Long and Short Speech on Plastic Pollution
Plastic waste makes its way from our homes and workplaces to landfills and bodies of water, resulting in plastic contamination. There is an immediate need to correctly dispose of such plastic waste and to reduce its widespread usage in the interests of health and the environment. Here we have provided both long and short speeches on plastic pollution for students of Class 5 to 12 along with 10 lines for a speech on plastic for students of Class 1 to 4.
Long Speech on Pollution by Plastic Bags
Today, I am here to deliver a speech on plastic pollution. Plastic has very seriously impacted the health and life of human beings in the last decade. Several events have drawn the attention of the whole world and placed a question mark on the use of plastic in everyday life.
Plastic, the wonder material we use for anything that pollutes our atmosphere, is probably the most destructive waste deposited in the sea by sailors and sea-goers because it does not break down easily. The plastic that goes in the river today might still be around to ruin the fishing gear, ship propellers, and beaches for future generations.
Plastic is non-degradable material, it does not completely mix up with the natural elements unlike degradable materials like food, clothes, paper etc Hence, it persists in nature for a longer time than other materials. India generates around 9 million tons of plastic waste annually. It is so sad to know that 40% of the total waste generated is not even collected from the source. Most of the plastic waste generated is single-use plastic which is discarded by people with minimal use of it.
Plastics can be broadly divided into microplastics and macroplastics. Microplastics are smaller in particle size with less than five millimeters. They include microbeads that are used in making cosmetics, personal hygiene products, industries, and microfibers which are used for sanitation. On the other hand, macroplastics are particles with more than five millimeters. Comparatively, microplastics cause more damage as they are easily transferred from one trophic level to another trophic level.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board in India, we generate around 26,000 tons of all types of plastics every day and half of it is not even collected from the source. They choke the drains, get eaten by animals, enter the water resources and pollute the environment. On average, every Indian consumes 11 kgs of plastic every year. Though it is 10 times less than the USA, as India has more population, we seem to generate a lot of waste comparatively.
Careless plastic handling can have dire repercussions. For an indiscriminate feeder like the sea turtle, a plastic bag seems like a delicious jellyfish, but plastic is indigestible. It can choke, block the intestines of those animals that eat it or cause infection.
A plastic bag can clog the cooling system of an outboard engine as well. Monofilament fishing lines lost or discarded may foul propellers, break oil seals and lower engine units, or may become an enveloping web for fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.
More and more plastic is collected in our oceans every day. Recreational boaters are not the only party to dispose of plastic refuse at sea improperly. Through waste outfalls, merchant shipping, commercial fishing activities, and beachgoers, plastics are also entering the marine environment.
It is very flexible in the middle stage and, depending on temperature and pressure, any shape can be provided. In the practice of plastic waste preparation, urea, formaldehyde, polyethene, polystyrene, polycythylcholide, phenolic compounds and other substances are used.
The most widespread plastic contamination nowadays is caused by polyvinyl chloride (P.V.C.). The soluble chemical is eventually dissolved in them when any food substance or blood is deposited in the aforementioned plastic containers, causing death due to cancer and other skin diseases.
The fertility of animals and their respiratory systems have also been found to be destroyed by polyvinyl chloride. It causes paralysis when combined with water and also affects bones and causes skin irritation.
Here are several steps we should take to reverse the tide of harmful, non-biodegradable waste so that our world will not be overtaken by it.
Use of paper, canvas, and other healthy-fiber containers, placed produce.
Using bags of wax paper, cloth napkins, or reusable sandwich boxes (e.g., tiffins, described below).
Using bottles or cans of glass only.
We need to acknowledge that we only have one planet, which we are supposed to pass down to our future generations. It is our responsibility to keep it safe and clean.
Short Speech on Plastic Waste Management
Today, I am here to deliver a speech on plastic waste management. The influx of plastics into our environment has reached crisis levels, and it is evident through the pollution of our oceans. Up to 12 million metric tons of plastic are expected to flood our ocean each year.
Our oceans are increasingly becoming plastic broth, and the effect on the survival of the oceans is chilling. Discarded plastic fishing lines entangle turtles and seabirds, and bits of plastic of all sizes choke and clog the stomachs of animals, from small zooplankton to whales, which confuse it for food. Plastic is now entering all layers of the food chain and is even showing up on our plates with seafood.
Our world can no longer accept throw-away plastics as a society. Our landfills are being filled up with single-use plastics, choking our waterways, and contaminating our oceans. Corporations have been blaming us all for far too long to deal with their own failed design problem. We have been advised that citizens should simply recycle the billions of tons of output from plastic companies and that it will make the required difference to sustain our world.
We were told a lie.
There is no recycling of over 90 percent of plastics. Recycling alone will simply never solve this problem. A radical change in how they deliver goods to people must be faced with the size of the problem companies have developed. It is up to all of us to demand more, to tell these industrial companies that the plastics they impose on us will no longer be accepted. Our planet deserves better and if they fail to adapt, we don't need their goods.
For a lifetime, nothing that is used for a few minutes should end up polluting our oceans. It's time for us to denounce the old corporate story that we are content with a throw-away lifestyle and build a better future.
10 Lines for Speech on Plastic
Plastic is a synthetic substance that is non-bio-degradable.
We use it indiscriminately in almost all day-to-day products.
Environmental contamination comes from plastic accumulation.
Land, rivers and oceans are plagued by its accumulation.
It releases poisonous gases such as nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide upon burning.
It also contributes to the loss of marine life and wildlife.
We ought to use biodegradable materials instead of plastic.
It is compulsory to use advanced incinerators for successful waste disposal.
In the soil, chlorinated plastics emit harmful chemicals that seep into the groundwater and damage us.
If we want to preserve Mother Earth, we should stop using plastic and use only natural biodegradable materials.
FAQs on Speech on Plastic Pollution: A Growing Environmental Threat
1. What are the sources of Plastic Waste?
One major invention that changed the entire manufacturing sector and industries is “Plastic”. It helped in increasing the concept of consumerism as plastic is cheap and has many advantages to use in industries compared to its alternatives. Following are the major sources of plastic:
Most of the plastic debris is found in ocean and land base
They enter the ocean or wastelands from the urban and stormwater runoff from the towns and cities.
Inadequate waste management plans, improper disposal of waste materials also contribute to this issue
Main sources for ocean-based plastic pollution are the fishing industry, aquaculture, naval activity, letting the wastewater from nearby places into the water bodies
When the UV rays, wind and other agents act on the plastics, they remove the plastics and turn them into microplastics which are comparatively much more harmful.
2. What are the impacts of Plastic Waste?
Plastic is a non-biodegradable substance. They either take a lot of time to get degraded or they never get degraded completely. Hence they lead to persistent ill effects on the environment including biotic and abiotic components. Following are some of the effects:
Plastics that persist on the shoreline will ruin the scenery of the beach and damage the revenue obtained from the tourism sector of a place
When plastic is ingested by aquatic animals, they get stuck in the digestive tract and leading to their death or starvation.
Animals can get trapped in the plastic materials like bottles and covers. They can not come out by themselves and thus die due to suffocation and starvation
Plastics can have toxic elements and thus they damage the vital organs of the animals. Sometimes plastics have carcinogenic agents leading to the death of the living being
Chemicals and toxins that are leached from the plastics might contain anti-androgen and other hormones that affect the human reproductive system badly.
The toxins leached from the plastic enter the land, water and other natural resources and pollute them. They turn unfit for human consumption.
3. What are the measures taken to reduce the Pollution caused by Plastic?
Plastic pollution affects not only the finite natural resources but also animals, plants and humans directly. Following are the measures to reduce plastic pollution:
Most of the plastic items we use in our daily life are single-use plastics. Try to trace such items and replace them with reusable alternatives.
20 billion plastic bottles are generated every year and simply tossed after using them. Try to replace them and carry your bottle when you go out
Microbeads are a type of microplastics, they are used in scrubs, cosmetics and many personal hygiene products. They are very minute and cause enormous damage to the animals, especially to the aquatic animals when they are consumed. Try buying products that do not have microbeads.
4. What is the International Agreements made to control Plastic Pollution?
Plastic pollution is a much wider issue and requires a global solution. Any effect of pollution is felt across the geographical area. Hence international cooperation is needed to control plastic pollution. Following are some of the measures and targets taken up to control plastic pollution:
170 countries have decided to reduce plastic usage by 2030. This was done after the UN assembly held at Nairobi.
Initially, an attempt was made to ban single-use plastic by 2025 but this was discarded by many members
Plastic wastes are considered harmful under the Basel Convention and measures were taken to stop dumping them into water resources and targets were fixed accordingly.
5. How are Plastics made?
The use of plastic has changed the entire production process. It has reduced our dependence on paper to some extent and we need to cut down the trees. But excessive dependence and improper waste management mechanisms led to plastic pollution. Plastic is made from oil, natural gas and plants which are processed into ethane and propane. These elements are further treated by applying enormous heat energy to convert them into ethylene and propylene. Several ethylene and other materials are combined to form “polymers”. It is sent into an extruder and then into a pipe after melting. They're made into tubes, cubes after settling them down.
