Segregation Helps More Than You Think

Waste management has always been an issue for the past millennia. It took some time before humans even realized that it is not good to just throw everything away. It took even more time before people thought of protecting the environment because it is assume that it would always be there. Nature will just repair itself and everyone will live happily ever after. Sadly, as we know now, this is not the case. Nature can repair itself. However, humans have been using nature for many years now to the point where nature does not even have the time to replenish itself. It took the concept of global warming and climate change to start the movement in protecting the environment.

However, how much “protecting” do we really do?

Plastic is considered as one of the main culprits of pollution. It is toxic, non-organic and non-biodegradable. This means that it is bad, right? And that we should not use plastic at all in any way whatsoever. Yes, this is true. Plastic is toxic and it can affect our health. However, you really do need to ingest it or inhale its releases while burning in order for it to affect you. Yes, most plastics are non-organic which means that they have little to no carbon in them. In that way, they are not biodegradable and if left in the environment, could just accumulate and never decompose.

There is the caveat though, if it’s left in the environment.

The plastic that we know today is built for longevity, which is why it became one of the most popular materials to be used in many items. It is more durable and malleable than ceramic, it is as durable as metal under certain conditions, and it helps fight deforestation because it is now considered as an alternative to wood. In many ways, plastic has helped us in preserving some of these materials. We are not saying that we should abandon most of them for plastic. However, some of these materials can be conserved because plastic is now used instead.

Once plastic and its many derivations is thrown away, these can combine with other materials. This can also lengthen the time it decomposes because the organic materials can preserve plastic. Therefore, we should segregate our waste products so that it will not harm the environment even more. Plastic is not the only reason why we are experiencing pollution today. Haphazard use of plastic is one of which, attributed to us humans. We have used plastic in such a limited way that we can just throw them away after one use.

Plastic is designed to last forever against its usual contemporaries. It is no wonder that these do not easily decompose at all. We must separate them from other wastes so that we can still use it. Also, the use of plastic is not necessarily an evil activity. Throwing them away without even thinking of using them again can be considered as such. We must act now before it is too late.