Don't Break the Rules

Alas, the island in the picture really does exist! Even worse, there are five of them, not found on any maps, but present in oceans. The most famous is the Great Garbage Patch, discovered in the Pacific. It’s a huge accumulation of rubbish of unknown dimensions (some people think that it might even be bigger than the United States!) mostly made of plastic, and it has partly decomposed into a polymer “broth” which is very dangerous for the ecosystem. Growth of consumption, urbanisation and the economic development experienced in the last few decades has led to a dramatic increase in the production of waste and reduced the areas that can be used as dumps.

And waste has changed a lot over the years: it used to be mainly organic and easily broken down (animal carcasses, excrement, pottery fragments, scrap material etc.), but nowadays, we have to deal with plastic packaging, consumer goods (which have a short lifetime!) along with electrical, electronic and toxic waste… But we cannot and must not sweep the dirt any longer under the carpet: the carpets are now all used up! It is crucial that we change our habits and that means everyone doing their own part. But how? Well, by following the 3 Rs Rule – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle –, which you will learn more about it in the next few steps.

Solution
To decompose, a can takes from 20 to 100 years; a plastic bottle from 100 to 1000 years; a newspaper from 4 to 12 months. To build a bicycle takes 800 cans; 27 plastic bottles are needed to make a fleece sweatshirt and 3 shoe boxes for a document folder.