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We are drowning in plastic.
The first thing we do in the morning is to brush our teeth. Take a look at your toothbrush, is it made of plastic?
Rushing to work or school, we sometimes like to get breakfast on the way to save time. Most of the time the baozi or the Chinese omelet we buy are wrapped in a thin plastic bag, the milk tea or soy milk comes with a plastic straw, and together they're put in another plastic bag to be easy to take away.
At supermarkets, plastics are even more ubiquitous. But, do these veggies and fruits really need that much "protection"?
Is the convenience that plastics offer so necessary and irresistible that it can justify our mindless use and disposal of plastic?
Take a minute to recall, how many plastic items have you used today, and how many of them are single-use plastics?
Since when we are okay with letting our living environment, our life, and even our own bodies be invaded by plastics?
The Great Birth of Plastic
In the 19th century, ivory products were extremely popular, which included billiards balls at that time. Countless wild elephants were being killed for their tusks and there was a common belief that ivory was in short supply.
In the search for a substitute to this expensive and difficult-to-obtain material, Phelan and Collender, a major billiards supplier even offered the then immense sum of $10,000 reward (several hundred thousand dollars in today’s money) to anybody who can invent one.
In 1856, the English metallurgist Alexander Parkes invented the world's first synthetic plastic called "Parkesine".
In 1868, the American inventor John Wesley Hyatt, after repeatedly experimenting with Parkesine, successfully made it into a material suitable for commercial production.
Named "celluloid", it became widely used in the manufacture of billiards, glasses frames, etc. And so began the era of plastics.
Plastic had its shining moments in human history.
Film stocks made of plastic underpinned the development of the film industry and had a profound cultural influence worldwide; in Science, plastic also played an important role.
The success of the Apollo Program that sent Neil Alden Armstrong onto the moon in 1969 couldn't have been achieved without the help of plastic.
The white spacesuit and the helmet were made of high-performance plastics such as nylon and polycarbonate (PC).
In August 1955, Life Magazine ran an article called 「Throwaway Living」 that celebrated the new disposable society.
There Is No "Away"
Most likely, the plastics we "throw away" will end up in our bodies.
Positive contributions of plastics shouldn't be forgotten. The benefits of plastics in durability and effectiveness are evident; throughout the century, plastics have become an essential part of modern society. Plastic is still highly depended on by a number of industries, such as aerospace and automotive.
The very properties of plastic - its durability and long lifespan, are what makes the material so popular, which are also exactly what turn it into a huge environmental issue.
It is not plastic itself to blame. The problem is using it irresponsibly.
Unlike earlier plastics, the current plastic structure is more stable, which means it is more difficult to decompose naturally. For example, plastic bags and containers made of expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) can take up to a thousand years to break down, during which they wander in various forms on the earth, polluting the land and water that marine life and humans live on.
According to report Single-use Plastics: A Roadmap for Sustainability released this year by the UN Environment Programme, more than 400 million tons of plastics are produced every year worldwide, disposable plastic packaging accounting for a large portion; the annual consumption of plastic bags can be as high as five trillion.
If tied together, they would go around the world seven times every hour, equivalent to using 10 million plastic bags per minute. On the total amount of plastic packaging waste, China ranks first.
Where does our plastic waste go? Humans have created 9 billion tons of plastic waste since 1950, and less than 10% has been recycled. The rest goes to landfills or ends up in the ocean, the final sink.
Endlessly consuming natural resources, destroying the ecological environment, and increasing the burden on the earth is tantamount to creating a crisis for us all.
A study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a global initiative to promote a circular economy, shows that each year, between 5 and 13 million tons of plastics flow into the ocean and are ingested by seabirds, turtles, fish, and other marine life. It is expected that by 2050, the total weight of plastics in the ocean will exceed the sum of fish.
Just recently, Austrian scientists have discovered microplastic particles in human feces for the first time. Humans at the top of the food chain will become the ultimate habitat for these plastic waste.
What About Biodegradable Plastics? Aren't They Enough?
Many of the so-called 「degradable plastics」 are traditional plastics such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), added by corn starch, calcium carbonate or photosensitizer. These kinds of additives can break large pieces of plastic into smaller pieces, but can't make them disappear, and in fact, it not only increases the difficulty of recycling but creates microplastics that are causing severe damage to marine environments, endangering the entire food chain.
Even if there do exist some plastics that can really be degraded by organisms, the desired results could only be achieved under specific conditions, such as an environment for high-temperature industrial composting, instead of under a natural environment. Even worse, some biodegradable plastics, when being decomposed in landfills, would produce methane, a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, accelerating the pace of global warming.
There is no perfect solution for anything. Biodegradable plastics can be regarded as an attempt to solve the problem of plastic pollution, but as consumers, we should be aware of the misunderstanding that its new "green" name can cause, and by no means, it should be an excuse for us to keep consuming single-use plastics.
p.s. There will soon be a new article on biodegradable plastics, please stay tuned!
Combating plastic pollution isn't a one-man job, it requires enormous and systematic efforts from governments, enterprises, NGOs, and individuals like YOU & ME! By reducing waste at the source, minimizing our consumption of single-use plastics, we are building and creating a cleaner and brighter future!
BEEZIRO is a young brand that wishes to promote a zero waste lifestyle by introducing a 100% natural way of preserving food - beeswax wrap, a zero waste alternative to single-use plastic wraps. BEEZIRO beeswax wrap's mission is to help you keep food fresh longer in an eco-friendly way.
Some of the amazing facts about BEEZIRO beeswax wraps:
1. Reusable & Washable 💧
Unlike single-use plastic wraps, our beeswax wraps can be simply washed and reused for 6 months or more, which helps you cut down your plastic waste.
2. 100% Natural & Plasticizer-Free 🌍
Our wraps are made of organic cotton, natural beeswax, and organic jojoba oil, which make them safe to have close to your food. No more worries about plasticizers in food!
3. Antibacterial & Breathable 👃
Beeswax's antibacterial properties can help isolate your food from unwanted contact, and with moderate oxygen and moisture permeability, our wraps allow food to breathe naturally.
4. Beeutiful Design 🐝
The pattern you see on the cotton fabric is specifically designed for our wraps. We chose to have a simple pattern design that is not too colorful, which would need as little dye as possible. We also made sure the dye on our fabric is eco-friendly.
Now, we'd like to invite you to join us on this zero waste journey.
Starting from today, anyone interested in trying out our beeswax wraps can apply for a FREE sample!
You will get a 25cm*25cm BEEZIRO beeswax wrap,
perfect for a half cut melon, an apple, or a plate under 8 inches, etc.
How to apply:
Simply add us on wechat (ID: beeziro2018) and tell us you would like to try it out!
*Delivery from Jan 3, according to the order of application.