Reduce, Reuse, Recycle?

All our lives people are taught to reduce, reuse, and recycle in order to save our environment and reduce our carbon footprint's.  This seems to be a false sense of reality because most of our world's plastics are dumped straight into landfills or our precious oceans and never actually recycled to be reused.  Companies produce a huge amount of plastic each year all for a single use which ends up harming our planet so much more in the long run.  Plastics are one of the largest causes of global warming, and something needs to change about our plastic industry.  It seems as though even when we do something that is supposed to be beneficial for our planet, there is always another catch which is just as detrimental and harmful to our planet than in the first place.

As You Sow

Recycling is a process where companies take single use plastics and turn it into something else that can be continuously re-used over and over again.  According to National Geographic, 300 million tons of plastic are created annually, with over 50% of them being for single-use purposes.  This is a crazy high number and even worse that they are for a one time use.  As stated by the Vice President of European Commissions, "single-use plastics take five seconds to produce, are used for five minutes, then take 500 years to break down again."  This statement could not be more true and it is sad to see how many people and how many innocent animals this negatively effects.  Each year, over 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean which is killing our ocean life and creating many dead zones (Parker).

Greenpeace

What types of plastics can be recycled then?  Well it is only 2 out of the 7 plastics that are recycled are actually used again whereas the rest ends up in landfills and oceans.  #1 and #5 plastics are the only ones considered for recyclables depending on the shape and size of the plastic.  According to the Mitte Team, an astounding 91% of the world's plastic is not recycled, yet no one seems to be talking about this and it's negative earth impacts.  I personally never knew this problem was so bad until I did the research and found the facts about our world's recycling industry.  Recycling is supposed to be beneficial to our world and yet the plastics still end up in the same landfills and ocean piles as if we threw it away in our garbage's in the first place.

National Geographic

Overall the plastic industries are extremely harmful to our world, and it seems as though there is no hope in saving our planet.  The biggest thing we could do is not buy single use plastics in the first place.  That means no plastic bottles, no plastic bags, and no plastic straws.  These are all everyday use products but can easily be found in reusable form.  Other than that, we could set up protests encouraging recycling companies to use all types of plastics when recycling.  Also to protest against plastic creator companies to not make so many single use plastics, which ultimately just ends up harming our planet and killing many animals.  Let's stop plastics from ruining our planet before it's too late!

Sources

Cohen, Dianna. Plastic trash overwhelms beach at Freedom Island. As You Sow,
     July 2016, www.asyousow.org/our-work/waste/ocean-plastics. Accessed 16 Dec.
     2019.
Greenpeace. Top Brands That Were Found to Be Polluting the Oceans in a Beach
     Cleanup Activity. Eco-Business, 20 Apr. 2018, www.eco-business.com/news/
     what-are-the-worlds-biggest-plastic-polluters-doing-about-the-problem/.
     Accessed 16 Dec. 2019.
Parker, Laura. "A whopping 91% of plastic isn't recycled." National Geographic,
     20 Dec. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/07/
     plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment/. Accessed
     16 Dec. 2019.
The Truth about Recycling Plastics. 18 July 2018, mitte.co/2018/07/18/
     truth-recycling-plastic/. Accessed 16 Dec. 2019.

Water Contamination Here and There

Water; it's a resource every person and animal needs to survive and function properly.  It is known that the human brain is made up of 70% water.  Most people are dehydrated all the time and it effects mental focus, energy levels. and athletic performance.  Why don't people hydrate themselves with clean refreshing water at all times if it truly makes that much of an impact on their bodies?  It's because clean water availability is at an all time low and it's scary what is in store for the near future for human life.

Barcroft

Water contamination is an issue that everyone deals with.  According to New Hampshire's department of public health, 1 in 5 households contain arsenic, which is a known carcinogen.  This isn't even including other chemicals found in water such as lead, fluoride, or chromium which could have extremely negative health effects on human bodies.  Many people in New Hampshire have to use special water filters just to hydrate their bodies, and you can imagine the struggle for low income households to obtain clean water.  Water contamination is a global issue, and not just some local obstacle to climb over.

Water Treatment

India is a country that is severely struggling with contaminated water, and many people are dying and obtaining diseases due to drinking dirty water.  According to The Berkey, "163 million Indian citizens need access to safe drinking water."  This means many people have to travel daily many miles to a water tank to fill up containers of clean water just to live.  This is no way to live and it's sad that so many people can't find clean drinking water when it's such a key necessity to everyday life.  The Berkey states that, "India may end up with 50% water inadequacy by 2030", if humans continue to put so many chemicals into their own drinking water.  This means half of the water on India won't be drinkable in 9 years or so.  That is crazy how we can waste such a valuable resource in such a short time, and something needs to change quickly.

Getty Images

Water contamination is a human cause and we can only blame ourselves.  Industrial waste being dumped into our clean water, and deforestation which causes chemicals and unsafe bacteria to enter the nearby water sources.  Arsenic, radium, and nitrate are just some of the dangerous chemicals found in water due to our waste and these are extremely harmful chemicals to ingest.  Using special water filters can drastically help clean the water from our homes, but globally the only thing we can do is stop contaminating our water.  Reducing our carbon footprints, and watching the amount of waste we are putting in unregulated places.  Let's stop contaminating our world's water supply before it's impossible to obtain a clean, refreshing glass of water!

Sources

Barcroft Media. The Yamuna River. NHPR, 8 June 2017, www.nhpr.org/post/
     if-you-see-dirty-water-dont-just-gripe-talk-cloud#stream/0. Accessed 8 Dec.
     2019.

Drinking Water. 20 Mar. 2018, www.nh.gov/epht/environmental-topics/
     drinking-water.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2019.

Facts about Water Crisis in India. 2019, theberkey.com/blogs/water-filter/
     facts-of-about-water-crisis-in-india. Accessed 8 Dec. 2019.

Getty Images. India Water Crisis. BBC News, 15 June 2018, www.bbc.com/news/
     world-asia-india-44492994. Accessed 8 Dec. 2019.

Water Treatment. Johns Hopkins College, 2 May 2018, hub.jhu.edu/2018/05/02/
     water-treatment-generates-harmful-chemicals/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2019.