Plastic. It’s a fair bet that you, the reader, use it rather frequently in your daily life. It’s strange then that despite its ubiquity, most of us only have a vague impression of it being bad for the planet, that it doesn't biodegrade, and that we should try as far as possible to reduce our usage of the product, but that seems to be the full extent of most people’s knowledge.
The problem
So just how much plastic do we exactly use? In Singapore alone, our plastic waste ranks third amongst all other types of waste we generate. This problem has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, where plastics used for food deliveries have increased exponentially. Many have also become more ready to throw away used plastic materials in an act of unwarranted germophobia (research has shown that the risk of transmission of COVID-19 through plastic wrappings is extraordinarily low), which has only compounded the problem of waste.
An example of one of the many factors behind increased plastic usage
As it currently stands, we have produced more plastic over the last 10 years than in the entirety of the last century, with 50% being single-use and a minute 8% of plastic used being recycled. Currently, if we were to take every single piece of plastic waste in the ocean, stretch it out to the length of a meter and line them up in a straight line, we would have a line of garbage more than 10,000 times the distance between the earth and the moon, and more than a 100,000 times the circumference of the earth.
North Atlantic Ocean Gyre
The consequences
This is not without consequence either, there are very real environmental impacts to this waste, as one might expect. Plastic waste does not dissolve easily, so it can quite easily be swallowed by sea animals or birds and cause them to choke, or these animals could end up stuck in bags and similar pieces of waste and strangle to death.
To relate all this back to our lives, this phenomena also has significant effects on humans, as many of these animals are creatures that we eat. When they end up eating plastic waste, the plastic ends up in these animals which ends up in our stomach when we eat them. Singaporeans consumed some 90.93 thousand metric tonnes of fish in 2020, so the next time you throw away a plastic bottle, know that you’ll probably be eating it soon after.
There are also plenty of indirect problems caused by plastic waste. The process of extracting and processing the petroleum necessary for the production of plastics is highly energy intensive. We are making highly inefficient use of this energy if we throw them out after a single use. The energy, oil and landfill space expended on plastic is undoubtedly contributing to global warming, among the effects of which are rising sea levels. Here in Singapore, being an island with up to 30% of its land less than 5m above sea level, we can already feel the looming threat of frequent flooding together with more erratic weather conditions. Seawalls and other measures will need to be built to protect us, the cost of which will be coming out of your tax dollars.
The solution
With that said, it must be understood that the recycling of plastic is not ultimately a panacea, there is simply no silver bullet for the plastic waste problem. The process of melting down and recycling plastics produces Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) fumes that can harm plant and animal life around the plants where these processes take place.
The best solution is ultimately to reduce our plastic use all across the board.
As a piece of general advice, avoid, as far as possible, PET and PS plastics as they are neither recyclable nor reusable, reuse PVC and LDPE plastics as they are non-recyclable, and always opt for HDPE and PP plastics over the other kinds as they can be recycled.
Different types of plastic
With this in mind, the next time that you are about to purchase a plastic product, please look out for this information regarding the products to make an informed and responsible decision on the use of plastics.
Here in Hwa Chong
In Hwa Chong, there are plenty of initiatives to help you reduce your plastic use. Recycling bins are placed conveniently around the school for you to dispose of your plastic bottles, although please remember to wash them before throwing them in the bins. When eating at the canteen, you can refrain from using plastic straws and instead buy a metal one to use in school . These are simple steps that you can take that are relatively effortless but cumulatively would have a massive impact. If you’d like to go further, look out for the latest Green Council initiative to participate in! At the end of the day, we arrive at the classic mnemonic of the 3Rs: Reduce, reuse and recycle.
True, the difference that you would be able to make is miniscule, but if you’re not going to start now, when are you going to?
Written by: Khoo Kia Song Kendrick (22A14)
Edited by: Tan Xuanmin (21S78)
Special thanks to Green Council for the resources provided.
References
Ocean Plastics Pollution. Biologicaldiversity.org. (2022). Retrieved 19 April 2022, from https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/ocean_plastics/.
Singapore: fish consumption total 2020 | Statista. Statista. (2022). Retrieved 19 April 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1039410/total-fish-consumption-singapore/.
Impact Of Climate Change In Singapore. Nccs.gov.sg. (2022). Retrieved 19 April 2022, from https://www.nccs.gov.sg/singapores-climate-action/impact-of-climate-change-in-singapore/.
What to recycle. Towardszerowaste.gov.sg. (2022). Retrieved 19 April 2022, from https://www.towardszerowaste.gov.sg/recycle/what-to-recycle/.
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