Refuse to use. Promote reuse

I remember I was in my third year high school chemistry class when my teacher asked “Can we live without plastic?” I automatically and radically raised my hand and voiced out a ‘yes’. She looked at me with objection and defended that we couldn’t. She began speaking about the wonders of chemistry and how mixing this compound with this compound can produce polysaccharides for plastic. A week ago, I read an article in Inquirer’s Young Blood column entitled “Refuse to Reuse”. It was written by an activist for nature, who was encouraging people stop using plastic. HA!

Plastic has indeed invaded our daily activities. From umbrellas, to shopping bags to tumblers to food packaging, there is never a day when we our hands don’t touch plastic. In correlation to this fact, plastic makes-up one-third of our daily garbage. Furthermore, plastic is a main pollutant (picture right now a pawikan choking with a McDonald’s plastic bag stuck on its throat). So plastic, as much as it has been part of our life, also has found its place in the ecosystem. The ecosystem has no problem with accepting new members but plastic doesn’t have a cycle. Every member of the ecosystem is part of a particular cycle but plastic is non-biodegradable; it doesn’t want to cease to exist. Unless to my high school teacher (and all the other plastic aficionados) is offering her backyard as a plastic dumpsite, we need to stop using plastic.

Here are the suggested actions from the article plus some from me:

• Refuse to accept plastic bags from supermarkets especially if the items you bought can be stored in your bag or held by your hand. You can bring your own plastic bag, preferably a bag made from other materials.
  
• When buying items from stores like 7-11 and bookstores, refuse the plastic bag. It’s really not necessary most of the time.
  
• Refuse to use straw. You want me to show you how it feels to have a straw shoved down your throat? A lot of animals know.
  
• If you can’t refuse to use plastic, recycle.
  
• For businessmen, avoid plastic as food packages.
  
• Can I ask you to stop buying food found inside a plastic? I didn’t think so.
  

GE117