Terrible plastic pollution

Terrible plastic pollution

"Only 9% of the world's 9 billion tons of plastic products are recycled." At a recent environmental protection forum, the president of China Circular Economy Association pointed to the high environmental cost of plastic waste in his speech. As soon as the shocking figures were released, they attracted attention. Many netizens exclaimed, "Plastics are destroying our homes."

Looking around, plastic products are everywhere. Because of its convenience, light weight, wear resistance and other characteristics, plastics became popular all over the world once they were invented, once regarded as the light of science and technology. However, with the passage of time, the drawbacks of "difficult recovery, degradation and treatment" of plastic products have become increasingly prominent, and the shocking "white pollution" has evolved into a "biochemical crisis". Survey reports show that more than 270 species have been injured by plastic entanglement, and more than 240 species have been found to be pathogenic by miseating plastic, including humans themselves. In view of this, some scholars have listed plastics as "the worst invention of mankind in the 20th century", and many groups have called for a complete ban on plastics.

To be fair, plastics are innocent, and their products are an integral part of modern civilization. The reason why the reputation of plastics has declined sharply is that the recovery and disposal of plastic waste lags behind the increasing production and consumption of millions of tons per day in the world. Not to mention that many plastic wastes are difficult to recycle. Even for a small part of reusable wastes, countries around the world have not established mature waste treatment systems, mostly burnt or deep landfill. In the past few years, many countries issued "plastic restriction orders", but only based on circulation channels to control the "white pollution" tip of the iceberg. What is more confusing is that some developed countries, with the halo of "advanced garbage disposal", are constantly exporting huge amounts of garbage to developing countries. All these show that human beings have done too little in the recycling of plastic waste.

Some scholars predict that by 2050, the global plastic waste will weigh more than the total weight of marine fish. Such an assertion may be exaggerated, but it really raises a question: it is time to innovate the way plastic waste is treated. Garbage is just a resource in the wrong place. Some pioneers tried to make waste plastic into sound insulation materials, TV case, car case and so on. The effect is good. However, it should be noted that the re-entry of white garbage into the economic cycle is obviously based on effective classification. In this respect, China still has a long way to go. In the past few days, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave important instructions on garbage sorting. At the implementation level, various localities are taking out "detailed measures" and "hard measures". For example, Shanghai has officially launched a special supervision on the promotion of garbage classification, and Beijing has promoted compulsory garbage classification in commercial buildings, hotels and other business sites. It can be said that from top-level design to concrete implementation, China's garbage classification ushered in a new opportunity. Next, all aspects of society need to cooperate with action to turn the concern about "white pollution" into action to protect the environment.

Martin Lewis wrote in "Green Illusion" that "a large number of people believe that human social and ecological problems can only be solved by returning to the original way of life". It is obvious that "environmental protection" is too extreme. However, as long as everyone can abandon a little convenience for environmental protection, everyone can consciously practice the ecological concept, will certainly gather armpits into a fur, in exchange for more beautiful scenery.