TECHNOLOGICAL advances have been moving at an increasingly rapid rate in the 20th and 21st centuries. Most advances, like for instance, pharmaceuticals, have after-effects which are sometimes only perceived after the damage has been done. An example of the after-effects of a very useful pharmaceutical: When aspirin was discovered in the 19th century, it was regarded as a wonder drug and new uses of it were found as time went on. Then, it was much later discovered that it could cause kidney and stomach damage.

Plastics have been one of the great discoveries of the modern world. Plastics, as we know it, became ubiquitous only about 60 or 70 years ago and during that time, its use has grown at a phenomenal rate. It is used in clothing, not merely in raincoats, but as a substitute for cloth. Its use in the restaurant and catering industries is universal and it has largely replaced porcelain, chinaware and even glassware. And its use in industry and product design has been overwhelming. For example, in the motorcar and other engines, plastic parts are replacing metal parts and today it is rare to find a home refrigerator which is made purely of metal as had been the case merely 20 years ago. Indeed, all refrigerators on sale in Guyana have plastic bodies.

There is no doubt that plastics have been of great value and benefit to human beings. It has made products in common use more affordable and more convenient and has given greater ease of existence. But like the pharmaceuticals, its use also has negative after-effects, some of which were unforseen until they began to unfold with the effluxion of time.
Human beings have so far created more than six billion tons of plastic waste, and in just 25 to 30 years from now, that amount will double. About 80 percent of this waste is deposited in landfills. Plastics do not disintegrate like paper and be integrated into the land and if plastics are burned, the fumes are toxic. In other words, plastic waste presents an environmental problem of immense magnitude.

As plastics break down into micro-fragments, it can be ingested into the human body where it can build up in the bodies of organisms, can disrupt human hormones and cause many life-threatening diseases. It is also a danger to marine life since sea-birds, turtles and even fish become entangled with plastic bags and other plastic debris, become immobilised and die. Or very often, these marine creatures mistake plastic waste for food and when they ingest it, it causes internal blockages or destroys their digestive systems causing them a slow and painful death. Guyana’s rare turtles have been so affected.

There are numerous other ways in which plastic waste negatively affect the quality of life: When plastic containers are thrown into the fields or open country, they accumulate water and serve as breeding grounds for malaria and other types of mosquitoes. Or when such waste is thrown into the canals and trenches, they block the drainage system causing floods.

Today, the world has now become conscious of the dangers of plastic pollution and people everywhere are trying to deal with it. The United Nations has declared April 22, each year as Mother Earth Day when the world is alerted as to the dangers of pollution facing human beings and indeed all animals. The theme of Mother Earth Day this year is appropriate, “End Plastic Pollution”. We should remind ourselves that ancient Man had great reverence for Mother Earth which was always deified. This wisdom of the ancients is only now being re-discovered.

The theme “End Plastic Pollution” is supported by a number of suggestions which have been put forward by the United Nations, governmental personnel and NGO’s worldwide.
Such suggestions would include joining, innovating and supporting educational activities propagating the dangers of plastic pollution. In Guyana, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is at the forefront of such educational activities. Such activities would help to let the Guyanese public learn to reject the use of plastics, or to reduce their use, or to reuse and recycle plastics. In this process of reducing or reusing plastics, citizens could take a number of simple actions:

When one goes shopping, take one’s own reusable bag or ask for cardboard boxes or paper bags, politely rejecting the use of plastic bags.
Use reusable bottles for water or reusable cups for drinks, avoiding the disposable bottles and cups.

Individuals or members of groups can demand that corporations, which are responsible for producing or distributing goods which may add to plastic pollution, clean up such pollution.
As citizens, or as members of groups, call upon Central and Local Government authorities to tighten or institute regulations to deal with plastic pollution.