The environmental impact of plastic pollution

Plastic pollution is one of the most overwhelming environmental problems humanity has faced in the last 100 years. People’s increasing demand for disposable products has overtaken the world’s ability to properly dispose of them, after their use. While some of the biggest contributors to plastic pollution are large countries like the US, China and India, the impact of it is most clearly observed in Asian and African developing countries, where garbage disposing systems are either nonexistent or at best inefficiently created.

A promising beginning

While plastic played a vital role in many industries, it was a revelation for medical practices, with life-saving devices manufactured from it. It accelerated space travel and made land and water vehicles lighter, saving fuel and reducing pollution. Furthermore, its durability was the key ingredient in live-saving items, like helmets, baby incubators and many more. For a long time, plastics seemed like the answer to every man-made problem, and it worked almost perfectly! However useful, plastics presented a global pollution crisis, no one could have predicted.

The fallout of plastic distribution

Once introduced into the household and packaging, plastic application led to a global single-use throw-away culture, revealing the material’s malicious side: many of these products have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet end up rotting in the environment for hundreds of years. Concerningly, due to improper disposal by people, many of those items don’t end up in landfills, but on the roads, in forests, and most alarmingly in the ocean. A shocking 100 million marine animals die each year from plastic pollution alone, with an estimated 100 000 of them dying in plastic entanglement, from plastic straws, beer holders and abandoned fishing nets. In other cases, plastics are found in the stomachs of whales, dolphins and countless fish species, many of which are meant for human consumption.

Join the fight against plastic pollution

Much like any big change, understanding the impact of plastics on our planet, is the first step to finding a solution. Individually, the responsibility lies in our hands, with more biodegradable or non-plastic alternatives invented everyday to substitute our day-to-day need for plastic. On a bigger scale, corporate social responsibility acts as the base guideline for companies to alter their courses of action, or face regulatory prosecution.

Here at Envocoast, we help protect marine life from a range of pollutants, including plastic contamination. Products such as our ENVO Silt Curtain, can prevent a number of plastics from entering the depths of the ocean, by creating a protective barrier between coastal lines and the sea. Its 95% isolation index, prevents large to small plastics from drifting far, providing valuable time for it to be collected and disposed of properly. We create products to support a safer and healthier environment, and help rebuild ocean life for people and our planet. With a responsible outlook on the environmental impact of plastics, an updated design accounting for single-use plastics’ lifespan, and a better waste management system, we can all be a part of the solution to plastic pollution.