| scientific wormhole
Humans can use or create the materials they need, and the most commonly used materials are plastic, glass, and metal. Plastic was invented in the 1850s and is now a ubiquitous product of life.
Plastic bottles, plastic bags and other plastic products have the advantages of light weight, waterproof, durable and cheap, which bring great convenience to people's lives, but also bring a burden to the environment - white pollution.
With the strengthening of environmental awareness, people are fully aware of the horror of white pollution. But surprisingly, studies have found that glass bottles are more harmful than plastic bottles.
Plastic pollution and its hazards
Most of the plastics that cause white pollution are polymer compounds such as polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyvinyl chloride, which take two or three hundred years to degrade. A large number of such materials are discarded and accumulated, which not only affects the beauty of the environment, but also causes great harm to the ecology.
According to the United Nations environment department, the global plastic waste has exceeded 4.9 billion tons, and less than 9% of the part can be recycled and reused.
According to relevant information, without extensive intervention, by 2030, global annual plastic emissions may reach 53 million tons, which is 6.6 times the Un standard.
White pollution generated by agriculture, if not properly treated, will endanger the soil environment and affect crop growth; Toxic gases such as hydrogen chloride produced by incinerating plastic waste can also pollute the air and endanger human health.
A large amount of plastic waste enters the ocean, some pile up on the seabed, and people can even find traces of plastic bags at a depth of 10,000 meters;
Others have become shackles on wild animals, and seals have been strangled to death by nylon ropes.
There are turtles whose noses are blocked by straws, and without human help, it is impossible to take them out on their own...
From the top of the Himalayas to the Mariana Trench, to the snow in the Arctic in the north and To King George Island in the South Pole, plastic is almost everywhere.
In addition to large plastics, they also incarnate into "microplastics" with a diameter of less than 5 millimeters, which not only "brave the world" in nature, but also appear in the blood and lungs of living people, and even in the human placenta.
Microplastic micrographs and Raman spectra found in the human placenta
Happily, humans have set out to curb white pollution, such as reducing the use of plastic products, sorting waste, and developing and promoting more environmentally friendly degradable materials.
The study found that glass bottles produce 4 times more harm than plastic bottles
The glass bottle is also a difficult material to degrade, but it is labeled as "infinite circulation", claiming that it can "100%, infinite circulation without compromising quality or purity", and some people regard it as a good material to help achieve carbon neutrality.
Therefore, although glass bottles and plastic bottles are common packaging for bottled beverages, many people will give preference to glass bottles for environmental protection.
However, one of the scientists' discoveries shattered everyone's perception. A study published in the journal Detritus notes that glass bottles are more than 4 times more harmful to the environment than plastic bottles.
Unlike plastics, the harm of glass to the environment is more reflected in the production process. Alice Brock of the University of Southampton said that in the process of melting glass raw materials, a large amount of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide are released.
It is understood that global glass manufacturing produces up to 86 million tons of greenhouse gases every year. Fired glass is the most energy-intensive and carbon-emitting link, with nearly half of that carbon emissions occurring in burning energy and 36 percent coming from carbon dioxide released from heated raw materials.
Alice Brock also pointed out that the raw material for glass is mainly minerals, which need to be produced through mining.
To make glass bottles, it is necessary to mine large amounts of silica sand, dolomite, etc., many of which are toxic and pollute the surrounding environment (soil, rivers, etc.) when mined.
The manufacture of glass can also endanger the health of workers. In the process of mining glass raw materials, harmful substances continue to volatilize, which may cause workers to suffer from lung or respiratory related diseases, such as silicosis.
Is glass really environmentally friendly?
After Alice Brock published her paper, many friends were worried: Is glass bottle not an environmentally friendly material? In fact, one of the keys to this problem is the recovery rate.
Glass industry personnel believe that Alice Brock's paper does not include "recycling" in the evaluation, in fact, it is a very important factor.
In the UK, for example, the recycling rate of glass packaging is as high as 70%. In the production of glass, the factory also uses a large amount of recycled glass slag in addition to raw materials.
And, if glass enters the marine environment, it does not break down tiny particles that harm marine life; In nature, glass also does not cause soil or air pollution, which has advantages over plastic packaging.
The recovery rate of glass determines whether the problem of "high energy consumption and high emissions" in the production process can be effectively alleviated. According to the European Glass Container Association, for every 10% recycled glass added to the firing of glass, emissions can be reduced by 5%.
In summary, if the glass bottle is disposable and the recovery rate is very low, then from the perspective of environmental protection, it does cause more harm to the environment than plastic; But if people can reuse glass bottles and improve the recovery rate, then the environmental benefits of glass bottles are still relatively good.
Expert: Mandatory recycling is recommended
As one of the most common materials in life, we can't completely abandon a glass bottle for a while, but we can take a more environmentally friendly approach to using it.
In terms of personal life, we can reuse glass products. A glass bottle can be reused 12 to 20 times, and we can use an empty glass bottle as a vase, or for other purposes.
At the national and social levels, it is necessary to increase the recycling of glass bottles. Environmental jurist Chang Jiwen suggested that while promoting garbage classification legislation, all localities should take the opportunity to incorporate the mandatory recycling and recycling of glass bottles into local legislation.
The recycling of glass containers is mandatory in many countries, and the mainland has not yet improved the corresponding recycling regulations, and many Chinese people have not developed the awareness of recycling glass bottles.
The recycling rate of daily glass in the mainland is about 30%, and the amount of recycling is decreasing year by year, which is also related to the low market price of waste glass. Waste glass is heavier, the price is low, and it also needs to go through sorting, cleaning and other processes... It is a "thankless" recyclable.
High costs, low profits, the same "glass bottle recycling difficulties" problem, in Malaysia and other countries also exist. If you rely solely on market profits or government subsidies, it is difficult to keep the waste glass recycling industry developing well for a long time.
The benefits of reusing and recycling glass are very many, and experts also hope that the state will introduce corresponding policies to guide the market to establish an effective system to improve the reuse rate of glass and promote the standardized recycling and long-term recycling of glass products.
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