Paper or Plastic?

You choose. 

 

I am torn between two things and it’s hard to decide when you know both are useful but harmful.

 

I have been battling with myself on what to dispose both in the office and at home. Papers or plastics?

 

I love papers. I like writing on them. I love plastics, too. I like organizing my things with them.

 

Plastics are made from petroleum. They take years to decompose and when they do, they release more harmful chemicals. Their light weight makes them flown easily by the wind or float on the river and so they litter the earth and block the waterways. As a matter of fact, about 25% of the solid wastes in the Philippines were plastic products (yes, I care even from afar!). Though there have been recycling initiatives, the consumption of plastic is twice the number of those that have been recycled.

Papers are made from wood. Woods come from the forest. So, they basically harm the forest. In the Philippines (yes again, it just makes me worry it's one of the most polluted country on earth!), around 17.61 kilograms of papers were used by one person in a year. It will take about 125 liters of water to manufacture a kilo of paper and around 17 trees to produce a ton of paper. Ten years ago, it was found that around 12% of the total solid wastes collected are made of paper. Assuming that the numbers of the solid wastes have doubled by now, those junks could have produced around 108,862 kilograms of rice equivalent to a meal enough for 217,724 people.

 

Now what to do? I can’t stop using papers. I deal with them every day at work and at home – memos, reports, forms, magazines, tissues, paper cups. And I can’t stop using plastics, too. They’re all around me. The water I drink is in a plastic bottle and the groceries I bought were put in a plastic bag.

 

Reduce, reuse and recycle, they said. But how? A lot of sources have been telling us what items to recycle but what we first need to know is how to avoid using them.  I asked around and searched but so far, these are what I came up without sacrificing the consumption of either paper or plastic products.

1. Bring and use cloth bags to the store – any store! – bakery, meat shop, fishery and etc.

2. Either buy beverages in glass bottles or bring your own reusable steel/ceramic drinking mug.

3. Use silverware cutlery and kitchen wares instead of plastic.

4. Use cloth toys, diapers, napkins and rugs.

 

They seem either petty or an effort but they should make a big difference. I know, it’s not easy to get rid of an old habit especially when you refuse to keep it in mind. But the first step shouldn’t be too difficult to do.

 

Well, why don’t I try this and get back to you? I’ll see if the cloth bags will work!