EXTRA: Plastics: Its real truth

After becoming useful, plastic materials turn into a menace of environment in the form of rubbish.

By JULIETO C ESCURO

Teacher III

Nabua National High School

Nabua, Cam Sur

POLLUTION is causing too many ill effects on the lives, health, and economy of the nation. The plastics and polystyrene packaging industry, long being blamed for worsening environmental situations. (The Modern Teacher, January 2000)

Our growth as a person is not solely dependent on our home Environment. We also need our community, the church, the government to help us develop fully and grow as persons. Everyone is needed to be concerned about the community, however it carries with it the importance of lessening or recycling garbage to help in the country’s pollution control.

Here are some truths about plastics, the industry long taking the blame for our worsening environmental situation, has bared the truths about their products.

Plastic’s basic raw material of polystyrene plastic is styrene monomer, a simple molecule made of Carbon and Hydrogen.

These elements are comprised of Hydrocarbons such as petroleum and natural gas and are also found in sugar as carbohydrates and in fats.

On CFC use, the Environmental Protection Agency  (EPA) says that only two to three percent of CFC’s used in the US went to the production of Polystyrene packaging. In 1992, our manufacturers of extruded polystyrene foam in the Philippines, who used CFC’s voluntarily phased this out, far ahead of any other industry. 

 Plastic containers should be recycled for new container products.

On the alternative compounds in foam food service packaging, in most countries manufacturers who once used CFC switched to several alternative such as pentane, HCFC and carbon dioxide (CO2). On the advantages of using foam polystyrene, Foam polystyrene packaging is the better food packaging material because of its strength, economy, sanitation and safety, reusability, superior insulation, environment friendly and foam polystyrene is 100% recycla

ble and contains absolutely no CFC.

There are a number of provinces, and cities in our country which ban the use of plastics such as Los Baños in Laguna, Iriga City in CamSur and Malolos in Bulacan to name a few.

The ban on plastics does not actually protect the environment at all !

It leads to more paper use which means more trees cut and higher water and power use.

Our Local Government Units should Enforce the Waste Segregation Law because it is the best way to curb our problem on environmental pollution. – Bicol Mail