A New Plague Is Coming
Nowadays we are surrounded by plastic. We use it every day without even noticing it. For instance, a plastic cover on your daily coffee cup, plastic bags you take in supermarkets, plastic dishes you take on a picnic or plastic cups you use to drink water in your university or other public places, plastic bottles of water, plastic furniture on the streets. Without any doubt, we can say that a person living in a big city every day comes across this material. But have you ever wondered where such a large amount of plastic goes?
Each year, 150 tons of plastic waste, including bottles, packaging, fishing nets, enter the ocean. Only 5 percent of the total amount of plastic goes for recycling, while most of the plastic ends up in landfills and in the ocean.
It takes about 450 years before the plastic begins to decompose. After this, another 50-80 years will pass until it is completely gone. At the current rate of production of this material, our planet will be completely covered with plastic before the process of decomposition begins.
One person cannot save the planet, but while everyone says that the situation will never improve. That is why I believe that even one person can change everything.
Here some tips that will help you to start being eco-friendly.
If you love coffee and you buy one every day you can stop taking caps and tubes. In some cafe you can find pasta that can be used instead of tubes or you can buy a reusable one. However, the best way would be carrying your own cup, because even paper cups contain plastic.
Instead of buying bottles with water, you can buy a reusable cup or bottle. For instance, I have a reusable cup that I take every day to the university where I fill it with water. If you use a plastic bottle or plastic fork do not throw it in a bin, put it into the special plastic container!
Carry a reusable shopping bag or woven bag to pack all your purchases instead of getting plastic bags in shops.
Our university is eco-friendly and has a community of students and graduates of the Higher School of Economics, which with the help of administration make HSE a “green” university. It is called “Green Hse” (https://vk.com/hsegreen).
On their web page you can find addresses where in the HSE you can give garbage for recycling. For instance, you can bring with you some plastic bottles if you are studying or visiting Shabolovka.
Text by
Alexandra Borshchenyuk