Plastics - Trash that we create out of Convenience

BYOB or "Bring Your Own Bag" Campaign has been ringing in our ears for the past 2 years, ever since NEA has introduced this officially on 18 April 2007. This was introduced to encourage Singaporeans to use less plastic bags, as a way of reducing plastic trash created every year. 2 years of running the campaign since then, but what have us Singaporeans actually learned from it?

So far, we can observe that environmental concerns and awareness may be slightly increased. But with the bustling life of the city, such concerns for the environment seems to be drowned by voices of economic progress.

Plastics is a non-biodegradable trash, that remains in the same physical form in the environment. Even with the introduction of bio-degradable plastics, such plastics last for hundereds of years in an anaerobic environment. Since we consume a lot of plastics, we can only see a build up of plastic waste faster than any plastics can degrade.

The impact of plastics on the environment is exemplified by the marine debris we created. From Singapore's ICCS 2008 (International Coastal Cleanup Singapore) data collected from mangrove swamps only, marine debris contains more than 40% of plastic trash.What about the whole world? Such marine debris endanger marine lives, with fishing nets trapping animals, and animals dying of consuming plastic pieces.



Such plastic trash is not limited to cities. As countries like China push for development in the rural areas, the trash produced there is also tremendous, and is increasing everyday. And just looking at this upstream part of Yangtze River in the rural area of China, I am sure one can imagine what will happen to the downstream of the river.



The bigger picture of plastics in marine debris is the Plastic Trash Vortex created in the world oceans. With plastics and trash being dumped into river streams and washed into the seas, sea currents around the world coagulate the waste in certain locations on the oceans. This is due to sea currents will form regions of stagnant water bodies in the oceans. The trash locations are shown by the animation below provided by Green Peace.



So with so much trash in the world today, should we actually re-think how we should use plastics more responsibly? Its a social responsibility. It starts from you and me, and it starts today. Its never too late to do something for the environment, and this battle for the environment is an arduous journey ahead.


BYOB Campaign: http://app.nea.gov.sg/cms/htdocs/article.asp?pid=2859
Marine Debris: http://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/unep-marine-litter-a-global-challenge/#more-550
Plastic Trash Vortex: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/pollution/trash-vortex#