In today’s world, there is an excessive amount of use of plastic which is creating deadly effects on our earth’s environment. According to an estimate, people use 100 million tons of plastic every year around the world. An estimated 10 percent of the plastic is directly or indirectly dumped into the ocean. This is the most concerning fact for our world. The core reason behind this problem is the unawareness of the public and not having something readily available to use instead of plastic. Therefore, to use environmentally friendly products and bags instead of plastic products and bags and to make people aware of this, International Plastic Bag Free Day is celebrated on July 3 every year. The main purpose of celebrating this day is to make people aware of the harmful aspects of using plastic bags and to make people aware of what can be used instead of plastic bags.
Deadly Effects of Plastic on Earth
The terrible effect of using plastic is putting our environment at risk. Plastic is polluting our soil, air, and water in risky ways. This pollution of plastic is having an impact on the ecosystem of the environment. Besides, plastic contains estrogen which has adverse effects on human health. The ways how plastic affects our environment are:
Soil: Plastic never mixes with soil. Plastic under the soil remains intact for years and degrades soil fertility.
Air: The adverse effect of plastic is also found in the air of our environment. The smoke that comes out when plastic is set on fire is very harmful to the human body. This harmful smoke of plastic waste disturbs the normal condition of our ecosystem.
Water: According to statistics, about 1 million seabirds and one hundred thousand marine animals die every year from the pollution of plastic.
Why is this day internationally important?
Using plastic bags is a common behavior for people around the world. But, do you know that plastic bags are just killing our environment? If we don’t stop using plastic bags now, we will have to pay for them. According to statistics, only the people of the USA dump 327 billion plastic bags into the sea every year. This huge amount of plastic bags is killing marine animals and polluting the seawater. This is not the end, the fertility of soil is also decreasing for the use of plastic bags. The rest of the items made of plastic can be used for a long time, but the bag made of plastic is thrown away after being used only once or twice. So the harmful aspects of plastic bags are very high. And to save our environment we have to refrain from using plastic items and bags and make people aware not to use plastic bags. That is why Plastic bag free day is celebrated on July 3 every year.
The Ways to Keep The International Plastic Bag Free Day Worthy
Create Public Awareness: If we want to reduce the use of plastic bags, then first of all we have to create public awareness. There are a huge number of people in our country who do not know about the deadly effects of plastic bags. Such people should be made aware of the disadvantages of using plastic bags. We can create this public awareness in many ways. Some ways are:
- Campaign: Campaigning about the evils of plastic bags with the help of intellectuals and conscious people of society.
- Poster: On International plastic bag free day, we can print posters about the evils of plastic use and put them on the walls.
- Tv, Print Media and Social Media: The biggest means of increasing public awareness are TV, media and social media. The harmful effects of plastic bag use should be reported in these media and awareness messages should be spread to people.
Complementary to plastic bags: Instead of plastic, there are various materials in our environment that we can use instead of plastic, such as jute bags, paper bags, cotton cloth bags, etc. The materials that can be used instead of plastic should be delivered to everyone and measures should be taken to make them easily available public and private joint initiatives should be taken and for this, we can organize campaigns on International Plastic Bag Free Day.
Taking Necessary Steps to Recycle Plastics: Since the materials that can be used instead of plastic are not easily available the items made of plastic can be reused.
Plastic is a threat to our planet. The use of plastic is putting our environment at extreme risk. So we have to stop using plastic at the individual level. Then we can save our world.
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Writer
Naeem Hasan
Intern, Content Writing Department.YSSE