The Invasion :Plastic Bags An Environment Threat

Like we see alien invasions in movies, plastic bags came, wooed and earned the trust of we Earthlings, and now want to take over our planet.

They are everywhere and multiplying. Our homes, malls, offices, roads, rivers, on trees , littering our streets, etc. Plastics form the larger parts of the waste in dump sites.

Their lightweight makes them easy to move from place to place. The wind get up on trees. And Some how we now believe we can not do without them, hence we are addicted to this indestructible material.

Foods and water are served and sold in them, groceries are mostly sold in them. Clothes are wrapped in them. Interestingly, in rural areas where people cook with firewood, plastic bags are used to start the fire. Plastic bags came with the intention to stay!

Did you know that 5 trillion plastic bags are used each year?

That means 160,000 plastic bags are used per second!

Each person uses approximately 700 plastic bags per year.

And why is that a big deal?

Understanding what plastic bags are made of and how it affects us and our environment will help us begin to see and do differently.

Plastic bags are made from Omni present polymer called polyethylene.

Polythene starts as ethylene gotten mainly from natural gas and petroleum which are both fossil fuels.

This polymer creates long chains of Carbon and Hydrogen atoms. There are various types of polythene.

The HDPE ( High Density Polythene) of which the normal shopping bags are made of.

LDPE( Low Density Polythene) are the type of polythene used by dry cleaners.

The LLDPE( Density Polythene) are the heavier and thicker plastic bags used by clothing shops.

Polythene is cheap and versatile.

These qualities makes it ideal for different operations. Reason why we have grown to adapt it for many things.

This makes it a threat!

Though they are recyclable, they can not be recreated in organic form.

50% of what is used is used just once.

The life cycle of a plastic bag is 12 minutes, but it takes approximately 300 years to decompose.

Now that's pretty serious when we compare it to the amount of plastic bags used per second.

Burning plastic bags releases heavy metals and toxic chemicals such as dioxin, benzo(a), pyrene( BAP) polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH).

These can all cause cancer .

These green house emissions affect our environment by altering habitats and natural processes. The ability of ecosystems to adapt to climate change is reduced.

Plastic bags waste cause block drains, pollute our water bodies, they kill animals and contaminate our soil and food.

About 267 species of Marine life is affected by plastic pollution.

Air pollution caused by burning of plastic bags and other waste is a great threat to our health. Yearly, approximately 6.7 million people die due to sicknesses that are related to ienvironmental health related.

The UN Environmental Program says 19-23 million tonnes of plastic waste leaks into aquatic ecosystems, polluting rivers and seas.

Plastic pollution is clearly a global threat.

There are things to do to stop this invasion.

Because a clean and healthy Environmental is a key human right, all stakeholders must do something about this.

"We will not recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis: we need a systematic transformation to achieve the transition to a circular economy"

Inger Andersen, UNEP Executive Director.

There is a need for a strong political will for intergovernmental action to work out ways to resist this invasion.

While we hope on Government to do what only them can do, individuals can do a number of things too.

We can use reusable bags.

We can re- use plastic bags, instead of single using them.

We can re- purpose plastic bags for some other use.

We can also sign petitions on banning use of plastic bags.

Any of these are steps towards stopping the invasion of plastic bags on our planet.