Environment

Plastic pollution is currently one of the biggest environmental concerns. Many of these products, such as plastic bags, have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years.

India consumes an estimated 16.5 million tonnes of plastic annually, as per the June 2018 data provided by PlastIndia Foundation. Of this, 43 percent is plastic manufactured for single-use packaging material that will mostly find its way into garbage bins, the report said.

Plastic is cheap and widely available, people frequently dispose of plastic items in trash which does not decompose and also there is no proper channelization of recycling. Not only does plastic cause damage to the land, ocean, rivers, lakes but it also can damage groundwater sources.

About more than a Lac of animals including turtles, whales, dolphins and penguins are killed every year due to consumption of plastic bags. Many animals ingest plastic bags mistaking them for food and therefore they die.

These plastic bags remain intact even after death and decomposition of the animal.

Some of the constituents of plastic such as benzene are known to cause cancer. Plastic resins themselves are flammable and have contributed considerably to several accidents worldwide.

Plastic Gets Consumed
As per recent study by World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), we are consuming 5 grams of micro-plastic every week through food, water and air which is 250 grams in a year.

This may not sound like much, but it can add up. At this rate of consumption, in a decade, we could be eating 2.5 kg in plastic, the equivalent of over two sizable pieces of plastic pipe. And over a lifetime, we consume about 20 kg of micro plastic.