The Nepal diaries - Part#4 - Thoughts to plastic - RAISE AWARENESS
Hey my dear Steemians, how are all of you doing? I would like to share some thoughts about plastic with you.
If you look at the material itself, without any of its environmental impacts. Plastic is a great invention. It is easy to produce, easy to work with, very weather resistant, waterproof and has tons of applications. Plastic is made from a lot of components, such as cellulose, coal, gas, salt and of course, crude oil. First, the oil is will get distillated in an oil refinery. The oil then gets seperated in different fractions and one of these fractions, called "naphtha", is the most important part for the plastic production.
You then have two different types of plastic, thermoplasts, which can be reshaped when they are heated and thermosets which will not soften once they have hardened.
Take a look at the statistics:
The problem with plastic is, that it is neither regulated nor expensive
Since its invention in New York around 1907 by Leo Baekeland, it literally flooded the planet. There is an unbelievable amount of plastic in our world. Since the trend in the western countries is slowly shifting towards eco-friendly products and recycling, countries like Nepal still have a long way to go. It is sad to see that plastic trash is everywhere, there are no regulations nor is there any perception of the pressure that this material puts on the environment.
Plastic trash I collected in one hour of trekking in Nepal...
It even came so far, that I have seen peeled bananas, packed in plastic foil. This is completely hilarious, if it would not be so sad. Bananas went through thousands of years of evolution and come with the most perfect "package" there could possibly be. So why the fuck would you repack them?!
RAISE AWARENESS
In my opinion, it is all about education, it is easy to say from my perspective since I know about all the dangers plastic comes with, but if you are simply not aware of it, of course you would use it all day long for everything. We need projects which raise awareness about these issues in places like Nepal.
One of my all time favorite plastic-recycle projects is this one:
Dave Hekkens is an awesome inventor who comes up with all kinds of solutions. For the last months I was actually rebuilding these machines by myself, but I sadly did not finish the project before my departure. I highly recommend to register for his newsletter and to check out his YouTube channel, I will write him a Mail, let's get him on Steemit ;)
This is the facebook community of precious plastic, scroll it out and check the results!
Another cool project is Plastic Whale, they started with one boat on the canals of Amsterdam and are collecting trash from the canals. They even take school classes on rides and spread awareness through younger generations. Fantastic.
Seems like the Dutch are a step ahead in their plastic-game. If you know about any more cool, plastic-related projects, please tell me about it in the comments!
We need to close ressource cycles
There is one more really cool organisation that I would like to talk about: Cradle to Cradle. The Berlin-based project supports all kinds of businesses on their journey of closing ressource cycles. It gained huge momentum in the last years and It is a really exciting project with a lot of influential people working on it. There are a lot of ways you could participate in C2C, check out their website for more information (its only in german at the moment). Sadly I could not make it to their annual convention this time.. Next year it will be :)
Buy sustainable
For my trip to Nepal, I was searching for a high quality rain-jacket, with the aim to find a sustainable, eco-friendly manufacturer. I came up with Vaude and Patagonia, which are both focusing on sustainability. You can even send old jackets to Patagonia and they will recycle it. Awesome. I chose this jacket and I am really happy with the decision. Highly recommended. Be a little more aware of the products you are buying, it can have a great impact.
Be the change you want to see,
hear you soon.
genius_loci
As you know, with every post I do, I would like to introduce you to the music that I like. These guys are special to me since I know them personally. Ladies and gentlemen: Bender&Schillinger
(Hey Chris&Linda, much love, keep it up!)
"This world that we're heading for,
is a world that we have to stand up for!"
All the photos were shot by myself, otherwise look at the sources
If you like what you see, check out my little online gallery
This post is part of The Nepal Diaries
Its a huge of a plastic world in here sir ! The awareness programs organized for the use of plastic bags also dont work for the people here ! Thanks for sharing ! But I felt guilty after this post !
yeah, know that feeling.. but if each one of us is convincing two more people, its becoming a wave :) positivity!
Yes, will be doing quick !
I saw somethign once that was turning plastic trash into building blocks. Would be neat to have ships that pulled out the ocean and other water body plastic waste and turned into low cost building materials for rebuilding disaster zones and such.
yeah that would be awesome! check out the Ocean Cleanup https://www.theoceancleanup.com/
building rocks would be amazing, just the health issues I guess :-/
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