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As fellow residents of planet earth, it is important to keep our home safe for living for ourselves and others. One of the Live to Love activities that H.E. Khamtrul Rinpoche, organizing chairperson of the First ADC, wishes to promote is the education of appropriate use of plastics, along with discouraging the inappropriate use of plastics.
Pollution will also cause environmental problems that will aggravate the water shortage situation on Druk Amitabha Mountain. Therefore, Rinpoche would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the organizing and working committee, as well as everyone attending the First ADC in December to be mindful of the use of plastics by: | 1 | bringing your own cups, plates, bowls, forks and spoons for use during the ADC and keeping them with you all the time to use them, so that the organizers do not need to prepare disposable cups, plates, bowls, forks and spoons | | 2 | bringing your own bags to receive Tsok offerings and the like | | 3 | reusing and recycling those plastics that we cannot dispose of easily, for example the bottles for containing mineral water |
The organizing and working committee will prepare cups, plates and bowls (non-disposable) for sale to those who may overlook or may not be aware of this issue. Information on Plastics & EnvironmentPlastics are essentially a byproduct of petroleum refining. There are many benefits associated with the use of plastics, such as plastics replace natural materials, including ivory and wood, and the use of plastic materials reduces the weight of cars and airplanes thereby increasing their fuel efficiency. However, due to excessive use of plastics and improper disposal of plastics, the environmental impact is phenomenal. For example, the availability of plastics has resulted in the development of many disposable products which eventually has increased the amount of trash and rubbish. Although paper accounts for most of the trash in landfills by volume, plastics accounts for 25% of all waste in landfills when buried. And those plastics which are not properly disposed in landfills make their way to our living environment. Since plastics do not biodegrade quickly, they remain in the environment for a long time. The compounding effect of accumulating plastics over time results in environmental pollution that kills the only home we have. | Types of Materials | Information | | Biodegradable Plastic Bags | It takes about 5 to 6 months to biodegrade if disposed in landfills, but the production process is highly toxic in nature 1 | | Polystyrene Container | Polystyrene is a petroleum by-product, a non-renewable resource, composed of the chemicals styrene and benzene. Benzene is classified as a human carcinogen. Styrene is a neurotoxin and is also suspected to cause cancer. Additionally, polystyrene foam is non-biodegradable, not easily recyclable, cannot be reused, and takes hundreds of years to decompose 2 | Recycled Polystyrene Foam
(also known as "Styrofoam") | They do not biodegrade, instead they photodegrade, i.e. breaking down into smaller and smaller particles that will eventually wind up in human bodies. 3 It can be used to build marine docks but not to make a new polystyrene foam cup. New plastic will have to be produced from non-renewable oil stocks to make new foam cups and eventually these will have to be disposed of in the environment. Not only that, when consuming food and drinks in these containers, there is a chance of genetic mutation, cancer and hormone disruption, because polystyrene is extremely reactive to fat and heat. The styrene used in the manufacture of food containers can migrate into food during use. The quantities of migrating chemicals will depend largely on the nature of food, the contact temperature and the contact time. | | Glass | It takes more than 1 million years to decompose, but it is recyclable and when recycled, it reduces pollution by 20% 3 | | Paper cups | Paper can be recycled, but most paper cups are coated with plastic or wax and cannot be recycled. Even coated paper will biodegrade in five years, while uncoated and unbleached paper will be gone in a few days according to Worldwise.com 3 |
Source:
1. Natural Environment Blog
2. Regulating Styrofoam in Hawaii. State of Hawaii
3. Sustainable Living: There is no such thing as disposable. Shawn Dell Joyce. Sedona News. |
