Over the last hundred years, plastic has firmly come into our lives
Plastic has firmly entered our life and is not going to leave. Approximately one hundred of its microparticles fall into our body during a meal, scientists say. It can be a packing of products, plastic bags, a disposable cup with tea – anything. We absorb such particles about seventy thousand a year. Is this a lot or a little? And the main thing – is it safe or not?
I bought it and threw it away. And then again I bought it and threw it away again. Every day, without hesitation, we increase the amount of plastic waste.
Valery Krivoshey, candidate of chemical sciences, president of the Packaging Club, says that people use and then throw out about three million tons of various types of packaging each year. This is a huge amount.
Can plastic poison products that are stored in it? Scientists around the world are looking for an answer.
Journalist organization ORB Media from Washington organized a large-scale study. In nine countries, bought 259 bottles of popular brands.
“We have discovered each and added the Nile red dye, it adheres well to any plastic, but does not interact with natural materials,” says Sherry Mason, professor of chemistry at the State University of New York in Fredonia.
The water was then studied under a microscope in infrared light: the tinted particles gave a fluorescent effect. In one of the bottles discovered more than ten thousand plastic particles per liter.
On average, one liter revealed more than a dozen large particles with a human hair thickness and three hundred fewer.
93% of the investigated water contained polymers: polypropylene (54%) – made from lids, nylon (16%), polystyrene (11%), polyethylene (10%), polyester and polyethylene terephthalate (6%) – PET.
The authors of the study assume that the plastic has got into the water either from the package or else at the stage of the spill. A year ago, scientists already found polymers in tap water, seafood, sea salt, beer and even air. Alarming data comes from different parts of the earth, but not from Ukraine. Monitoring in our country simply is not carried out.
Moreover, manufacturers rarely indicate from what material packaging is made. Laws do not require this.
Of all the variety of drinks in plastic bottles, the expert found PET-polyethylene-terephthalate alone on one. It is considered safer than polycarbonate.
In Japan polycarbonate is covered with a special protective layer, and in France and Canada it was banned from being used as a container for baby food. In Ukraine, polycarbonate bottles are usually made for delivery of water.
A small team of Ukrainian inventors proposed an alternative: a stainless steel bottle.
Unlike plastic, such containers can be washed with boiling water without chemical detergents. Service life is at least 10 years, whereas polycarbonate is used for 2-3 years. And already there are people ready to pay for water “plastic free” 380 hryvnia “plus” 2500 hrn bail for the bottle itself.
Chemist Alexander Makarenko does not drink water from coolers, but buys in plastic bottles. It reminds that it can not be stored at temperatures above 20 degrees.
And what about the water in the glass? Maybe it’s worth giving preference to her?
Here and on the tables, high-ranking officials usually do not see plastic. The president of the packers’ club Valery Krivoshey says that even more harmful substances were found in glass containers than in PET bottles.
The good news: the concentration of phenols and phthalates in water from bottles is negligible. To exceed the norm, you need a day to drink from 50 to 100 liters. But can harmful substances accumulate in the body? Scientists do not know yet.
A familiar picture in the capital’s supermarket. Each buyer on average uses five packages: one large and four small.
In some stores, some packages are made from biodegradable material. They are not worth more than usual – about four hryvnia.
On it there is an indication that this package does not harm the environment. It allows him to decompose over 2 years, unlike conventional plastic, which decomposes for 100 years.
The secret is in a special additive that makes the molecules of polymers shorter, so they eventually break down. Unable to completely abandon plastic, humanity is looking for ways to at least reduce its harm.
Earlier we wrote that the British government plans to prohibit the sale of plastic straws, agitators and earwax to protect rivers and oceans from pollution.