Ghanaian Pop musician and TV personality, the African Mermaid AKA Sister Derby, has described plastic as a curse in disguise to the human race.
Interviewed by Akosua Hanson and DJ Kess on the Plastic Recycle Challenge on Y107.9FM’s Y Lounge, she made this assertion and further proved her point.
“I feel like plastic was invented to keep things hygienic, to be able to transport or carry stuff, to store stuff and a whole lot so because it was made for all this, plastic is extremely durable. Now the reason why it’s a problem is that it’s not bio-degradable and what that means is that it doesn’t dissolve or decay into the soil like a human body or anything that has life would”, she explained.
She made the perfect example with how plastic bottles are piled up in gutters, choking the flow of water. She explained that this in turn causes floods as well as creates a breeding area for mosquitoes. In the long run, the people who live close to these plastic choked areas are affected with malaria, cholera and many other diseases.
She quizzed, “When you take a sachet water and tear a little part of the tip to drink, where do you think that tiny bit of sachet goes to?”
Per Sister Derby’s analysis, all those tiny pieces that billions of people tear in Nigeria, Ghana and various parts of the world, could possibly amount to about a trillion or zillion pieces and they all end up in the ocean. This means that almost every fish in the ocean might have swallowed plastic by now and as we consume these fishes, we in turn take in those pieces of plastic which in the long run can cause several health hazards to the human.
Sister Derby encouraged the general public and plastic production companies to go hard on the 3Rs, which are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle so that we can help the environment to in turn help ourselves.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye
