Plastic use has increased dramatically over the last 50 years, replacing more traditional packaging such as glass bottles, tins and paper bags. Unfortunately, this has also resulted in a huge amount of plastic being discarded, and this has caused a number of environmental problems.
One of the main problems – one that has only recently been discovered – is that when plastic degrades, it releases which eventually get washed into the water supply. These particles can be toxic if ingested in large enough quantities, and may even be carcinogenic. Another problem is that animals may mistake plastic items for food. For example, seagulls often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, and try to eat them, causing them to choke and die. Many larger aquatic animals have been found washed up on beaches with their digestive systems full of plastic material.
So what can be done about this? One of the obvious solutions is to make plastic packaging more expensive in order to encourage people to re-use plastic or avoid it altogether. Supermarkets in many countries have started to charge consumers for plastic bags and this has proved to be successful, with many people bringing their own reusable shopping bags. Another solution might be to improve local water supply. In many developing countries, tap water cannot be drunk because it contains bacteria or heavy metals, so people instead buy bottled water. However, this creates a colossal amount of plastic waste since these bottles are single-use. Helping countries like Thailand or Turkey modernise their domestic water supply infrastructure would therefore lead to a large reduction in the use of plastic bottles.
To summarise, plastic packaging has harmful effects , but making it more expensive and improving access to drinkable water in the developing world can go a long way to reducing these problems.