Plastic ain't fantastic

The next time you decide to eat fish you should think it twice, at least I will do it. Did you know that approximately 1.4 billion pounds of trash per year enters the ocean? (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Part of this trash is constituted by plastic waste in different forms like bags, bottles and containers. So the fact that eating fish could mean that you are eating plastic, is very likely. But how is this possible?

All the plastic that goes in the ocean breaks into microscopic particles which become part of the food chain of the marine species. According to a study from the University of California, Davis, and Hasanuddin University in Indonesia, one in four fish has plastic in its gut (fish sampled from fish markets in California and Indonesia). More alarmingly, a report published by the World Economic Forum in 2016 estimates that by 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic than fish (The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics). These figures sound overwhelming, so we must do something about it. First, because of the pollution plastic causes to the environment and secondly because of the human health effects of eating contaminated fish, which are unknown.

Among the several ways to address this problem, there are three simple things that we as responsible consumers can do:

• Avoid the use of plastic shopping bags. There are plenty of nice and cool reusable bags. You would be surprised to know the amount of plastic bags a family uses a year in United States (you can start breaking the plastic bag habit after answering the question here).

• For the ones that have kids, you should stop feeding your babies from trendy little food pouches. Most of these little bags can’t be recycled, they are carried to landfills, and will probably end in the oceans (The Huffington Post 2017).

• Instead of buying bottled water, have a reusable bottle and refill it. By this you would reduce the amount of new bottles being made. According to Greenpeace UK, Coca-Cola sells about 108 to 128 billion plastic bottles every year.

• Prefer glass jars. They are reusable and recyclable.

The situation is critical, so there is no much to think about it. Fortunately, some states like Canberra, Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania have banned single-use plastic shopping bags. It would be beneficial if more states and territories follow this initiative. While this does not happen, we should try to reduce use of all plastic products, otherwise our grandchildren will not be able to eat fish.