A Day With Plastics
An analysis of how much plastics the average human uses in a normal day.
Photo by Andres Rendon
From tupperware to dishes, plastic is all around us. This is only a tiny fraction of the total plastic makeup in an average household.
Plastic. The material that makes up almost everything in our existence. From bowls, toys, packaging, and more, it is quite impossible to have a day where this glorified material is not in sight or mind.
Almost everyone has used, or is currently using, some sort of plastic product or material right now, whether it be Tupperware to keep a salad fresh, or a fly-swatter to kill a pesky mosquito. But just when did such substance begin?
The first known plastic, or synthetic polymer as the Science History Institute states it, was created by John Hyatt, in 1869 and the purpose was to create a substance that could be a “substitute for ivory.”
Over the years, however, more and more forms of plastic were developed, such as the first fully synthetic plastic, Bakelite, in 1907, and again in World War 2, with the use of Nylon and Plexiglass.
According to the Science History Institute, plastics were supposed to “protect the natural world from the destructive forces of human need.”
Jump forward to today, and plastics are destroying our planet.
Since its take-off in the 1940s, according to The Globalist, “today, an average person living in North America or Western Europe consumes 220 pounds of plastic each year, mostly in the form of packaging.”
To keep it a little more local, students from Pat-Med High School were asked, “Where do you see the most plastics in a day?”
Nolan Crean, a senior, said “I often see plastic in candy wrappers and bags [grocery bags, etc.].”
Stephanie Henry, a junior, stated that “water bottles are a common item of a plastic makeup.”
In hindsight, packaging does take up a majority of plastic consumption, and the video below can demonstrate that such a statement can be proven to be true.
When observing the world around us and how much plastic is involved with the planet, people must come together to gather solutions to reduce the amount of “synthetic polymers” and save the planet before it is too late.
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Grade 12
"Sometimes one bite is more than enough to know you want more of the thing you just got a taste of." -Dr. Pomatter
Tony Salamah • Oct 4, 2019 at 11:42 am
I think trying to eliminate as much plastic from our lives as we can is very important. They do not degrade, and sooner or later they will take over our earth and our oceans.