ECOLOGY CLUB - INDIAN SIDE PROMOTING ECOLOGICAL AWARENESS

BEAT PLASTIC POLLUTION DAY

BEAT PLASTIC POLLUTION DAY

"Beat Plastic Pollution", the theme for WORLD ENVIROMENTAL DAY 2018, is a call to action for all of us to come together to combat one of the great enviromental challenges of our time.

Chosen by this year´s host, India, the theme of the World Enviroment Day 2018 invites us all to consider how we can make changes in our everyday lives to reduce the heavy burden of plastic pollution on our natural places, our wildlife - and our own health.

While plastic has many valuable uses, we have become over reliant on single-use or disposable plastic - with severe enviromental consequences. Aroud the world, 1 million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute. Every year we use up to 5 trillion disposable plastic bags. In total, 50 percent of the plastic use is single use.

Nearly one third of the plastic packaging we escapes collection systems, wich means that it ends up clogging our city streets and pollution our natural enviroment. Every year, up to 13 million tons of plastic leak into our oceans, where it smothers coral reefs and threatens vulnerable marine wildlife.

The plastic that ends up in the oceans can circle the earth four times in a single year, and it can persist for up to 1,000 years before it fully disintegrates.

Platic also makes its way into our water supply and thus into our bodies. Wath harm does that cause?

Scientists still aren´t sure, but plastics contain a number of chemicals, many of which are toxic or disrupt hormones.

Plastic can also serve as a magnet for other pollutants, including dioxins, metals and pesticides.


IF YOU CAN´T REUSE IT, REFUSE IT

This year´s World Enviroment Day provides an opportunity for each of us to embrace the many ways that we can help to combat plastic pollution around the world. And you don´t have to wait until December 31 to act.

There are so many things that we can do from asking the restaurants you frequent to stop using plastic straws, to bringing your own coffee mug to work, to pressuring your local authorities to improve how they manage your city´s waste.

Here are some other specific ideas:

• Bring your own shopping bags to the supermarket
• Pressure food suppliers to use non-plastic packain
• Refuse plastic cutlery
• Pick Up any plastic you see the next time you go to the school or walk in the street or in the beach.

What else can we do to tacle this problem?

• Share your ideas on social media using the hashtag #BeatPlasticPollution