Recently the church sounded an advisory cautioning the use of plastics in our celebrations. This shows that the church authorities too are aware and very much concerned about the growing menace of the use of plastics.

Plastics! What are they? In simple words they are large molecules made from small units which get repeated to form the large one (macromolecule)

Can anyone guess the age of plastics, when they actually came into existence? It was in the year 1950, and from then, there is no turning back. Why was it so important? Those born in that decade or earlier, will recall that all articles we used then were made either of wood or metal. Now most of the articles are made of plastics name it, it is there – furniture, toys, bags, pens, refills to name a few.

Plastics are light weight, strong, lasting, corrosion free, and cheap. I will take a simple example to show how we changed, Let us take a look at our cutting boards, in yesteryears we used the wooden ones, but now most of us use the plastic ones. The pipelines of old were of iron, now we have P.V.C. pipes which have replaced them. We both have their advantages and disadvantages. Why have we switched over? We look at the convenience, the aesthetics and durability.

Why should we not use Plastics? Is it harmful , let me explain when a large unit(plastic) is formed it is open at both ends so it can attract some other atoms to it, here is the catch since it is open at both ends it  is a potential threat as it is  having the opportunity to form large units. I am no authority to state the direct link between the use of plastics and the dreaded disease cancer, but studies have shown that because of the open-endedness (free radicals) of plastics, it is a potential threat, especially when we have hot tea or coffee or anything hot in plastic cups or containers.

The most harmful aspect of plastics is its effect on the environment as they are not biodegradable and it takes around 2000 years for a plastic bag to degrade. So much of plastic waste is found in the oceans, seas, rivers, lakes etc. Do you know that in the process of degradation micro molecules of plastic which may not even be visible to the naked eye, these in turn are taken in by the aquatic life and when we eat the fish and other seafood we directly take these micro plastics into our bodies, thus harming ourselves.

Besides harming ourselves the use of plastic has caused harm to the birds and animals as well. They are affected because of unknowingly falling prey by feeding on these plastics and thus there are numerous cases of their untimely deaths which again disrupts the ecological balance.

Can we burn plastic? The answer to this is a big NO.I have seen educated people putting fire to plastics , this is  the biggest folly anyone can commit because burning of plastics gives rise to toxic gases which go into the environment and then into our system. I had read in the papers that a man to keep himself warm from the cold in Calcutta was burning plastic milk bags. As he was burning them he inhaled the gases which were emitted and the result was his fatal death.

So what is the viable solution to the problem? As of now I do not foresee any, Plastics are here to stay unless research gives us another composite material which will fulfill all the properties that plastics have, but let us not lose hope scientists are working to come out with biodegradable plastics which will have similar properties, and use of alternative greener products. But for now, how can each one of us contribute to a safer environment? Let us restrict the use of plastics as far as possible, and use reusable materials like cloth bags which our ancestors used, they gave us a clean and healthy environment, let us at least preserve some of it for the future generations.

By Gladys Da Silva (Sector II Zone I)