Let’s Beat Plastic Pollution!

Happy World Environment Day! This day is celebrated under the theme #BeatPlasticPollution. Plastic is everywhere. It’s a material so prevalent in our lives today we can hardly imagine life without it. It’s almost impossible to leave the supermarket without at least one plastic product, especially plastic bottles.

What’s worse, plastics lasts so long that every piece that was ever made still exists and will continue to exist for another 500 years.

Plastic is one of the gravest threats to the planet, as unrecycled plastics clog landfills, leach into the ocean and combust into toxic smoke. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Netherlands estimates that more than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year, half of which are designed to be used only once. Only 10 per cent of single use plastic is recycled. This estimates that approximately 19 to 23 million tonnes end up in lakes, rivers and seas.

In Jamaica alone, 800 million plastic bottles are produced annually. Recycling Partners of Jamaica, RPJ, has as its goal to recycle 85% of those plastics, but we can’t do it alone. Jamaica needs to make recycling plastic bottles a daily, national habit. RPJ, like many other non-profit organizations around the world, is mandated to encourage persons to recognize the importance of recycling plastic products. Imagine a world where there are no plastic bottles washing up on the shorelines, destroying mangroves or blocking drains, resulting in flooding at the slightest rains. Stress free, isn’t it?

When plastic bottles are recycled, they are used in the production of new materials or products. Plastic will be here with us for a long time but it is up to us to #Putplasticinitsplace and recycle. It’s the only way to keep these materials out of the natural environment and reduce plastic pollution.

This World Environment Day join the campaign against plastic pollution. You can organize a clean up of your community or a polluted area or simply make the decision to set up plastic recycling in your home.

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