Aside from some cosmetic improvements that have made a varnish marketing, used plastic objects are similar to those they replaced. No revolution behind this ubiquitous material, no big speech to advocate the interest, just a slow and deep adoption whilst any questioning is rarely considered. Therefore plastic is used for everything: bags, drinking straws, gardening mulch, strings, bottles, insulators, elastics, phones, cigarette filters, computers, boxes, toys... It is economical, easy to manufacture, and often fragile so ideal for a destiny of "consumable".
The Hindu Business Online - 21 mars 2013 : Our railway network is a huge dustbin
In India, when cups replaced low-end potteries for tea, the use remained the same. People used to drink and throw the containers to the ground where they disintegrated without much damage. With plastic cups, people still do the same but the result is very different. 20 years ago, a French potters couple tried to reintroduce this everyday pottery to deal with the flood of plastic and give a job back to modest people. Have you heard about it before? An initiative that has brought positive impacts but that should not remain unique in its kind. In the cities of the United States, France and elsewhere, milkmen used to deliver glass bottles and pick up empty ones. Now the milk is delivered in high-tech packaging made of several layers of aluminium, plastic and paper. Fortunately, the industry has developed a recycling process with chemical treatments and machines... when the cartons are recycled.
Nowadays, the magic substance converges across oceans to form clusters in which the mass of plastic is six times higher than that of plankton. - When it has not been stored in landfills or burned. Over time it disintegrates into small particles, just like stones become sand. Over time, it becomes digestible by all living beings. For example, in Lille (France) during “La grande Braderie”, 200 pounds of plastic were ingested by the participants. Why ? Because the mussels eaten during the festivities had accumulated plastic. These molluscs' life expectancy decreases; their only fault is to filter 20 litters of contaminated water per day. Members of each animal species living in contaminated areas suffer similar fates. What about us? The necessary awareness may be achieved in France when other countries begin to taste the progress offered by our beloved plastic. The production of this harmless advertised poison has to stop right now.
By signing this petition :
I urge the authorities to take steps to stop the proliferation of plastic by quickly prohibiting its use by companies,
I participate to a broader awareness of this too weakly addressed phenomenon, too dangerous to be ignored and to which we can all bring solutions.