The alarm sounds. Perhaps the first thing you do is turn it off, and maybe check your mobile notifications. That is, almost before you open your eyes, you are already using devices that have a piece of plastic . And it goes on and on: we put the office food in the lunch box, we brush our teeth with a plastic brush , we throw the remains of breakfast in a bag …
And it is that, at present, it is almost impossible to avoid this component: we are absolutely dependent on plastic . At the University of Berkeley (USA), a group of students who were following a course with the suggestive title of “Objects and Comforts” tried to achieve, precisely, the challenge of living 24 hours without plastic. Tiffany Ma was one of the brave ones: she got a metal bottle to fill with water throughout the day, in the morning she switched from her coffee to go and used pencils instead of pens. She was also unable to brush her teeth and that day she left home without makeup. Even so, he inevitably had to skip the challenge and make use of plastic at certain times of the day: for example, he had to use his mobile to communicate by email with colleagues in the laboratory where he works.
Minoo Moallem, teacher of the course, knows that nowadays, finding alternatives to totally replace plastic is almost impossible, but the objective of the exercise is precisely to become aware of how dependent we are on it. “The students realize that they can make small changes to consume less plastic and reduce the environmental impact of their daily actions. When our relationship with plastic changes, our relationship with the environment also changes,” explains the teacher.
A very polluting material
Petroleum derivatives are used to manufacture plastic materials, and the processes for their production generally require a large amount of energy. In addition, it is a material that takes decades and even centuries to degrade, so waste is a serious environmental problem, especially now that its consumption has become widespread on a practically global scale.
We all have in mind the terrible images of plastic oceans : according to the latest Greenpeace report, about eight million tons of garbage reach the seas every year and it is estimated that between them there would be between 5 and 50 trillion pieces of plastic . In addition, what we see on the surface, in those ‘garbage islands’, is only the tip of the iceberg: it is estimated that, of all the plastic that reaches the ocean, 70% goes to the seabed , 15% remains in the water column, and 15% on the surface. Not to mention microplastics , those tiny fragments that we cannot see and that end up arriving, many times, on our plates.
If we continue at this rate, by 2020 it is estimated that plastics production will have increased by 900% compared to 1980 levels. Is it unstoppable? It doesn’t have to.
Our world is governed by the law of supply and demand, so if there is less demand for plastic , less will be produced in favor of other more environmentally friendly materials. Becoming aware of our dependence, as the Moallen students do with their plastic-free day , is the first step to start with small habits that reduce our consumption.
Also, we are not inventing anything new. As the teacher recalls, “previous generations already had more sustainable lifestyles. Our grandparents were experts in reducing, reusing and recycling. But we are losing it, it is a source of knowledge that in our current society is not considered as such. I think we need tons of research to bring back that forgotten wisdom to our daily lives, “he reflects.
We are all aware of small daily habits that would help reduce our plastic consumption : reuse shopping bags, buy products by weight that come with few containers, buy glass or wooden containers that we can wash and use several times … now there is only put them into practice. Perhaps a new way to become more aware is to take on the same challenge as the Berkeley students.
