Plastic Pollution: A Potential Threat on Health and Environment

Abstract

At present plastics are essential elements in our everyday lives and are widely used in almost every industry and business sector. These are inexpensive, flexible, light, nontoxic, and durable materials that can be molded into any shape, and are found in soil, air, water, and food chains in the form of micro- and macro-plastic particles. It is one of the major physical and chemical pollutants in ecosystems. Now plastic production and consumption pattern is a linear model of “take, make, use, and dispose” that is a primary driver of natural resource depletion, waste generation, marine pollution, biodiversity, environmental degradation, climate change, chemical contamination, and adverse human health effects. Present worldwide plastic production becomes more than 400 million tons that is equal to produce about 11 tons per second and about 68 kg per person per year. The ocean is also containing more than 150 million tons of plastics. Rapid production of virgin plastics cannot establish circular economy if recycling and reuse environment is not established in the society. On the other hand, the costs of recycling plastic are higher than those of processing virgin materials. As a result, plastic recycling is not increasing as it should. In this article, effects of plastic on health and environment are discussed in briefly.