![]() ![]() It recycled about one-third of its new plastic waste in 2021, about 1.7 times the global average.īeijing is making headway in this regard, requiring the city's courier services to step up and fully transform the packaging practice, switching to digital waybills, narrower packaging tape and recyclable bags. China has grown into the largest plastic recycling country in the world. These plastics must be brought in and recycled.īetween 20, China recycled 170 million tons of plastic waste, helping reduce crude oil consumption by 510 million tons and cut carbon emissions by 61.2 million tons. A normal car contains many kilos of plastics, it makes the car lighter and consumes less energy. Yes, we can ban single-use plastics, but we still have many plastic products which are useful to us and not so easy to replace. Planting bamboo can restore degraded or deforested land, mitigate soil erosion and provide food for giant pandas and mountain gorillas. Bamboo, which is fast-growing, resilient and sustainable, can be used as a substitute for single-use plastics, while being recyclable and eco-friendly. If we throw away natural products, they will disintegrate in nature.Ĭhina's delivery industry, for example, annually produces about 1.8 million metric tons of plastic waste. All over the planet startups are trying to make products with the characteristics of plastics from potatoes, sugar cane and many other natural materials. Indians have through millenniums eaten from plates made of banana leaves. Straws can be made from bamboo or from paper. Does it make them happier? There is no need to wait. In average, one North American uses 600 straws a year. We can all drink straight from a normal glass, without straws. This is what the Indian government has done even if it's not yet fully respected everywhere. Let's simply ban straws, plastic cutlery, plastic cups and bags. We just need to transform that spirit to the community at large.įirst, we should prohibit all single-use plastics we do not need. "All Rwandans keep clean at home", President Paul Kagame told me. ![]() The capital city of Kigali is absolutely clean. In small, poor, landlocked Rwanda you cannot find garbage in the streets. The cleanest nation in the world is the most improbable place. Every nation can act, without looking over their shoulder asking what others are doing. The solution doesn't involve costly high tech or impossible international diplomacy. But no one has suggested that is good for us.įortunately, we know how to solve the plastic crisis. We don't know exactly how microplastics affect the human body. Even the most pristine waters of the world, in the Himalayas or the Arctic, now contain microplastics. ![]() Bigger plastic items fragment in nature and get into our bodies as microplastics. We breathe plastic, we drink plastic and we eat plastic. Who will swim along the wonderful beaches in Hainan province, in Sri Lanka or in Bali, if it means entering a sea of plastics? For this reason, tourism-dependent Indonesia declared plastic pollution a major economic threat to the nation. Single-use plastic is an additional economic disaster. They perish, as do camels, cows and turtles, in all corners of the planet. They feed their chicks with this poisonous food. Sea birds dive down mistaking plastics for shellfish. It vomited plastic bags while passing away. They are causing an environmental catastrophe. There are three main reasons why humanity needs to overcome its addiction to plastic. ![]() But as often happens in human life, when we discover something good, we get addicted. We could preserve food better, make cars and aircraft lighter and protect against dangerous bacteria. When plastic was introduced in the United States in the 1950s, it was seen as the wonder material. Once hailed as a wonder material, plastic has become a threat to life ![]()
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