01/05/2024
Plastic Addiction – The Human Condition
Plastic is ruining our planet and making us sick. We’re addicted to the stuff and we’re dumping an estimated 200 million metric tonnes of plastic into the oceans and landfill each year. And, sadly, this amount is likely to triple by 2030.
While plastic has many valuable uses, we have become addicted to single-use plastic products with severe environmental, social, economic and health consequences.
Consider this: every minute, one million plastic bottles are purchased worldwide, while five trillion plastic bags are consumed annually. Half of the 360 million metric tonnes of plastic produced each year is crafted for single-use purposes, destined for a fleeting moment in our hands before lingering forever in our environment. The sheer volume of plastic waste we generate, estimated to triple by 2030 is staggering, a testament to our addiction’s grip.
Plastic, once hailed as a miracle material, now stains our landscapes, infiltrates our oceans, and invades even the deepest reaches of our planet. Microplastics, the minuscule remnants of our disposable culture, permeate the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the ecosystems we rely on. They infiltrate our bodies, coursing through our bloodstream and settling in our organs. A grim reminder of the far-reaching consequences of our addiction.
The rise of plastics was a triumph of ingenuity, yet it has become a tragedy of our own making. Our insatiable appetite for convenience has blinded us to the true cost of our plastic dependence. We find ourselves entangled in a cycle of Plastiphilia (love for plastics items), Plastimania (Craziness for plastic), and Plastidependency (Plastic Dependency) and a dangerous descent into a Plasticimea (Death by plastic), where the very material we once revered threatens our existence.
Plastic waste trafficking has become a highly profitable, low-risk criminal activity that is going under the radar, according to The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime representative in Bangkok for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The illegal export of waste, known as Waste Trafficking, is a worrying phenomenon in waste management around the world. This specific type of environmental crime has extremely negative effects on sustainable resource management, causing significant harm to the environment and human health
Reported by Nikkei Asia, six of the world’s top 10 biggest contributors to oceanic plastic pollution are in Southeast Asia. The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand are responsible for more than half the global total of plastic waste in our oceans, with the Philippines alone generating a third annually. Asia overall generates more than 80% of global oceanic plastic waste.
It is time to rethink our relationship with plastic. Time to reassess how we produce, consume and dispose of this material that wont go away. Hopefully, the tide is slowly turning against our plastic addiction.
As stewards of this planet, we hold the power to rewrite this narrative, to break free from the shackles of our plastic addiction and forge a path towards a more sustainable future. It is a daunting task, but one that is essential for the health of our planet and the well-being of future generations.
Plastic addiction may be the human condition, but it does not have to be our legacy. Let us heed the call to action, for the sake of our planet, our health and the future of life on Earth.
