As the world celebrates Earth Day on April 22 on the theme of "End Plastic Pollution", events are organized across Iran to mark the global day with a particular focus on plastic bags.
The earth is grappling with the growing issue of plastic pollution that is poisoning oceans and lands as well as threatening the lives of living creatures and humans alike.
The Great Pacific garbage patch that is said to have reached three times the size of France now mostly contains plastic waste. The man-made chemical substance that takes hundreds of years to decompose in nature has even found its way toward the Arctic.
This year's Earth Day is dedicated to providing the information and inspiration needed to fundamentally change human attitude and behavior about plastics, a statement on Earth Day's official website reads.
The network has called on the public to help end plastic pollution by finding out how many plastic items they consume every year and make a pledge to reduce the amount.
Iran a Giant Consumer
Iran is among the giant users of plastic products and immediate measures are needed to manage and reduce their consumption.
As plastic bags are the most excessively used items, the theme of the global day has been adapted to "No to Plastic Bags" in Iran so as to draw attention to the threats the product can pose to the planet, Jamejam Online reported.
There are no precise figures on the amount of plastic used in Iran but some estimates have put the country on the list of the world's top ten consumers.
Other assessments have indicated that each Iranian household uses between five and seven plastic bags on a daily basis, half of which are single-use.
Saeid Motesaddi, former head of human environment at the Department of Environment, lamented the wildly excessive use of plastic disposable items at homes and in parties in Iran.
"Using plastic is sometimes inevitable, but today, we are facing unrestrained consumption of the product," he said.
The expert noted that this chemical does not decompose easily and therefore reduces soil fertility. Besides, the carelessly used and thrown away items can break up into smaller pieces and finally return to our own life cycle.
He said plastic pellets, commonly referred to as nurdles, "often reach seas and oceans, get into the body of marine animals and finally back to humans."
Massive amounts of plastic waste can also contaminate Iran's severely shrinking water and soil resources, he pointed out.
Why Used So Much
People's ignorance of the dangers these chemicals pose and easy access to the products are thought to be the main reasons behind their high consumption.
"In big supermarkets, plastic bags are offered free of charge and small items such as a pack of chewing gum are sold inside free bags," Motesaddi said suggesting that customers should be charged for the bags they use.
He called for government directives to restrict the use of plastic bags.
"State organizations should take the initiative and minimize their consumption and large chain stores should follow suit," he said.
Houman Liaqati, from Shahid Beheshti Institute of Environmental Sciences, agreed that besides awareness-raising campaigns, the use of plastic should become uneconomical for the public.
"Users of plastic should have to pay for the damage they cause to nature by such levies as taxes or fines. This will eventually lead to a change in people's behavior."
There have been moves to keep the use of the substance in check, but they have been insufficient, according to him.
A Global Responsibility
Motesaddi stressed that all inhabitants of the earth should feel responsibility because the plastic items people throw away can end up on the other side of the world.
"Maybe one gram of the 29 kilograms of plastic that was found in the stomach of a dead whale ashore Spain's southern coasts last February was the item that we had released in nature earlier," he said.
DOE recently organized a campaign to encourage people not to dump their rubbish in nature to help contain waste pollution.
It is also devising a bill on waste management and recycling, part of which concerns plastic waste.
