Plastic - Past, Present, and Future

Plastic - Past, Present, and Future

Written by Eun-ju Kim & Illustrated by Ji-won Lee

Category: Bicycler

Summary:

We all know that plastic waste is one of the largest environmental problems of our time. In fact, all of plastic's environmental consequences sometimes make us wonder why humans invented such a material. However, understanding the history and current use of plastic is critical to understanding the future of plastic. Plastic: Past, Present, and Future, illustrates the history, facts, and fascinating truth about plastic. The book covers; The need for plastic, when and how it was developed, how it was used in the past and how it is used now, some of the advantages of using plastic, plastics’ immense environmental implications, and what we can do to save our future. 

Inside of the book, Plastic - Past, Present, and Future

Inside of the book, Plastic - Past, Present, and Future

Discussion points for you and your child::

• Past

  • Analyzing plastic consumption: Go through your child’s belongings, your belongings, and your household items together for a good tally or visual of how much plastic you are consuming as a household.  

• Present  

  • Switching from plastic: Determine which plastic items you might be able to discontinue, which items you can recycle and which items you’d like to find out more about how to reuse, recycle or discontinue.  List out things that you can replace with wood or glass. You can go through room by room each week.

  • Learning and recycling: If your family is already recycling, then great, but if not, start setting up the recycling system and start doing it. There are a lot of recycling resources like the Environmental Protection Agency. Take a look at the website and set up your own system. There’s no need to feel overwhelmed! You can even start from a single category: plastic. 

  • Reuse: You don’t have to throw out all the plastics you have right away. Try to reuse them for as long as you can.  

• Future

Reducing plastic consumption: When you go to the store next time with your child, ask your child to pay attention to what you might normally buy and what new choices you can make to reduce plastic consumption. You may still choose to buy items in plastic containers but this new awareness of the item’s necessity and possible reuse will absolutely make a difference in how you and your child (and possibly the rest of your household as well) consume plastic. 

• Early Activism: If your child enjoys writing, encourage them to write the company that makes the plastic product. Your child can simply write to ask the company to reconsider their use of plastic and consider an alternative. Even if the cost is more expensive for the company,  the long-term benefit for our planet may be worth it. 

Learning biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste: Here is a great educational video for this topic.