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Mother Earth and its inhabitants are suffering from the effects of man-made pollution. World pollution statistics are staggering and saddening. This list comprises facts about oceanic pollution, air pollution and land pollution. It's important to note that pollution is one of the world's greatest global killers. Pollution affects over 100 million people spread throughout all continents of the world. Herewith 28 shocking facts about pollution. A. Air Pollution 1. China has one of the highest rates of air pollution. 2. Pollution in China changes US weather. Approximately a third of air pollution in San Francisco comes from China. 3. 1 in every 8 deaths that occur in the world is allegedly the result of air pollution. 4. People who live in heavily polluted areas have a 20% higher risk of dying from lung cancer than those who live in less pouted areas.  5. Breathing air for a single day in Beijing is equivalent to smoking 21 cigarettes. 6. Breathing air fo...

We should always find substitutes to plastic products when possible. Make use of the four Rs; ‘Reduce, repair, reuse, recycle’. Before resorting to recycling, we should try to reduce our need for plastics. It is better to reduce, reuse, and repair, if possible, recycling should be the last option. The following guidelines should be followed closely: ·         Take along reusable cotton bags when you go shopping. ·         Use durable items like refillable pens rather than the disposable ones, this is a cheaper option in the long run. ·         Encourage recycling by purchasing recycled products. ·         Use products made of bioplastic which degrade faster than the products made from petroleum-based plastic. ·         Practice buying food in glass or metal containers. ·     ...

A secure landfill is a carefully engineered depression in the ground (or built on top of the ground, resembling a football stadium) into which wastes are put (Foundation, 2003) . This is one of the most unsustainable forms of waste management, especially plastic waste management, as plastic is used in huge amounts just about every day. In sanitary landfills, waste is isolated from the environment until it is safe. Safety is assumed when the waste has completely degraded biologically, chemically, and physically. Modern landfills are structured in a way that restricts the loss of leachate and gases to the surrounding environment. There are many disadvantages accrued to this method of plastic waste management: ·    In poorly designed or operated landfills, it is very difficult to keep dangerous chemicals from leaching into the surrounding environment. ·    Landfills can pollute water, the air, and soil. ·    They could cause diseases and illnesse...

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, marine debris is any persistent solid material that is manufactured or processed and directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, disposed of or abandoned into the marine environment or the Great Lakes. The world’s oceans are clogged with plastic debris, but how much of it lingers into the seas each year? Enough to place the equivalent of five grocery bags filled with plastic thrash on every foot (30 cm) of every nation’s coastline around the globe (Dunham, 2015) . Environmental scientists say China and Indonesia are the top sources of plastic garbage that gets to our oceans, they account for over a third of the plastic bottles, bags and other debris washed out to the seas. China was responsible for the most oceanic plastic pollution per year with an estimated 2.4 million tons, bout 30% of the global total, followed by Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia, Niger...

Plastics are generally engineered to last, but with society’s ever-increasing immersion into sustainability and their focus on protecting the environment, emphasis is now being laid on designing plastics that will degrade faster. Environmentally friendly plastics fall into three categories: 1. Bioplastics : They are made from natural materials like corn and molasses. 2. Biodegradable plastics : They are made from our main petrochemicals, engineered to break down much faster. 3. Eco/Recycled plastics : These are normal plastics made from recycled plastic materials rather than using new petrochemicals. Recycled Plastic Recycling is a feasible solution to the plastic disposal problem – old materials like used bottles recycled into new ones like clothing. Ecoplastic is a new product made from high-molecular polyethylene, it is a replacement for wood, is used in making outdoor benches. Its manufacturers boast of the product’s attractiveness, long life, and cheapness. Lim...

Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials used in a huge, and growing, range of applications (PlasticsEurope, 2015) . In chemistry, plastics are large molecules, called polymers, composed of repeated segments, called monomers, with carbon backbones (Lytle, 2015) . Plastic is readily available and contained in almost everything we touch. Plastic is found in clothes, houses, cars, toys, televisions, computers, and even compact disks (CDs). Also, plastic refers to material’s plasticity/malleability, during manufacture; allowing for casting, pressing, or extrusion. The resultant is a variety of shapes like boxes, bottles, plates, and the like. Types of Plastic Plastic could be categorized into thermoplastics and thermosetting plastics. Thermoplastics refers to the category of plastic that can be heated up to form products, and can be reheated again (melted). New products could then be formed from the melted plastic. Thermoset plast...

Supermarkets have been printing a lot of environmentally friendly statements on their plastic bags for the past years. You get to read stuff like ‘photodegradable’, ‘oxydegradable’ or simply ‘biodegradable’. Such plastics are prone to faster decay in the presence of light, oxygen, and moisture. Unlike bioplastics, biodegradable plastics are made of petrochemical (regular) plastics and do not always break down into innocuous substances as they sometimes leave behind a toxic residue, making them quite undesirable for composting. Biodegradable plastics hold promise, but they are not quite the complete solution. Biodegradable plastics are good but the following are their limitations: ·    During decomposition in the landfills, some biodegradable plastics produce methane gas that adds to the global warming challenge. More so, they don’t always readily decompose and require high temperatures for decomposition to occur. ·    Commercial facilities test biodegradable...