Addicted to plastic: the still unknown threats of its consumption

Every minute more than a million bottles of plastic in the world. Putting an end to its indiscriminate use, with the addiction to this material that can also be harmful to health, is one of the climatic challenges in the celebration of the Earth day.

According to the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, the United States is the largest consumer and seller of plastic bottles, a market still “deregulated” as explained to EFE by Aidan Charron, from the organization EarthDay.org.

Born in the United States on the first Earth Day, celebrated in 1970, EarthDay.org has become the world’s largest volunteer recruitment organization for the environmental movement.

One of its main struggles is to reduce plastic pollution, which is why this year it dedicates a good part of its activity to collecting plastic around the world.

Charron, who coordinates the campaign “End to plastics”, He warned that there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the threats that its use has for health.

“Until a couple of years ago, we thought it was more of a marine problem. We are now realizing that it is directly about human health.”he explained to EFE.

The “addiction to plastic” that Charron defines goes so far that the population eats up roughly the magnitude of “a plastic credit card” every year.

Some effects are beginning to manifest in the hormonal system and endocrine disruptors, capable of causing infertility, among others, explains the activist.

In the midst of the energy transition and the switch to renewable energy, the fossil fuel industry does not know what to do and, therefore, has plastics in its sights.

Today, plastic comprises 14% of petrochemical production, but Charron predicts that in ten years this percentage will rise to 20%.

“As we move into renewables and move away from oil and gas in power, we’re going to find different ways to use that oil. And plastics will be a growing problem.” Charron predicted.

The activist believes that plastic pollution will be the “new” generation of greenhouse gases, because its production is going to double in the next twenty years.

The increase in production will mean that, by weight, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050, according to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

From the governments, 51 countries have proposed to end plastic pollution by the year 2040, forming the so-called coalition of “great ambition” This group has promoted a Plastic Treaty that is still being developed -with a deadline of 2024- and that 175 countries have already signed.

On the other side are countries like the United States itself or Saudi Arabia, strongly criticized by environmental organizations, which consider that they are preventing the evolution of the treaty and protecting petrochemical companies.

According to Charron, the US is not doing enough and should “start supporting companies that are moving away from the petrochemical industries,” as well as impose “tougher regulations” to ban the one-time sale of single-use plastics on federal land starting in 2032.

The effects that plastic will have on health in the next twenty years are still unknown and the activist complains that the first people to develop them are not receiving any kind of support from the US government.

In his opinion, the solution is to change mentality, since today it continues to dominate “dollar value of plastic” above its harmful effects.

Source: EFE