More than 5.5 million tons of plastic entered the oceans this year alone, according to data from the environmental organization WWF, which also warns of the high consumption of plastic bags, one million per minute.
On the occasion of the International Day Without Plastic Bags, which is celebrated this Wednesday, the Portuguese environmental organisations Zero and Quercus warn of the need to restrict the consumption of single-use plastics and focus on the circularity of products.
The International Day Without Plastic Bags, which aims to raise awareness about the need to end the consumption of single-use plastic bags and promote environmental conservation, was created by the organization “Bag Free World” and is always celebrated on the third day of July, with no specific theme for each year.
Plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade and has a particularly bad impact on the marine system (80% of marine litter is plastic), with dozens of species ingesting plastic and becoming trapped in it. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that 100,000 marine mammals die each year due to plastic pollution.
In a statement on the anniversary, the environmental association Quercus calls for “a future free of single-use plastics” and highlights the importance of a circular economy that values resources rather than the usual “produce, use and dispose.”
The association recalls in the document that plastic bags were invented in 1959 by Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin (who found the idea of people throwing away bags strange, according to his son) and that they began to appear in Portugal from 1980 onwards.
In 2015, a mandatory fee of 0.08 euros for lightweight plastic bags came into force. 0.04 Euro fee for ultralight bags. but it was postponed. Last year they were close to banning the bags, but the rule was repealed.
Quercus highlights in the press release that five billion plastic bags could be consumed worldwide every year, more than 600 per person, each of which is used for an average of less than 25 minutes.
Citing data from Eurostat, Quercus says that Plastic recycling also faces challenges. and that in 2018 only 32% of plastic waste in Europe was sent for recycling. Stating that it is governments and large companies that can change the situation, the association suggests that consumers stop using plastic, reconsider before throwing away products and avoid impulsive purchases.
Rather than pointing the finger at plastic, the important thing is to “realize that The problem is in the throwaway model“in the disposable,” Susana Fonseca, from the environmental association Zero, told Lusa, citing textiles as another example of the disposable.
“The problem lies in the production and consumption model that requires huge amounts of materials to produce short-lived goods. If we reduce the use of plastic, but do not change the model, we will basically be transferring impacts from one side to the other,” he said.
WWF says there are no immediate measures Plastic pollution could triple by 2040 and recalls the importance of the fifth and final round of negotiations (in November in South Korea) to reach a global treaty to end plastic pollution, considering that production and consumption “are out of control.”
WWF warns that the European Union produces 3.4 million tonnes of plastic bags every year and that it makes no sense to produce something that lasts hundreds of years to be used for a few minutes.
According to the environmental and sustainability movement Zero Waste Europe, “if the world does not completely stop production, within 30 years the weight of plastic bags thrown into the seas and oceans will exceed that of all the creatures that live in them.”
Source: Observadora
