Why doesn't plastic need to be the villain of the environment?

Plastic has been a central theme of wide public debates, especially in relation to its environmental risks. In São Paulo, since January 1, no commercial establishment can supply cups, plates, cutlery, stirrers for drinks and sticks for disposable plastic balloons.

 

According to the new law, these products must now be replaced by others made with biodegradable, compostable or reusable materials. However, this alternative, in addition to not solving the environmental problem, will also generate a new type of waste in nature, a problem that the government will not be able to deal with correctly. Thus, the splice can be countless times worse than the sonnet.

 

Products with packaging that claim to be “biodegradable” or “compostable” in most cases degrade only under special conditions and this can complicate recycling efforts. Therefore, that coffee cup that has a logo indicating it is biodegradable will not decompose among the organic compounds that people have at home, but in order to degrade properly, it will need to be sent to industrial composting facilities.

 

The industrial composting process involves high heat and humidity precisely controlled, among other conditions, and is not available in most parts of the country. If this garbage ends up in a landfill, it will remain there for a long time, because it is unlikely to be exposed to conditions that would help to decompose. In addition, the production of these items consumes more resources, creates more waste and results in more pollution than the production of disposable plastic items.

 

Obviously, we understand that it is easy to point to plastic as the great villain that needs to be banned, after all no one in the world is happy with images of seas and rivers full of packaging and with animals dying due to the product. However, banning consumer plastics does not solve the problems, it just distracts attention from real solutions and instead harms consumers and the environment.

 

To resolve the environmental issue of plastic, it is necessary to improve the quality of waste management practices, produce materials that have the least possible environmental impact, invest in adequate collection and encourage recycling by making accessible specialized places available for the population to dispose of. of the material you use in your daily life. The wide variety of forms in which it can be recycled also needs to be seen as a benefit of the material. This is not only more environmentally friendly, but also makes plastic a very flexible material for the needs of the modern world.

 

Another important point: with the tragic arrival of the pandemic, the arguments and the debate about the use of the material also took on another direction: health and life. The pandemic has made plastic production and use an essential survival material. In hospitals and laboratories, essential environments in the struggle for life, plastic is being used on a large scale for the production of masks, gloves, syringes, test tubes, catheters and other products.

 

In addition, additives that inactivate Sars-Cov-2 inserted into plastic products have allowed various objects and surfaces with which people have daily contact in public places and in their homes, such as plastic film, to offer an extra security barrier against the disease.

 

In the domestic space, plastic was the material that most entered the houses. Basic survival items, such as water and food, were out of stock: often packaged in plastic materials. We can also find the material in n95 masks. In addition, with plastic it is possible to seal products and food, which avoids the rapid degradation of food, in addition to contamination by diseases, ensuring food security and also avoiding food waste, especially at a time with such economic instability and unemployment. .

 

There is no doubt that the plastics crisis is a serious problem and that we need to encourage a change in attitude towards society's single-use mentality with people favoring smart consumption and life cycle thinking, in addition to discarding it appropriate. But we must keep in mind the environmental and economic benefits that plastics offer and use innovation to adhere to the best solution.