Posted by: Pavlos Chairetakis

Campaign: How can we eliminate the need for plastic?

Most bottles today are made of plastic. They are easy and cheap to produce, light and strong but despite being recyclable they are very unsustainable. Many times they are recycled or reused, but still, enormous amounts of plastic bottles are thrown away and either burned or dumped in the sea. Plastic is a man made material and is difficulty decomposed. It can also often contain different toxic and poisonous substances that can hurt and kill decomposers. When thrown in water plastic slowly breaks down into millions of tiny pieces that are to small to be seen with the naked eye. These are spread around the sea and swallowed by fish and other sea creatures. These fish are then eaten by humans, seagulls, bears and lots of other creatures. The plastic contains no nutrition and usually does no damage the animals, but can sometimes causes aching in the stomach. Glass is heavier, more difficult to produce and is also a man made material, but takes a lot less time to decompose. It doesn\'t break down in water and is therefore way more sustainable than plastic. One thing large companies like coca cola can do to help prevent this water intoxication is to sell glass bottles which will be refilled by vending machines, instead of producing new bottles for every litre of coke.