Reducing Single Use Plastic Pollution: Role of Youth

The world reforms each day with every single decision that we make. What we decide today
might stand changed a few days later but the marks of our actions continue to persist. These
marks are held as memory by the nature as a blemish. Each day we discard stuff that could’ve
been used better. Another day is spent manufacturing something that is a degradation factor to
our very own home planet.

Plastic is a very common and widely used polymer based material that is a mixture of
combinations of various fossil fuels and various other substances. The fossil fuels are supplied
from the mining shaft in the form of oils and sent across hundreds and thousands of miles
where they undergo the process of refinery thus being separated into various different fuels
and oils. The journey of these doesn’t end just there; this is where it enters the second phase.
The refined fuels are now transported another hundred miles where they reach production
plants, the plastic production plant. They then get converted into nurdles, which are as small as
a grain of fish food. Some of these white balls of plastic are often misplaced during
transportation due to human and natural factors. Often these toxic balls end up in water bodies
and are mistaken by fishes for food. The nurdles that make it to the factory are then melted
and shaped into the desired objects. These can be single-use cutlery, cups, bottles, wrapping
plastic, drinking straws etc.

Every day another person gets coffee and uses the provided plastic cutlery to stir the sugar and
throws them away in the dustbin. The owner takes the bin and provides it to the garbage
collector who in turn segregates usable stuff and throws away the rest. On a daily basis more
than a million plastic objects are used and thrown away after a single use. The local garbage
collectors are untrained and therefore release all the waste in the landfills without proper
segregation. Moreover, despite the rules implemented by the government the non-recyclable
plastic continues to be in circulation.

In the modern world where innovation and technology keep expanding with it are our
responsibilities as the inhabitants of earth to make sure to take care of our environment. It is
true that development requires sacrifice of nature which is why the United Nations have
implemented the sustainable goals. Working towards a sustainable habitat not only ensures a
better, resourceful place to live in but also works towards making a better world for the future
generations. The youth of today is more concerned for their planet than ever. Social campaigns,
awareness rallies are few of the initiatives one comes across every day.

The problems we talk about today are not a result of an action that occurred in the past few
months on the contrary it is a slow poison that has been inculcating for millions years now. A
survey conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board in the year 2018-19 suggested that the
annual non-recyclable plastic waste generated amounted for a total of 3.3 million metric tons
which increases with every sun down.

This predicament called plastic has been revolutionized against since late 1960s but the
advantage of the cheap material has always managed to overpower the curse it carries along.

“It is never too late to make thing right.”

Innovative and curious young minds are shaping their future in an environmentally friendly
way. They encourage others to mend their attitude towards their garbage disposal methods
and perspective on the need of cleanliness.

In these trying times people have begun to understand the importance of the environment
because of not being able to go out as often as they used to. Youngsters are taking up the 30-
day plastic free challenge around the globe. The Plastic free July initiative (2011) by Rebecca
Prince-Ruiz is considered one of many great examples of how at just an individual language we
can reform the world and create its image in soil rather than molded plastic. Annually 3.4
million people hailing from 177 different countries participate in this initiative. Kids too are
doing their part towards a plastic free-world. A campaign called ‘Kids against Plastic’ was
launched by a 13 year old and a 10 year old in 2016.

The world is remolding daily; true, but so are the people living in it. Pushing past the
conservative beliefs are young minds shaping their own future, taking it in their own hands.

“Good things take time.”

Although single-use plastic continues to dawn upon us as a threat but a step each day is
bringing us closer to brighter and plastic free world. People have become too accustomed to
the downside of plastic but it’s time that it’s changed for the better. Everyone must work
together toward a better world.

-Himanshi Tomer
XI-D