Is plastic really necessary?

Plastic has been a part of all our lives since the day we were born. We all wore nappies lined with plastic and plastic toys for us to play with. As seen in recent years plastic waste has become a serious problem across the world. Plastic takes years to decompose resulting in massive heaps of plastic waste. Some of this plastic also ends up in the ocean resulting in marine life mistaking it for food and dying due to starvation.

Now, many people say that we should try and live a plastic-free life. Saying that this is extremely hard and in some cases impossible. Plastic is present all around us and used in almost everything. We use plastic in our electronic devices as an insulator. Paper cups are also lined with plastic to hold water. Moreover, most steel water bottles also have plastic in their lid and almost all groceries are packed in plastic bags. It is almost impossible to live a 100% plastic free life but we can reduce the amount of plastic we use.

If we are ever able to completely remove plastic from our life, we would face other problems. A few of the problems predicted by scientists are that we would need to start producing food locally and more regularly as the food cannot be stored for very long without using plastic, we would need to find an alternative insulator to build electronic circuits and food waste would become a huge problem as food would rot quicker.

As I have said above, even if we completely get rid of plastic completely or we don’t do anything at all, there is a problem either way. Reducing the amount of plastic used and at the same time trying to find a replacement for it is a possible solution