Plastics can be considered the most dangerous human invention. Even atom bombs destruct the humans and the environment to some extent only when compared with plastics. Bombs and such other destructive weapons have some finite area to destruct and the effect of their menace can be recovered from, within some decades atleast, as in the case of Japan. But the effects of plastics seem to last centuries together and incur irrevocable loss to the biodiversity and the environment. Plastics can be seen every nook and corner of the world. We can imagine the danger from the plastics when it is known that about 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste has been generated in the world till 2015 which is more than the weight of 1 billion African bush elephants and that 90 percent of this waste is not decomposable for atleast 500 years. Seas and oceans are filled with micro plastics underneath and an estimated 100 million marine animals are killed every year. 1000 animals died in India alone in over 4 years due to plastics. Even glaciers are no exception to this plastic contamination. Plastics are omnipresent and cause omnipotent harm not only to the environment but also to the humans majorly in the form of floods due to clogging and also making humans prone to air, water and food pollution. According to the Environmental science and technology journal, each human consumes around 52000 micro plastics every year and 90000 extra are injested into those who drank only bottled water.

credit: inhabitat.com

What are micro plastics and where do they come from?

Before getting to know about microplastics, with the hype being created around bio degradable plastics these days, let us know what actually biodegradable plastics are and what is meant by this hyped biodegradable plastics. Biodegradable actually means degradable by micro organisms like other things such as vegetable wastes, cooked food etc. The hyped biodegradable plastics are actually oxo/photo-degradable plastics - which can be disintegrated in the presence of oxygen and sunlight. These plastics are broken down into fragments only - they are not converted into Carbon dioxide, water, methane and biomass. The actual degradation process must lead to conversion into carbon dioxide, water, methane, biomass inorder not to harm the environment. The oxo-degradable plastics generate micro plastics (very small fragments of plastics containing finite length polymers of carbon compounds), whose harm towards the environment cannot be rectified. There is another kind of plastics called Compostable plastics. These are the plastics which can be industrially composted under high temperatures and controlled conditions. There is little harm with the compostable plastics composted industrially because they are decomposed in closed environments without the micro plastics entering the outside environment.

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Need for eco-labeling :

Unfortunately, most of the compostable plastics are not being separated from conventional plastics and not composted industrially but are left in the waste management streams, producing micro plastics.

There is an intense need for eco-labelling in order to distinguish the compostable plastics from others. Eco labelling is marking the products showing that they are in conformity with the environmental standards. Compostable plastics are to be manufactured in accordance with ASTM D 6400-04 standards and to be labelled so that they can be differentiated at the source of waste generation. ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials), is an international standards organisation which develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems and services.

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Do Bio-degradable plastics exist?

The degradability of truly biodegradable plastics like polylactic acid, poly caprolactone etc, does not depend only on the polymer but also on the additive used in the end product and the environmental conditions in which it is used and released. Though they are somewhat better than other plastics, they are very costly and not in use much. So it can be loosely said that, there is no such thing as completely biodegradable plastics and the need of the hour, according to experts, is inventing new kind of plastics which retain their property of durability but are environmentally friendly, that is getting decomposed atleast 60% in 180 days, according to ASTM D standards.

What needs to be done?

Human's intention of durability has already caused irreversible, harmful environmental changes in the world. Let the process of inventing this new type of material not contribute yet more loss to the environment. Let each one of us try to do our bit in saving the environment atleast by differentiating the conventional plastics from other wastes generated in the house and let each of us make effort to educate municipal waste pickers to classify the plastics into red bins and others into green bins if at all they are not doing. This does not take much time in our busy day. If everyone keeps these two things consistently and regularly it may be regarded our part in protecting the environment though we can not research and invent environmentally friendly plastics. Avoiding plastic usage by us to a maximum extent possible by carrying jute or cloth bags to the market, not throwing any kind of plastic wastes into and near any water bodies, carrying plastic wastes till dust bins and disposing them of into dustbins only can be a better contribution to the environment. Governments should make laws mandating eco-labelling of any kind of plastic and should see that those laws are strictly implemented.

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