An analysis of side effects of using plastics on human health and environment

Plastics have revolutionized daily life; their use is growing, and yearly output is expected to surpass 300 million tonnes by 2010. Plastics clearly provide many social advantages as well as future technical and medical advancements. However, there are a variety of concerns about usage and disposal, including waste accumulation in landfills and natural habitats, physical problems for wildlife caused by ingestion or entanglement in plastic, chemical leaching from plastic products, and the potential for plastics to transfer chemicals to wildlife and humans. However, the most significant overarching issue, which runs through this book, is that our present consumption is unsustainable. Around 4% of global oil output is utilized as a feedstock for the manufacture of plastics, with a comparable amount of energy used in the process. Despite this, more than a third of current output is spent to create packaging, which is subsequently quickly discarded. This linear use of hydrocarbons through packaging and other short-lived uses ofplastic is simply not sustainable, given our diminishing fossil fuel sources and limited capacity for waste disposal to landfill. Material reduction, design for end-of-life recyclability, improved recycling capacity, development of bio-based feedstocks, litter-reduction methods, application of green chemistry life-cycle assessments, and updated risk assessment methodologies are some of the answers. Such efforts will be most successful if the public, industry, scientists, and politicians all work together.