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Plastic is a very complex thing. It is also very apt that the adjective used to describe people with an aura of “false” as plastic. This is because plastic is essentially fake and man-made.
Plastic is a by-product of oil. Yes, it is the same oil that is used to clean the gasoline that powers our cars, planes and power plants. The same toxic, harmful substance that we all know comes from the same family as the substance we use to package food and drink!
However, unlike oil, which takes millions of years to form but little time to evaporate and spread, plastic takes both millions of years to form and millions of years to decompose. This is because plastic is what chemistry calls a polymer. A polymer is a long chain of molecules linked together and held together by incredibly strong bonds that are very difficult to break. That is why plastic is such a durable and versatile material.
While plastic has many uses, food packaging is one area where it is used too freely. In fact, studies linking heating food in plastic packaging to carcinogenicity have been carried out.
So, when our food is packed in a plastic bag, it comes into contact with the same materials that make gasoline and diesel fuel! Plastic is also full of nasty chemicals like BPA (Bisphenol-A) and phthalates (see glossary section) that have harmful long-term effects.
These harmful effects are just those that directly affect our body. The damage that plastic does to the environment is manifold. While most natural materials, such as food waste, paper, and the like, break down quickly (that is, they are easily digested by microbes and bacteria and broken down into smaller particles), plastic is virtually indigestible – pun intended! It is estimated that families in the United States alone throw away over 200 million tons of plastic waste every day! Plastic bags contribute a lot to this!
By using reusable sandwich bags (brands such as LunchSkins and EcoDitty are great examples) that are made of food-safe fabrics and cotton, our food not only comes into contact with safer, natural materials, as fabrics and cotton are grown naturally, and not chemically manufactured, but reusable sandwich bags are washable so they can be used repeatedly. They will be like new every time! They also won’t add non-biodegradable and non-degradable materials to our already clogged landfills.
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Source by Shabbir U Nooruddin