Let's Have PLASTIC in Dinner Tonight...!!!

Friend, don’t be surprised by the topic. Whether you want to have Plastic in your dinner tonight or not, it will be there on your plate in some form or the other. We all love eating Plastic at least for once in a day either in the breakfast or lunch or at the dinner or in any other meal you take. But now you must be wondering that how is this possible. You always love to eat the delicious food made by your mother or by you, or you love to visit a high class 5 star restaurant for dinner with your family. But take this as an early warning signal, we all are eating plastic on the continuous basis in our daily meals. It can be present either in the Water you drink, can be in flour with which you make chapattis or might be in the Milk you drink before going to the bed in the night.

You want to know how…? I’ll tell you how.

In the recent researches, it has been found that there are more than 850 Million Metric tons of Plastic products floating in the oceans, which is more than the present alive sea animals. This Plastic is non-biodegradable and doesn’t get destroyed for many years. It changes its form but does remain in the environment. This Plastic is consumed by the sea animals and since it cannot be digested, sea animals lost their lives. The Plastic in the sea comes from rivers, sewage, industrial effluents, etc. This further pollutes the sea water, the water which is consumed by sea animals. They won’t be able to get proper oxygen and then they get to die.

In India, Maharashtra is the largest producer of Plastic waste. Out of the total Plastic waste, only 60% waste gets recycled. The remaining waste requires huge hectares of landfills in order to dump that Plastic and let me tell you one thing, one single piece of Plastic takes 500 – 1000 Years to degrade. We do make landfills to dump these components, but within a few years, these components start decreasing the agricultural productivity of that particular area, hence, demands for food are not fulfilled.

Not only in the sea, but also on the streets, we throw the Plastic bottles, disposals, cans, polyethylene bags. These materials are then consumed by street animals like cows, dogs, pigs, etc. The Cow gives us milk, but think about this – what will be the quality of the milk of that cow who is having kilos of Plastic inside her stomach. Obviously, some percentage of Plastic will be there in the milk as well. This milk will be consumed by the countless number of persons. Now you can imagine the rest of the story. Not only this decreases the average life of animals, but it also harms the life of the human beings and besides milk, we human beings also consume non-vegetarian food as well, the same problem will be there also.

Let’s look into this issue from a different dimension. Industrial effluents are produced in three forms – Solid, Liquid, and Gas. We have already talked about the Solid and the Liquid waste that how it gets mixed in the water. Gaseous effluent also comprises of a high volume of Plastic.

This is how it goes.

Many of the industries who are manufacturing Plastic components, requires heating of the plastic raw material to convert it into a saleable finished product. But the heating part generates a high proportion of pollution in the environment. This further gets dissolved in the air and then get inhaled by us in the form of oxygen, and congratulations!!! We all love cutting trees as well. Brave…!!! We all are. And then one day, instead of red blood, transparent Plastic will run inside our veins. But before us, millions of animals are losing their lives daily because a major part of their meal is comprised of Plastic.

India, China, and most of the other developed countries generate more than 70 % of the total plastic waste and hence these are the ones who need to adopt the change in order to remain developed. The Air Quality Index is continuously showing negative results in the majority of the parts of the world.

Recently, I came to know that, China is manufacturing the RICE made up of plastic and it is also exported to other countries as well. I firmly believe that this is unethical. We all know that China is one of the fastest developed nations of this world. It is widely known as a manufacturing hub, but making RICE with Plastic will do no good for anyone. In India also, occasionally and during festivals, investigation teams find out the Food & Beverages made up of detergents, chemicals, plastic materials. This must be stopped from the immediate effect as it puts the lives of many in danger.

We are approaching for the WORLD’S ENVIRONMENT DAY on 5^th of June and in the same month, we are also going to celebrate International YOGA DAY which is on 21^st June. Somewhere, you are also going to post very motivating thoughts and pictures on your social media accounts highlighting the value of Environment and Yoga Day, but I firmly believe that this will be of no use until and unless words are converted into actions. We cannot and must not blame anyone for all these issues, especially the government. We all have to step-up together in order to solve this issue. Otherwise, keep eating Plastic in your Breakfast, Lunch, as well as in Dinner.

In the end, I would love to know about your views in regard to these issues are.

What according to you can we do in order to solve this problem of increased Plastic Waste?

Share your valuable suggestions in the comment box.

Thank you and say ‘NO’ to Plastic.