Stop Using Styrofoam to Help Our Environment
Styrofoam is something that makes our life become easier. There are a lot of products that use Styrofoam as the packaging as it is easy to use and also lightweight. Because of its light-weight, it brings an opportunity for people who want to send some products to their relatives or other people without needing to pay an extra fee since the total weight of the products will almost the same as the actual weight of the product. But not all people know that actually Styrofoam bring a lot of harms, not only to our body but also to the other living things and the environment.
“In 2014, the National Research Council in the US reviewed the evidence and concluded that styrene is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen”
Nowadays, a lot of people use Styrofoam in their life. Styrofoam itself is made from polystyrene, and polystyrene is petroleum-based plastic. Polystyrene is made from styrene, where styrene is known as a carcinogen for the human body. As all of us know, there are a lot of foods that use Styrofoam as the container, and usually, people re-heat the food along with the Styrofoam container. For example, instant noodles in the cup. If we see it carefully, we can see that the cup is made from Styrofoam, and we usually brew the noodle inside the cup directly. This will make the styrene contaminate the foods and it will bring harm to the human body since it can absorb into the human bloodstream and tissues.
Other than bringing harm to humans, Styrofoam also can bring harm to other living things and to the environment. To other living things, since Styrofoam is a type of material that is easy to break, many animals usually choke by its small parts, and it is very dangerous because Styrofoam is not something edible for living things. As we know, something that is made of polystyrene will need a long time to return to Earth. In other words, Styrofoam is included as a non-biodegradable thing. Furthermore, in the water, usually, Styrofoam will float on top which affects the water pollution. According to the EPA, Americans trash approximately 25 billion Styrofoam cups and take-out containers every year. If this continued, then our environment will become more and more unhealthy.
“The National Bureau of Standards Center for Fire Research has found 57 chemical byproducts released during the creation of Styrofoam.”
Since chemical-byproducts are released during the creation of Styrofoam, it means that the process of creating Styrofoam also affects the earth. One of the chemical products that is released is Hydrofluorocarbons. This Hydrofluorocarbons will directly end up in the air, and consume the ozone layer of the earth. The consumption of the ozone layer will cause exposure to carcinogenic rays in humans. In the end, it affected the earth and also humans.
In conclusion, all of us need to stop using Styrofoam, especially for food because it has a lot of negative impacts on our bodies, other living things, and also the environment. We can change the Styrofoam packaging to using other materials that are more environmentally friendly. For example, polylactic acid-lined paper and molded fiber packaging. By doing this, it will minimize the negative impacts of Styrofoam on this earth.
Syren, Fredrika. ”Why Styrofoam Is So Bad for the Environment” The Zero Waste Family, February 27, 2018.
https://zerowastefamily.com/styrofoam-bad-environment
Rubbish, Paul’s. “Why Styrofoam is Bad For the Environment” August 1, 2019.
https://www.paulsrubbish.com.au/why-styrofoam-is-bad-for-environment/
Danver, Amelia. “Is Styrofoam Toxic to Humans?” January 6, 2022.
