Is the war against plastic pollution too difficult to win?
According to Center for Biological Diversity, it take around 1,000 years to degrade waste in a landfill. "These papers cannot fully decompose, they photo-degrade into micro-plastics that continue to pollute the environment," the center says. The plastic that does not end up in land fills are recycled. Recently, Indonesia stad plastic recycling in hopes to achieve what Singapore has. They are packaging using textile material like polyester, which are used in bags, shirts, shoes and carpets. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a US based NGO whose core mandate is to safeguard Earth and it's elements from pollution, says that only nine per cent of all plastic is recycled. "But 91 percent of all plastic isn’t recycled at all. Instead it ends up in landfills or in the environment. Single-use plastics in particular - especially small items like straws, bags, and cutlery—are traditionally hard to recycle because they fall into the crevices of recycling machinery and therefore are often not accepted by recycling centers." UNEP suggested that Governments support innovation for reusable plastic - this way, market for single use plastics will eventually end.