Fact File 005 - Plastic's Are Eternal

If you live in the UK you might have heard some good environmental news the other day relating to plastic, or to be more accurate micro beads. These beads can be found in lots of different types of cosmetic and beauty products and are a ecological disaster, in the UK however a recent pledge has been made to ban the use of these beads by 2017.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37263087

So because of this news today's fact file will be focusing on plastics.

• Only a very small amount of plastic we produce globally is ever recovered to be recycled (5%), the majority of it heads to landfills, where it makes up 10% of all waste generated. Also sadly a lot of it is sweep into the oceans to become part of the large garbage patches which are forming there. In Los Angeles for instance 10 metric tons of plastic are swept into the sea every day.

• The plastic which has been swept into the sea has an extreme effect on marine life. 1 million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are estimated to be killed annually by plastic. This can take several forms, for instance turtles and other creature’s mistake bags for jelly fish and so ingest the plastic and then starve as they fill their stomachs with indigestible products. While many sea birds become trapped in some types of plastic and then either suffocate of drown because of it.

• The main problem with plastics is the time it takes to decompose. Depending on the type it can take anywhere from 500 to several 1000s of years to breakdown. There is a hope that bacteria hold a solution to our ever growing piles of waste plastic. A lot of work is being done to attempt to find viable bacteria which can be used to speed up the rate of decay of plastics.

Check out this link for more information

https://theconversation.com/new-plastic-munching-bacteria-could-fuel-a-recycling-revolution-55961

• Recycling even a little bit of plastic will make a difference as recycling will save 3-5x the energy used to produce fresh products. Also with the 32.5% of plastic recycled in 2006 equates to 39.4 million cars worth of emission being removed, or 222.1 million barrels of oil saved.

• Finally if you have the time check out this link from ecologycenter to give you a few tips and trick on how you can either completely cut out plastic from your life or at least reduce your consumption of it.

http://ecologycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/eliminate-plastic.pdf

Thanks for reading!

What do you do to try and reduce your plastic consumption?

Check out this video from NeilPryde Wind