Plastic Problems Fixed: Portable Water Purifier

The problem of plastic waste in Ghana is reaching severe proportions that go beyond the country and impacting the world. In fact, Cindy Badu, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Acting Director of Built Environment recently cautioned that if the issue with plastic pollution isn’t addressed, the sea will have more plastic in it than fish in the future.

Ghana’s Plastic Problem and Beyond

Ghana has a large amount of raw plastic imported into the country annually, often for single-use plastic food wrappers and plastic bags to carry the food. This large amount is over 2 million metric tonnes, and a vast majority of it ends up as part of the problem. Only 19 percent is re-used, and less than .1 percent of the waste is recycled. A whopping 73 percent is tossed out and ends up in the environment. Ghana isn’t alone in this massive amount of plastic. The world produces more than 300 million tons of plastic every year, including billions of plastic bottles. Many products are packaged or bottled in plastic because of its durability, but it is exactly that characteristic that makes plastic such a dangerous threat to our environment. More than three hundred million tons of plastic will be produced this year with more than half of it being thrown out after a single-use. Only a fraction of the plastic produced today is actually recycled while the rest ends up polluting our environment, spreading through our land and oceans like a virus. Migratory seabirds have helped scientists further understand the destruction caused by the world’s addiction to plastic. A countless number of birds have been found with gut-fulls of plastic collected from all over the world, ranging from all kinds of sizes, shapes, and colors. Plastic can make up to 15% of a birds body mass. Translated in human terms, this would be equivalent to us carrying up to 8 pounds of plastic in our guts.

Finding Solutions

There have been many thoughts on how to reduce plastic waste to prevent this dire situation from happening. In some places like the UK and the United States, there have been bans or taxes placed on plastic products. For instance, in some areas, plastic grocery bags are no longer allowed to be used, or there has to be a fee for the bags to encourage people to use reusable shopping bags. More places are also focusing on recycling, and are initiating recycling programs. Often, in order for these solutions to be successful, they require people to be interested in being involved with the effort in the first place.

One of the ways that people are embracing is reusable water bottles. Brands like S’well, Mira, Hydroflask and Simple Modern offer stylish and eco-friendly chemical-free water bottles that can be used over and over. They are a great alternative to single-use plastic water bottles embraced by many. One of the major problems faced by the reusable bottles users is access to clean water. How do they ensure they fill their bottles with a trusted source of water? How do they ensure water safety? And not to mention they have to make sure to keep their bottles clean so mold and bacteria do not grow in them. Due to some of these challenging issues, people are still reaching for single-use plastic water bottles.

Microlyscs CrazyCap Sterilization Solution

Never worry about whether or not your favorite reusable cola-style bottle is clean by using the Microlyscs CrazyCap. The CrazyCap is a replacement cap that provides portable sterilization for your water bottle. CrazyCap also comes as a whole unit i.e., with the bottle, in case you don’t have a compatible bottle. CrazyCap’s technology works by using UV sterilization that will kill 99.99% of viruses and 99.9999% of mold and bacteria living in the water bottle. One charge can keep the CrazyCap going for up to about 30 days. The Auto-clean feature will cycle every 4 hours to keep the bottle continually sterilized. There is also a feature that allows you to activate the sterilization process at any time, which is perfect for camping or travel.

The plastic problem plaquing Ghana and the rest of the world needs solutions. Reducing the amount of plastic being used and thrown away by encouraging the use of reusable water bottles is one solution that can help reduce the use of single-use plastics. CrazyCap by Microlyscs works with many of the popular brands to ensure these water bottles remain hygienic and people continue wanting to use them. We believe if more people understood what the actual price we all pay when reaching for a single-use plastic bottled water is then more people will gravitate towards cleaner, healthier, more efficient ways to find clean water.