Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. Plastic pollution is most visible in developing Asian and African nations, where garbage collection systems are often inefficient or nonexistent. But the developed world, especially in countries with low recycling rates, also has trouble properly collecting discarded plastics. Plastic trash has become so ubiquitous it has prompted efforts to write a global treaty negotiated by the United Nations.
How did this happen?
Plastics made from fossil fuels are just over a century old. Production and development of thousands of new plastic products accelerated after World War II, so transforming the modern age that life without plastics would be unrecognizable today. Plastics revolutionized medicine with life-saving devices, made space travel possible, lightened cars and jets—saving fuel and pollution—and saved lives with helmets, incubators, and equipment for clean drinking water.
The conveniences plastics offer, however, led to a throw-away culture that reveals the material’s dark side: today, single-use plastics account for 40 percent of the plastic produced every year. Many of these products, such as plastic bags and food wrappers, have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years.
A great bowerbird in Queensland, Australia, decorates its home with broken glass, plastic toys, and other pieces of human trash.
A sponge crab wears a clear sheet of plastic over its shell in Edithburgh, Australia. Historically, sponge crabs put sponges over their shells to camouflage themselves from predators. This man-made covering is not adequate protection.
Empty plastic and glass containers wash ashore and litter the habitat of a marine iguana on Ecuador’s Santa Cruz Island. Marine iguanascan be found only on the Galápagos Islands.
A pair of curious rhesus macaques inspect a discarded plastic bottle outside the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal.
A black-footed albatross crunches down on plastic garbage on the Leeward Islands of Hawaii. Seabirds depend on the ocean for sustenance, and the ocean is littered with plastic pollution.
Marine flora mixes with plastic packaging at the water’s surface. Below, a green sea turtle swims away from the trash.
A Laysan albatross and a chick rest near a mound of regurgitated trash. Some birds with smaller gizzards can’t throw up undigestible plastic, so they’re more susceptible to plastic pollution.
In Hawaii, a bottlenose dolphin plays with a plastic six-pack holder. Such wrapping can permanently harm young marine animals, choking or disfiguring them.
A pack of hyenas forage through mounds of trash at the city dump in Mekelle, Ethiopia. Bits of plastic are littered among leftover food scraps and bones discarded by humans.
On Henderson Island, an uninhabited atoll in the Pitcairn Group isolated halfway between Chile and New Zealand, scientists found plastic items from Russia, the United States, Europe, South America, Japan, and China. They were carried to the South Pacific by the South Pacific gyre, a circular ocean current.
Here’s my story about plastic pollution
In our country, plastic waste makes up more than 30% of the volume of household waste. Plastic containers, bottles and bags are the main water pollutants in Armenia. I suggest refusing to use plastic bags. Because every day, everywhere we see plastic bags soaring in the air. Plastic bags pose a major environmental problem, as they take hundreds of years to decompose and emit hazardous substances from incineration. With this in mind, many countries around the world have already stopped using plastic bags.
Մեր հանրապետությունում պլաստիկ թափոնները կազմում են կենցաղային աղբի ծավալի ավելի քան 30%-ը։պլաստիկ տարաները, շշերը և տոպրակները Հայաստանում ջրերի հիմնական աղտոտիչներն են։ Ես առաջարկում եմ հրաժարվել պոլիէթիլենային տոպրակների օգտագործումից։ Քանի որ ամեն օր, ամեն տեղ ականատես ենք լինում օդում սավառնող պոլիէթիլենային տոպրակների: Պոլիէթիլենային տոպրակները բնապահպանական մեծ խնդիր են առաջ բերում, քանի որ դրանց քայքայման համար պահանջվում են հարյուրավոր տարիներ, իսկ այրումից արտանետվում են մարդու համար վտանգավոր նյութեր։ Սա հաշվի առնելով` աշխարհի շատ երկրներ արդեն իսկ հրաժարվել են պոլիէթիլենային տոպրակների օգտագործումից: