world embraces the new normal, News18 introduces weekly classes for school children, explaining key chapters with examples from events around the world. While we try to make your topics simple, tweeting a topic breaking request can be @news18dotcom,
India has started phasing out single use plastic items in July. The ban will set in motion a long-awaited plan to replace 19 items of ‘low utility’, which are difficult to collect and more challenging to recycle, with sustainable alternatives. But why nationwide crackdown on something as simple as plastic?
Environmentalists and activists have been vocal about the problem of plastic pollution for years. Plastic has entered the body of fish and has also been found in human body. It is spoiling our health and changing the way we work. To tackle this problem, it is very important to educate our future generation about it, as education can equip the youth with skills that can help them develop innovative climate solutions. While the term plastic pollution is introduced to students in class 5 itself, however, many students struggle to understand the gravity of the problem. To make it easier, here in classes with News18 we’ll explain everything you need to know about plastic pollution.
What is plastic?
Plastic is a man-made substance used to make many important items including bicycle helmets, car airbags, many medical supplies and water bottles.
Undoubtedly, plastic is useful to mankind and has become an integral part of our lives. The point is, most of us use more plastic than we need, and half of the plastic we make is only intended to be used once before being thrown away. These ‘single-use plastic’ products include straws, food wrappers, shopping bags and a variety of packaging. Additionally, plastic remains in the natural world for a very long time, causing damage to the environment, as it takes more than 400 years to degrade.
Did you know that every year 8 million tons of plastic ends up in the beautiful blue oceans of our planet?
How does plastic waste end up in the ocean?
While we see plastic litter almost everywhere, this waste is not only on land, but has also reached our water bodies including rivers, seas and oceans.
Scientists believe that 8.8 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year. Many of you may ask, how did so much plastic reach the ocean? One method is ‘ocean dumping’, which refers to the illegal dumping of large amounts of waste into the ocean. But not all the plastic present in the water is intentionally put there. In fact, about 80 percent of the plastic in the ocean comes from land.
And this is not the end of the issue. Even after many years, the plastic doesn’t completely degenerate in the ocean; Rather, it only gets smaller and is eventually swallowed by fish, other marine life, and birds. When fish consume small pieces of plastic, dangerous industrial chemicals are absorbed into their bodies and eventually consumed by people.
In this way plastic pollution is harming not only humans but also our animals and birds. Some studies claim that about 100,000 marine mammals and turtles are killed every year due to plastic pollution.
What is single use plastic and why is it most harmful?
Single-use plastic includes products like straws, plastic bags that we get from vegetable vendors, milk packets, all chips and biscuit packets. As the name suggests, it is any plastic item that is made for temporary use.
Although we don’t think much about it when we buy a water bottle from outside or ask for extra plastic bags at the grocery store, these small choices have a serious impact on the health of our planet and ourselves.
Since single use plastic is the most difficult to collect and recycle. Additionally, due to their light weight, single-use plastic objects can travel great distances by air alone.
How to avoid single use plastic?
stop buying bottled water
drop straw
Bring Your Own Reusable Cup or Bottle
bring your own reusable grocery bags
Choose products with less packaging
close up plastic silverware
return or recycle food containers
shop locally
India’s plastic roads
India has made roads out of plastic in a unique move. The idea was brought to life by Ahmed Khan – a plastic sack manufacturer in Bangalore. Here is Khan’s story as told in NCERT books. Khan, 57, has been manufacturing plastic bags for 20 years. About 8 years ago, he realized that plastic waste is a real problem. Polyblend, a fine powder of recycled modified plastics, was then developed by his company. This mixture is mixed with bitumen which is used for laying roads. In collaboration with RV College of Engineering and Bangalore City Corporation, Ahmed Khan proved that a mixture of polyblend and bitumen, when used for laying roads, enhanced the water-repellent properties of bitumen, and by a factor of three. Helped to prolong road life. The raw material for making Polyblend is any plastic film waste. So, against the price of Rs. For plastic waste, the rag pickers who were getting Rs 0.40 per kg, Khan is now paying Rs 6. By the year 2002, more than 40 km of road has already been laid in Bangalore, using Mine’s technology. At this rate, the mine will soon be short of plastic waste in Bangalore to produce Polyblend. Thanks to innovations like Polyblend, we can still avoid bothering with plastic waste.
How to reduce plastic pollution and teach your family about it?
No big idea is needed to eradicate plastic, we all can take our small steps to solve these problems. Fill out a plastic journal for a week to see how much single-use plastic your family uses – then talk about what you can do for less use!
Use reusable water bottles, reusable shopping bags, and ask your parents to choose loose products instead of food packaged in multiple layers of plastic when shopping. Another interesting way to reduce plastic pollution would be to ask your teachers and parents to conduct plastic cleaning campaigns in your nearby areas. It’s enjoyable, and we guarantee you’ll be incredibly proud of your impact.
Last but not least, recycle plastic as much as you can!
But don’t forget that while recycling is a big part of keeping our environment safe and clean, reducing consumption is more effective.
stop plastic pollution
In a recent move, the government announced a phased ban on ‘single-use plastics including straws, plastic bags and plastic water bottles’ in India. The ban, which has been going on for almost two years, prohibits the manufacture, circulation and sale of 21 types of plastic items. This ban could have a significant impact on checking plastic pollution in the country and help eliminate single-use plastics, which have become an integral part of our lives.
The items that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has announced to ban are earbuds; balloon sticks; candy and ice cream sticks; Cutlery items including plates, cups, glasses, forks, spoons, knives, trays; sweet boxes; Invitation Card; cigarette pack; PVC banners of less than 100 microns; and polystyrene for decoration.
test your intelligence
Here’s a quick test of what we’ve learned so far
To learn about other subjects taught in the school as explained by News18, here is a list of other classes with News18: ‘Questions from the Citizen Science Chapter’Election, sex vs sex , natural calamity , wonderland of letters , civil war , cryptocurrency , economy and banks , the Silk Road
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