Features
Plastic Pollution: The Way Out
Globalization should have had a way of putting an end to one of the greatest environmental challenge in Nigeria.
But no, the word environment depends on individual ability to either adapt or learn to manage its resources properly.
Nine out of every ten persons in Nigeria have cultivated the habit of dumping plastics waste on the roads, streets and most likely within the four walls of their room floor.
However, plastics are now accessible in different forms, types, shapes and colours. More so, they are referred to as containers used in bottle waters, soft drinks, fruit drinks, nylons, aluminum cans and many more.
“Plastic disposal not only pollutes the land, but the water and the air, the three primary elements for any living being on the earth” by Sir P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar.
Regardless of individual’s status, the major cause of plastic pollution is Negligence. According to Chai Jing, journalist & environmental activist “The strongest governments on earth cannot clean up pollution by themselves. They must rely on each ordinary person, like you and me, on our choices, and on our will.”
In other words, the end to plastic waste pollution depends on respective choice to doing things right as well as maintaining a healthy hygiene system
Below is a video showing how plastic pollution blocked a drainage system
Moreover, improper disposal of plastics have its consequences and effects on our environment, they are as follows:
- · Blockage of drainage lines.
- · Floods and erosions.
- · Hazardous to the soil.
- · When heated up, emits toxic gases which most likely can cause cancers, birth defects, impaired immunity and other health problems.
- · Increases the death rate of marine mammals, turtles and birds.
- · It affects the growth of crops, by hindering the process of photosynthesis in agricultural fields.
- · Plastic debris represents a chemical pollution in several ways. They contain compounds that can be chemically transferred to organisms during ingestion.
In an interview with a medical practitioner who pleaded anonymity said, plastics are biodegradable and can be cancerous to the human body.
He said, “Recycling can help us keep the amount of plastics that are already used in the system, countries like Germany and Norway normally recycle their plastics”.
In conclusion, the best way out of plastic waste pollution is to change our mind-sets, habits and attitudes towards illegal dumping of plastics on the roads, streets and surroundings.
In the long run, another preventive method to plastic waste pollution is recycling, recreation and reprocessing of our plastics into new products and objects.
Also, plastics when properly managed have lots of advantages because they can be reuse for diverse activities that pertains human life. People should to be educated on the necessity of plastics to the society, in other words, create awareness on the usefulness of plastics to the environment.
Ultimately, the Federal Government agencies in charge of environmental waste should introduce new refuse bins to every nooks and crannies of the roads, streets and surroundings to help in curbing this fast rising issue.
