PLASTIC, CAN WE LIVE WITHOUT IT? (part 2 of 3)

(Part 2 of 3)

Danger of Careless Disposal.
Careless disposal of used plastic utensils turn them into inorganic wastes that pollute the environment. Waste water ways are clogged with plastic wrappers, ditches full of used plastic shopping bags and plastic cups, rivers and seas not excepted from used plastic disturbances. Unlike organic wastes that decay easily, plastic wastes will last for a long, long time. Because they are relatively stable and inert (non reactive), some forms of plastic will break into small pieces over the course of a few hundred years. Depending on its formulation, the actual breakdown into different compounds may take several thousand years. No wonder then it creates a real environmental problem. Flood that always occurs when it rains in cities like Jakarta (Indonesia), or in many other cities in developing countries (in South Asia, mainly), more often than not is caused by clogging of water ways by plastic wastes.

Contaminated beaches in these countries and the destruction of coral reefs by plastic wastes are evidence of serious consequence of plastic pollution. Plastic wrappers are scattered all over mountains and hills. What saddening is the fact that use of household plastics is increasing these days in developing countries due to their low prices. Contrarily, in developed countries such as the United States, the European countries and Japan, where people are well aware of the hazard of plastic wastes, their use and disposal are very much under control. Ironically, we can easily recall that some time ago there had been efforts from the developed country to dispose of used electronic equipment such as television set, air conditioner, and refrigerator to Indonesia (read: Jakarta). These used household appliances which had been classified as hazardous waste in the developed country were sold freely in Indonesia (Jakarta).

"Back To Nature".
In early eighties, on my visit to the New York City, I found that shopping bags were not made of plastic, but of paper, a kind like the cement bag, that decays more easily. Similarly, if we watch on the television, everywhere in the United States, shopping bags are always made of paper, not plastic This is not because the Americans do not know how to or can not produce plastic bags, but for certain, it is due to their awareness of the hazard of environmental pollution by the plastic bags.

In my childhood, back in the sixties, in my home town in Bangka Island (Indonesia), shopping bags were generally made of used newspapers, and especially for fish, the bag was made of a kind of water plant leaves, called daun simpur (in local language). Its wrapping rope was made of a kind of dried water plant, known by locals as tali purun. In many rural cities across Java, teak leaves or daun jati and banana leaves were usually used as food wrappers in the past. But what happens now? Even lontong (traditional Indonesian food made of rice) wrapper is now made of plastic! A real dilemma, where at one side the use of plastic is very practical and cheap; making it a favorite choice, while at the other side its scary potential pollution is very real.