People can easily find posters around them that ban the usage of disposable cups in cafes or shops. According to a Ministry of Environment survey, about 26 billion disposable cups are used in Korea annually. Annually, Koreans use more than 600 disposable cups per person on average. In an effort to reduce the amount of plastic waste, the government announced a law that banned using plastic disposable cups in cafes or shops from Aug. 2, 2018. If an owner violates the law, the owner will be fined about 2~5 million won.
  However, many people still don’t know about this new law, and because of the inconvenience, people ignore it and drink coffee in disposable cups at cafes or shops. In addition to the aforementioned law, many other laws are being implemented in regards to the domestic reduction of plastic. For example, the Ministry of Environment is planning to ban using disposable plastic straws step by step. Furthermore, the National Assembly is going to enact a law that prohibits providing free disposable products for takeout. Why is the government trying to reduce the use of plastic?
  According to the Statistics Korea research in 2016, Korea’s annual plastic consumption was 98.2 kilograms per person. Korea surpassed the U.S.A(97.7 kilograms) and has the largest plastic consumption per person in the world. The U.S.A consumes 500 million straws every day, and China has the largest amount of plastic refuse. The notable fact to pay attention to is that plastic consumption per person in Korea is even higher than in the U.S.A or China. This result indicates that the plastic problem in Korea is extremely serious. Now, 300 million tons of plastic waste are dumped throughout the world, and out of all that waste, 13 million tons of it are thrown into the sea. The plastic waste kills 100,000 marine animals every year. A picture of a suffering turtle with a straw stuck in its nostrils has triggered the “plastic zero” movement around the world.
  Plastic, derived from the Greek ‘plastikos’, means ‘suitable to make a mold.’ In other words, plastic is easy to make and transform into a convenient form. In modern times, plastic is considered one of the best materials invented in human history. Plastic is cheap, light, tough, easy to process, and very resistant to decaying, so people use plastic everywhere. Various plastics are being produced, and the usage of plastic is skyrocketing. It is difficult to find a place where plastic is not in use.
  However, the biggest strength of plastic, that it doesn’t decay easily, is now threatening the survival of humanity. Microplastics, which refer to small pieces of plastic smaller than 5mm, are being produced by splitting plastic products or manufacturing them. Microplastics are very small particles that   cannot be filtered by sewage disposal plants, and they flow into seas or rivers. Marine animals mistake the plastic as food, and many animals live in environments that are full of microplastics. Microplastics can cause intestinal obstruction and can cause side effects like stunted growth.  Microplastics are not hurting only marine animals but also land animals and even humans. As a result, plastic came back like a boomerang on humans. Although plastic was a convenient gift that science gave us, people need to reduce their usage of plastic. Otherwise, disaster will follow if the situation continues.
  In an interview with the British journal the Guardian, EU Vice President Frans Timmermans said, “Making plastic takes five seconds, using plastic takes five minutes, and 500 years are needed for plastic to decompose.” Furthermore, he warned that if humans don’t do something, the oceans will have more plastic than fish in 50 years. The opinion of plastic has completely reversed in less than 100 years. The most beautiful invention of mankind has changed into a nuisance. According to UNEP(United Nations Environment Program), more than 30 countries around the world are making an effort to prohibit plastic products. Domestically, in an effort to make a “zero plastic” environment, the government has made plans to reduce the usage of disposable products by 35 percent by 2022. Sometimes, people go to a cafe and later take their remaining drink out in a disposable cup. In the future, people will have to pay a deposit for a disposable cup in this case. In the cases of some foreign countries, the U.S.A. government is trying to ban plastic products step by step, the EU is planning to eliminate plastic disposables by 2021, and New Zealand has banned the usage of straw cotton swabs from 2019.
  Lee Jung-Hyun, Vice President of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement in Jeolla-buk-do, said “The microplastics problem is difficult to solve unless we fundamentally reflect on our lives. If people are not trying to reduce disposable straws and plastic cups as much as they can and if people are not trying to stop the production of plastic bags, plastic will become a disaster, not a gift from God.” Everyone needs to be aware that the Earth is in danger and that nature and the environment are being seriously damaged now. We can no longer afford to be ignorant about our one and only planet.

By Baek Han-na l backna@cbnu.ac.kr