A new approach to the world of plastic, without preconceptions and constraints

How many words have been said in television debates, on social media, in NEWS all over the world, on the pollution of plastic, how many people have followed the emotional wave of what they saw and heard without fully understanding the problem. But how many people have made an objective and independent assessment of the phenomenon?

Plastic is not just the bottle of water or the drum of detergent that some irresponsible, or community, leaves behind in rivers, seas or on the roads.

It is not even represented by the shopping bags that are thrown into the environment and that end up in the stomach of the fish.

It cannot be said that it is identified in disposable objects that serve as sterile tools for our life and that can become micro or nanoplastic if abandoned at sea, entering the food chain.

Plastic is not this, but unfortunately it is what it represents in people’s subconscious, without understanding that it is the negative consequences of its management that lead to the phenomena described.

It is therefore the deficient or sudden management of the product that creates the environmental problem, not the product itself.

Certainly if we start from the assumption that, having removed our aching teeth, we will remove the pain, I wonder what we will then eat with? Maybe we make a new plastic resin denture.

It is not the fault of plastic if man has produced, from the 60s of the last century to today, about 8 billion tons of non-biodegradable product , of which 9% is recycled on average and that 12% is used in waste-to-energy plants, while about 80% must be dispersed in the environment.

It is not the fault of the plastic if the collection systems for waste are not organized in a capillary way, the plants for the selection and disposal are not built in sufficient quantity, and the waste itself is not converted into renewable energy and fuel.

It is not the fault of plastic if man, despite having discovered recycling systems that have gone beyond the old mechanical system , allowing, through chemical processes, to use every part of the collected plastic waste, but does not promote it on the territory through public investments.

It is not the fault of plastic if man, inventing it, made a discovery of a scale that would improve our daily lives , then using it in an innumerable quantity of commonly used products. If you have doubts, look around, among your things and get an idea.

Today, the much reviled plastic, can save our lives, with polypropylene, polyester or other plastics for masks, the gowns of health workers, sterile disposable products, containers for hazardous hospital waste.

The movement against plastic stems from impulsive rations , on episodes whose images touch people’s conscience, but after understandable disapproval, we must rewind the thread and understand the origin of the problem.

It is a matter of culture and knowledge , which must be assimilated by people so that they have objective and independent information to judge and take their own position, without being influenced by protagonists, political factions or lobbies.

The plastic of the future must be that of the past, we can do it.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.