Plastics

What are its effects on society? What are the current technologies used in
dealing with this? and our new technology to solve this problem!
1 Plastic and its
effects on our
society
Why the topic is important??
 Why Plastic is bad for us?

Plastic never goes Plastic piles up in Plastic spoils our

away. the environment. groundwater.
Plastic is a durable Americans discard more There are thousands of
material made to last than 30 million tons of landfills in the United
forever, yet illogically, plastic a year. Only 8 States. Buried beneath
33 percent of it is used percent of that gets each one of them, plastic
once and then thrown recycled. The rest ends leachate full of toxic
away. Plastic cannot up in landfills, is chemicals is seeping into
biodegrade; it breaks incinerated, or becomes groundwater and
down into smaller and the invasive species flowing downstream
smaller pieces known as 'litter.' into lakes and rivers.
 some more reasons

Plastic affects Plastic costs billions Plastic threatens

human health. to abate. wildlife.
Chemicals leached by Everything suffers: Entanglement, ingestion
plastics are in the blood tourism, recreation, and habitat disruption
and tissue of nearly all business, the health of all result from plastic
of us. Exposure to them humans, animals, fish ending up in the spaces
is linked to cancers, and birdsbecause of where animals live. In
birth defects, impaired plastic pollution. The our oceans alone, plastic
immunity, endocrine financial damage debris outweighs
disruption and other continuously being zooplankton by a ratio of
ailments. inflicted is inestimable. 36-to-1.
Current technologies
and methods to
address the issue.
Recyle. Recycle. More Recycle.
 Biodegradable Plastics

Biodegradable plastics are plastics that can be

broken down by microorganisms (bacteria or
fungi) into water, carbon dioxide (CO2) and some
bio-material. It is important to note that
biodegradable plastics are not necessarily made
from bio-material (i.e. plants). Several
biodegradable plastics are made from oil in the
same way as conventional plastics.
 Biodegradable Plastics

Biodegradable plastics are more expensive to

produce.
Many use plant resources such as corn or molasses,
thus creating competition for food supply.
Commercial facilities test biodegradable plastics at 58
degrees C and 60% relative humidity, whereas at-
home composting mechanisms may not meet these
conditions and may therefore produce incomplete
biodegradation.
 Biodegradable Plastics

Strategies are possible to balance the need for durable plastics

in some applications, and biodegradable compounds in others:
Plastics of low volume for medical applications may rely more on
fossil fuel and be designed for durability, whereas
High-volume uses for consumer products will have to be
sourced from renewable material stocks and be programmed for
rapid environmental decay (i.e., biodegradability).
This strategy could prevent irreparable environmental damage
from disposable plastic products, while maintaining and
maximizing the benefits of plastics in specialized cases, like
medicine and public health.
What we think??
Our thoughts on addressing the
issue.
Prevention is better than cure.
 Stop using Plastics in the
first place!

Governments should exercise strict control

measures.
Low-volume plastics and easily replaceable
ones should be completely banned.
Replacements such as jute, paper bags
should be forcefully inducted.
Incentivize the above process.
A Quantum
Model!!
Every big thing is made of
smaller substituent
particles.
 Plastics are extremely
Our Solution: durable and are suitable
A Quantum Model!!
for repeated recycling. We
should develop a basic
plastic material which can
be combined to form object
as desired. The material
though should be easily
broken up when required.
This would mean that no
plastic would have to be
thrown, only remoulded.
 SUMMARY/CONCLUSION

Plastics have been with us for more than a century, and by now theyre
everywhere, for good and for ill. Plastic containers and coatings help keep
food fresh, but they can also leave behind neurotoxins such as BPA in the
human body. Environmental exposure to plastic-related chemical compounds
does not occur in isolation but as a cocktail effect, with unknown cumulative
impacts. Because plastics are found throughout the globe, there are
effectively no populations that havent been exposed to them. This situation
implies that in todays plastics-enabled society, there are no control groups
to be found to analyze the effects on human health from low-level,
environmental exposures to plastic constituents. Everybody is being exposed
to some degree at any given time from gestation through death.
We have some solutions to address the issue and we need to develop more.
Stricter regulations and rules will help in controlling the situation.
Credits/References

Plasticpollutioncoalition.org
Natureswell.com
Explainthatstuff.com
THANKS!