essay on plastic boon or bane
Answers
If we decide to give a name to the present age—in particular the last 30 years—we would surely call it the Plastic Age. The invention of plastic was hailed as man’s brilliance – a boon. It was light in weight and easy to mould. Within a very short time it replaced metal for items of daily use like buckets, pipes, ropes, some items of furniture and numerous other items; pens that we use, the bottles, our spectacle frames and even dress material! The markets were flooded with colourful plastic goods that were cheap and easy to maintain. Being cheap, people began to look at it as a dispensable commodity and a new term ‘use and throw’ became a way of life. Plastic bags and bottles have become the most common items.
Unfortunately, plastic is non-biodegradable—in other words it cannot be destroyed by the action of bacteria or other living organisms. Once made, its form cannot be changed without causing pollution. If we look around us we can see the amount of plastic that is senselessly used by most of us. Instead of carrying a bottle of water from home, we buy bottled water and throw away the empty one. We buy a single chocolate and carry it home in a plastic bag when we can easily put it in our hand bag, or even carry it in our hand.
Fountain pens are dying a silent death. Ball point pens are convenient to carry around so most people use them. A single pen would last a student for approximately 15 days. By a simple calculation we see that a student uses 2 pens a month; so a class of 40 students would use 80 pens per month. If we sum up the pens used annually in one school, the amount of waste plastic generated would be mind boggling.
Plastic when destroyed gives off obroxious fumes and toxins that are highly carcinogenic. However, it has become so much a part of our lives that we cannot do away with it completely. We can, as individuals, do our part by reducing its usage. Reuse the bottles, carry your own jute or cotton bags that are eco-friendly, instead of throwing away the pen, put its refill, and most importantly do not throw plastics any and everywhere. Our rivers are polluted with floating plastics, cows die after swallowing plastic bags containing vegetable leftovers, city drains get clogged and soil lose its fertility.
We, can easily turn to natural products like jute, cotton and other environmental friendly materials. Some state governments in India have already urged to minimise the use of plastic and awareness is being spread against use of plastic. It is only with a consorted effort from each of us that we can prevent plastic from choking our Mother Earth, in turn our own lives.