the Bad news is the production of plastic, we really screwed up the future
Regular readers of our site already know that one of the major problems facing mankind right now is the pollution of the planet with plastic waste. Bottles, packaging products, bags and other garbage filled the streets in the cities, but took him the depths of the oceans. It was not always so, because industry production of plastic products began to develop only in the 1950-ies. According to scientists, ever since mankind has produced approximately 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste and the amount of waste continues to grow. Waste does not disappear because of the decomposition of plastic takes about a thousand years. If humanity does not reduce the production of plastic products and switch to a more eco-friendly material, we literally wallow in the trash. This once again was proven by British scientists — they calculated how many tons of plastic to produce humanity by 2040. It turned out very alarming number.
On the conducted research work was . In the study, scientists from the University of Leeds quantitatively assessed the level of current plastic pollution. For this, they found out how much plastic is produced, used and thrown away in different corners of our planet. Accurate figures they are not shared, but appreciated how much will increase the amount of discarded garbage for the next 20 years. So, if mankind does not take measures to reduce plastic waste, our planet will be contaminated with 1,3 billions tons of garbage.
So we'll understand how big this mass, the researchers gave the example:
According to one of the authors of the scientific work of Velisa Costas (Costas Velis), they were the first who predicted the impact of plastic waste on our planet in the next 20 years. Even they themselves find it hard to imagine how this 1.3 billion tons of garbage. According to them, if you put all this rubbish on a flat surface, it will occupy an area 1.5 times the size of great Britain with an area of 242 495 square kilometers.
Humanity is literally burying the planet under tons of plastic waste
It is Noteworthy that about 600 million tons of garbage will be on the seabed of the oceans. Because plastic waste is already severely affected many inhabitants of the world ocean. For example, I once wrote that plastic trash in a large number of organisms falls into the turtles. Reptiles eat that garbage voluntarily, but by mistake. The fact that once in the water, the waste acquires the smell of the seaweed and turtles eat it, taking it for food. This was proven in the experiment, which can be read .
According to Lau, Winnie (Winnie Lau) of the company Pew Charitable Trusts, which sponsored the research, to save the future of humanity can be, if you take some measures to reduce the amount of plastic.
the Fight against plastic garbage can lead to the following:
It is Worth noting that even under this plan, after a couple of decades, the environment will still be polluted 710 million tons of plastic waste. Despite the fact that the prospects of mankind is in any case not the best, the researchers propose to allocate to the production of more sustainable materials, hundreds of millions of dollars. When it comes to the future of mankind to be greedy not worth it.
Environmentally friendly replacement plastic
Special attention should be paid to people in developing countries who are engaged in separate collection of plastic waste for subsequent delivery to processing. They often work in terrible conditions and do not receive fair remuneration. But if not for their work, in the seas and oceans would get more of plastic garbage. They may be called heroes who stop a world catastrophe, but that is little to notice.
garbage Collectors are working in appalling conditions.
The Current situation with plastic pollution is so bad that the tiny plastic particles are falling on us from the sky, along with rain drops. Read more about this phenomenon, my colleagues Love Sokovikova — happy reading!
