CAN WE ELIMINATE PLASTIC ?

On the one hand plastic is one of the most useful manufactured material in the world. On the other hand it is one of the most harmful material on earth. People world over use plastic for a wide variety of applications. People prefer plastic material for its lower cost, multi utility, water resistance and convenience.

Plastic has an enormous growth in a short span of time. Plastic production in 1950 was 1.5 million tonnes. It rose to 200 in 2002 and 322 million tonnes in 2015. Global consumption of plastic is 45 kg/person. Highest is in NAFTA region with 139 kg/person and the lowest is in Middle East and Africa with 16 kg/person. An unimaginable quantity of 9 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced after 1950. 30% of total production is still in use. Only about 9% are recycled. About 7 million tonnes of plastic are available in the whole world now as waste in different forms. According to researchers an estimated quantity of 8 million tonnes end up in ocean every year. 60% of total plastic dumped in to the ocean are by five countries; China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Plastic is the maximum produced manufactured material in the world for the past 50 years. India has consumed around 3 lakh tonnes in 2000 and 8.5 lakh tonnes in 2007 and the figure is steeply rising.

While these are the statistics about plastic it has a very dangerous negative quality too. When we appreciate the durability of everything, the same durability is the curse for this material. Plastic do no disintegrate like other materials. It takes about 500 years to break down into earth. In other words, a plastic carry bag we throw into the open, will survive about seven of our coming generations. Plastic is made not in conformity with the nature's process. The extremely strong carbon-carbon bond do not allow it to break down like other organic matter.

While plastic has a never ending utility and it is availablity is in enormous amounts people do not want to keep it for long, whereas gold has absolutely no use but is too scarce, so that people want to retain its possession for ever. This may be a contradiction. Surprisingly, the unimaginable durability of plastic is the sole reason for our efforts for its elimination. Within the existing reach of our science it is impossible to disintegrate this material. When the grown up man has accepted his failure why not we pass it to the coming generation? They may be able to find a method by which the decomposition become possible.

What we should do for this experiment?  Give this problem to all children of schools and colleges of all countries in the world. Offer an unimaginably huge prize for those who come out with a definite answer. Also offer a similar amount to the institution they belong to. I am sure that we can have a solution for this problem in the near future. UN can take the lead in this. There is nothing impossible in this world. Let us make a beginning.

KV George
kvgeorgein@gmail.com