Effects Of Plastic On Our Mother Nature

Humans do not invade natural resources for their need but they do this for their never satisfying greed. So synthetic polymer (plastic) was invented to reduce use of natural resources to some extent as plastic does not contain single natural molecule. Plastic belongs to polymer family and are created by fusing large number of monomers together. The name plastic originally means "pliable and easily shaped" which means it can be easily converted to different shapes with use of moulds and other methods.

Plastics are naturally non- degradable and takes almost 1000 years to decompose and plastic bottles take almost 450 years to decompose naturally. There are almost 8300 million metric tonnes of plastic on earth's surface. Damage due to plastic is not limited to land it has reached to water also and disturbing marine life. Plastics themselves contribute approximately 10% to waste. Chlorinated plastics release harmful chemicals to soil, which can seep to ground water and other water bodies along with rain water. This causes fatal disease to living organisms who consume this polluted water. In landfills there are different kind of bacteria which speeds up degradation of plastic in landfills. Some bacteria are pseudomonas, nylon-eating bacteria and flewobacteria. Breakdown of nylon takes place by a enzyme called nylonase and methane is released by action of this enzyme which is a very powerful greenhouse gas and it significantly promotes global warming. Plastic can also promote endocrine disruption in humans. Humans are exposed to this through mouth, nose and skin. BPA is an additive used in manufacturing of plastic, it has potential to damage the level of sex hormones. It also affects metabolism and catabolism of human body.

Plastics are more dangerous when they enter our food chain through animals who consumed plastic with their food. In many species of sea turtle it was found that they have large number of plastic in their stomach. Animals die due to plastic stuck in their abdominal tract or by entanglement of plastic debris. They die due to starving or suffocating due to entanglement of plastic as they could not untangle it by themselves. It has been recorded that 267 different species have suffered from entanglement and indigestion of plastic waste. About 4 lakhs of marine mammals perish annually due to pollution made by plastic. Seabed plastics are destroying coral reefs.

Not only ocean animals perish but also birds suffer due to plastic. Seabird such as gulls are affected by plastic consumption and it has lethal affects on their body such as disruption of reproductive system, immune system and hormone balance. Blocked windpipe due to plastic as also major problem for choking and death of animals. The durability of plastic can be observed in the remain of the corpse of animals.

Now, governments of different countries are strictly trying to figure out this problem. Rather than producing more plastics they are been recycled. Some states of India have banned plastic. Bags made from natural fibres are being used nowadays. Upto 60% of medical plastic is being incarcerated rather than throwing them in landfills. Countries such as USA , Canada and UK have banned use of BPA in children products as BPA has very bad health affects on small children. June 5th is observed as World Environment Day for making awareness among people regarding nature and how to save our environment.