Pressing need for tackling a global plastics crisis

British medical journal The Lancet has warned that there is a need to check the rampant use of plastics and that it is causing harm, including death, to human beings, to animals, in rivers and seas.

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The journal said, “Plastics are a grave, growing, under-recognised danger to human and planetary health. Plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age.”

It also said that the use of plastics is contributing to climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity. It is reckoned that 8000 mega tonnes pollute the planet as of now. Plastic production is set to triple by 2060, and only less than 10 per cent of it is recycled.

The plastics problem is costing world governments $1.5 trillion annually in health costs. The piece carrying the warnings against plastic is part of the campaign that the journal has launched, called, “The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics.” It coincides with the start of a 175-nation global conference on plastics in Switzerland.

The aim of the conference is to forge a Global Plastics Treaty. It is not going to be easy because countries like China, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia are opposing a ban on plastics, and prefer plastic recycling.