09/05/2024 –
Problems and prospects of indiscriminate consumption. Plastic waste is omnipresent in the environment, in food and in water. Every year 353 million tonnes are produced and 11 million enter the ocean, endangering animal life. A sea of pollution, set to worsen rapidly.
The invention of a synthetic polymer in 1907 revolutionised our lives. Plastic is one of the most versatile materials ever produced. We are accustomed to plastic — seduced and submerged by it. Every day we come into contact with an infinite number of products containing plastic, from mobile phones to pens, from cigarettes to credit cards, cleaning and personal care products, from sunglasses to clothing, bottles and packaging — and we even find it in the food and water we consume.
Since then, global production has grown exponentially, reaching 460 million tonnes per year in 2019 and is set to double by 2040. And the quantity of waste generated is staggering: 353 million tonnes, of which 11 million tonnes enter the ocean every year (by 2050, there will be more plastic waste than fish in the oceans). Only 9% is correctly recycled, half ends up in landfill, 22% goes directly into the environment and the rest is burned.
Plastic pollution is now omnipresent: in our oceans, in the soil, in drinking water, in the human and animal body and even in the air. It seemed that Europe was moving in the right direction, with the ban on many single-use plastic products including straws, plates, cups and cutlery. But then the coronavirus invaded the world with billions of single-use masks, wipes and gloves, and in the wave of widespread sanitisation culture, many products previously easy to buy loose are now packaged in plastic — from courgettes to aubergines to all manner of fruit and vegetables.
While European green policies have suffered a setback following the onset of Covid and the recent wars in Ukraine and Palestine, there is a growing and urgent need for research into electric vehicles and rechargeable batteries for the energy transition, renewable energies and green hydrogen — to reduce waste production and increase recycling, limit fossil fuel consumption and mitigate climate change. The need for development that is truly sustainable.
The aim is not to demonise plastic, which is necessary and irreplaceable in many products and activities, but to understand the effects of its indiscriminate use, the environmental and health consequences, the economic interests, and the strategies for reduction and substitution — bearing in mind that pollution has repercussions on our health and on the quality of the food we consume.
Plastic: a revolutionary material
Although the first plastic had natural origins — it was 1869, and from the combination of cellulose nitrate and camphor, Parkers invented celluloid — the great majority of plastics in circulation today have fossil origins, derived from oil and gas. In 1907, L.H. Baekeland discovered phenolic resin, or Bakelite — a product of the condensation of phenol (derived from benzene) and formaldehyde — the first in a long series of synthetic plastics (nylon, PVC, polyester, cellophane) that would soon become indispensable in every field of human activity. Currently, seven base polymers dominate the global plastics market: polypropylene (PP), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyurethane (PUR) and polystyrene (PS).
Read the full article here
https://www.infobuildenergia.it/approfondimenti/mare-di-plastica-rifiuti-consumo/
Source : https://www.infobuildenergia.it/
