SAY NO TO PLASTICS

Why the versatile everyday materials, PLASTICS, which we take for granted are the cause of

destruction of the ecosystem and environment and deaths of organisms…..

PEECO: PEEKS AT ECOLOGY…Peeco catches his friend throwing a plastic bag. Peeco: STOP! You’ve just killed a turtle! Friend: Killed a turtle?! You must be joking! Peeco: No, it’s true. This plastic bag is non-

biodegradable. You throw it away and think it is gone. But it’s here to stay for a long time! It floats down a river and reaches the sea. There a turtle thinks that the floating plastic bag is a juicy jellyfish, its food……And eats it! The plastic gets entangled in its guts……And it DIES OF STARVATION!!!

Friend: Hmmm…So it’s all connected! Peeco: Ask your mother to use a cloth bag to

shop. Avoid using plastic polybags.

THE ILL-EFFECTS OF PLASTICS Improperly disposed plastic pieces lead to the

deaths of many marine creatures which eat them causing entanglement in their digestive system.

Manufacture of plastics uses large amounts of oil, a non-renewable resource.

Plastics many times end up in seas and other  water bodies, choking them.

Most plastic does not ever disappear, but becomes long-lasting "plastic dust". When plastic items break down, they readily soak release toxins that then contaminate soil and water.

MORE CONS… Chemicals added to plastics are absorbed by

human bodies. Some of these compounds have been found to alter hormones or have other potential human health effects.

Toxins present in plastics make the soil infertile and unusable for agriculture.

Floating plastic waste, which can survive for thousands of years in water, serves as mini transportation devices for invasive species, disrupting habitats.

NOT-SO AMUSING FACTS Over a lakh animals die annually due to pollution caused

by plastic use. USA uses 5 billion barrels of oil (5% of total) just for the

production of plastics. 0.28 billion tonnes of plastic waste was produced in

2012. Plastic bags take 1000 years to decompose. Annually, approximately 500 billion (500,000,000,000)

plastic bags are used worldwide. More than one million bags are used every hour.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, in the North Pacific Gyre off the coast of California is the largest ocean garbage site in the world, twice the size of Texas, with plastic pieces outnumbering sea life 6:1.

Plastic constitutes approximately 90 percent of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.

SOME SHOCKING FIGURES: 44% of all seabird species, 22% of cetaceans, all sea turtle

species, and a growing list of fish species have been found with plastic in their bodies.

Americans throw away 35 billion plastic water bottles every year .

Plastic accounts for around 10 percent of the total waste we generate.

The average American throws away approximately 185 lbs plastic per year.

Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century.

50 percent of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw it away.

Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth 4 times.

PHOTO GALLERY:

EXTENT:

COLLAGE:

So friends, do you now realize that how a thoughtless everyday action of ours

leads to such immense environmental destruction and loss?

Let us take a pledge that we will avoid using plastic bags and other plastic items as much as possible. Let us contribute to the Clean India initiative. Let us be the change we want to see in the world…

THANK YOU…

NO Plastics, NO Pollution…