World Environment Day: Say ‘NO’ to Plastic. Today 5th June is World Environment Day. The theme of this year is “Beat Plastic Pollution” which is chosen by the host country India.
Various organisers of the event are inspiring the people all over the world to consider how we can make changes in our day to day lives by reducing the heavy usage of plastics. They said that this is the need of the hour to take an initiative to reduce the heavy burden of plastic pollution on our natural environment, our wildlife as well as our own health.
The use and throw culture which even exists today in much of the world is the main reason behind the plastic pollution and it is even continuing in reaching unfathomable levels. As per the recent study, around 60% of the world’s total plastics are discarded after a single use. Each and every year people use around 5 trillion disposable plastic bags. On an average, a person uses a single plastic bags in just 12 minutes whereas the same plastic bag needs 500 years to decompose.
China is one of the biggest contributors who are responsible for the environment pollution followed by Indonesia and Philippines. India also doesn’t lag behind in that. India is amongst top 20 coastal populations in the world that sends plastics into the ocean which then results in water pollution.
Head of United Nations Environment, Erik Solheim said, “Making the switch from disposable plastic to sustainable alternatives is an investment in the long-term future of our environment. The world needs to embrace solutions other than single-use, throwaway plastic.”
The United Nation’s environmental arm released a report this month by highlighting some recent changes which are needed to be taken immediately all around the world to slow down the rate of plastic pollution. With an increasing number of population, the entire world produced more plastic in the last century as compared to the previous century.
In the lead up to World Environment Day, various social media influencers all over the world are discussing the plastic pollution by posting with the hashtags PlasticOrPlanet, BeatPlasticPollution and much more.
Even many countries featured in the top of the list showing a high proportion of social media posting related to plastic pollution. Some of them are India, Canada, Kenya and Australia. All these countries have introduced plastic bag bans in at least some parts of the country in the recent years.
United Nations is continuing to spread the message all over the world to minimise the usage of plastics, particularly in Indonesia and China because these two countries are the worst offenders when it comes to the reason of plastic pollution.
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