Can Science Break its Plastic Addiction?
Starting in the early 2000s, Lucy Gilliam started to become more involved with the use of plastic within her labs as a molecular microbiologist. Her research towards a more environmentally-safe plastic usage lead to a worldwide discussion on how to reduce the amount of plastic used within a lab. With the many disposable dishes, gloves, pipettes, tubes, and vials, labs could be responsible for almost 5.5 million tons of plastic waste within the world (about 83%). These studies compelled universities like University of Leeds to go "single-use-plastic-free" by 2023. These efforts to reduce the amount of waste that the sciences are creating is a big step in helping the environment become safer. Universities are also creating a "decontamination station" within their labs in order to use more glass and reusable plastic ware to sterilize and create less waste. Although this isn't a large component in the degradation of the environment, it is still helping to reverse the negative effects that are occurring right now.
I really liked this article because it shows that environmental issues stem far past just car emissions and what we do at home. Everything we do in our lives is affecting the way our environment will progress. I think this article shows that even people doing research in science fields in order to make the world better are negatively affecting the environment themselves, without even knowing it.
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I really liked this article because it shows that environmental issues stem far past just car emissions and what we do at home. Everything we do in our lives is affecting the way our environment will progress. I think this article shows that even people doing research in science fields in order to make the world better are negatively affecting the environment themselves, without even knowing it.
Click this link for the article :)
We, the general public, often just assume that because someone is a scientist that they are smart or environmentally safe, but in reality, that is not the case. Scientists often use chemicals or do experiments that are not the most environmentally friendly and they could cause more bad than good. I think with the widely accepted fact that plastic is a bad idea and the idea of reusable materials, that we will be experiencing changes on wider scales. Encouraging larger corporations or even just the health field to be more eco-friendly with their tools or equipment could help the future of our people.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting as some scientists are attempting to help the environment through their research but are possibly hurting it in the process.
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