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KhushiSahu
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Plastic is of course a miracle material, and the growth of our use of plastics to the current proportions reflects its incredible utility. It's invaluable in preserving food in our kitchens, the stuff of medical breakthroughs and a key part of the latest renewable energy technology. If plastics use were confined to these positive uses alone, there would be no problem. Unfortunately, we have a planetary addiction to the very worst types of plastic the kind that is used for a few minutes or seconds and then discarded.
The numbers alone are alarming an estimated 12 million tonnes of it enter our oceans every year, harming plants, animals, coastal communities and entering our food chain. The impact can be seen in every corner of the world. Whales and turtles the great barometers of ocean and planetary health are washing up on shores, having choked on plastic bags. Adventurers have spotted lumps of polystyrene packaging floating among the icebergs in the furthest reaches of the Arctic. Even tests on bottled water from all corners of the globe have found microscopic plastic particles in every sample. Our seas, from the depths of the Mariana Trench to almost every beach on earth, are slowly being transformed into a plastic soup.
India has not been spared. In Mumbai, the cost of plastic pollution can be clearly seen. At Versova beach, the horrific sight of the sand covered in plastic prompted lawyer Afroz Shah to start organising weekly beach clean-ups. Since October 2015 and backed by an increasing army of volunteers from every walk of life, thousands of tonnes of litter has been collected. Volunteer actions like this are a cause for celebration. But the grim reality is that the plastic keeps washing up. So it's now time for the real message to be understood change must happen upstream, and we have to stop plastic entering the oceans in the first place. Because much like climate change, once the damage has been done, it's incredibly hard to reverse.
Even if each and every one of us do what we can to reduce our own plastic footprint and of course we must the current tide of single-use plastic is overwhelming. Global plastic production, roughly one-third of which is non-recyclable, is rising fast. This year, it is estimated that 360 million tonnes will be produced. By 2025, this will grow to nearly 500 million and by 2030 we could be looking at a staggering 619 million tonnes of plastic being produced globally.