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Essay on plastic and our environment
Plastic and its effects on the environment
Plastic and its effects on the environment
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Sefidi 4 Yasaman Sefididiznab Professor Margaret Neff ENG-112-44 1 December 2017 Plastic Pollution Products made from plastic are a part of everyday life, and plastics of any kind make our lives easier, and seemingly better. We drink water and juice from plastic bottles, work on our laptop using plastic keyboards, plastic utensil, plastic toys, and plastic bags. Plastic is so cheap that tons of plastics are designed to use just one time. Plastic is made from refined oil, and mixed with poisonous chemicals and cooked at the high temperatures, making it resistant to the earth's traditional methods of decomposition. Plastic can be made in any shape, and color, also it is so strong, and it can carry heavy weights. According to the Environmental …show more content…
When it comes to plastic pollution just remember the six R’s. The first and most important step for taking care of this problem is Rethink. Do I really need to use all these plastic? Research about the products before buying them, and always question ourselves about the product. We need to educate our kids from the early ages about the environment, and wildlife. Next step is Reduce, choose to buy the things that are not plastic. We have many options in store to choose between plastic, glass, and cartoon. Choose the harmless one for your environment. By not buying the plastic product, then corporate won't have good sales, and it makes them think maybe they have to change the material of their product. Next start Reuse, use the things that are reusable. Always take reusable cups to the coffee shops and reusable bags to shopping. Also, clothes, and shoes are full of plastic fibers. Donate them, and make another person happy. Then star Recycle. most cities have recyclable programs this day, but, we are not doing a great job of it. Always check out the number on the bottom of the containers. 3 “Most beverage and liquid cleaner bottles will be number 1 (PET), which is commonly accepted by most curbside recycling companies. Containers marked number 2 (HDPE; 3 typically slightly heavier-duty bottles for milk, juice, and laundry detergent) and number five (PP; plastic …show more content…
Plastic makes our lives easier, but they will make more difficult through the damage, they cause to our air quality, soil, and water. We need to change our habit of using the plastic and be part of the solution to make this world better place.
Work cited Russo, Daniella. 5 "Eliminating Disposable Plastic Will Decrease Waste." Garbage and Recycling, edited by Margaret Haerens, Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Fight Plastic Pollution." New York Times, 31 July 2017, p. NA(L). Opposing Viewpoints in Barry, Carolyn “Plastic Breaks Down in Ocean, After All — And Fast.” National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 20 Aug 2009.
Amaral, Kimberly. "Plastics in Our Oceans." Plastics in Our Oceans. 6 N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013 Make A Difference Day.” Make a Difference Day. n.d. National Day of Doing Good. Web. 3 June
Society is highly dependent on plastic. Unfortunately, eight tonnes of plastic are thrown away every year and most ends up in the ocean. The short documentary “A Plastic Tide” looks at various places throughout the world whose beaches are littered with plastic. Mumbai, India is one of the first places the documentary focuses on. They refer to the beach as a “plastic graveyard” because there is plastic everywhere causing almost no sand to be seen. Afroz Shah began the world’s biggest beach clean and inspired community members to take action. The documentary makes sure to point out that plastic is not the problem. While plastic may be convenient for us, it is not good for marine life. It is single-use plastic that is causing the most harm. Single-use plastics are discarded within the year and only about 5% of it is effectively recycled.
Which means their obviously bad for the aquatic marine life environment & are cause many different forms of damage for them & us as one. On p.g. 23 of The New York Times upfront magazine “Birds,fish, sea turtles, & others are getting tangled in plastic bags or mistake them for food & choke”. Someone else might argue that they could the plastic bags in landfills instead of oceans. But that counter- argument is flawed because you’re just polluting by burning plastic which is bad on our part we’re not doing our part to support & taking care of the earth. Plastic in the ocean isn't just bad for plants & animals but for humans too because of the food chain some of us eat animals as a meat source such as aqua marine life like fish. If the fishermen catch fish that have been eating plastic then it's in our food supply if we eat that fish it's gonna be bad for us so many will end up getting sick from the plastic inside of the fish then what will we do our aqua marine food supply will go down the drain we couldn’t eat the fish since it's basically contaminated with plastic that we’re dumping there instead of trying to fix it & getting rid of plastic bags for good for the good of the earth. We’re causing damage towards the earth by dumping all that plastic into the ocean which damages our water supply it’ll poison us although we clean the water it depends on how big the plastic particles are, it’ll make us sick & sense it’s been lying in the oceans could bring in new pathogens &
M., Gutierrez…). This is something that the Marine Debris Program is looking to eliminate. By removing the plastic from the water, and preventing it from leaking its chemicals, the eating of the plastic in general, and the prospect of these plastics being breeding grounds for dangerous pathogens, the marine environment would be safer for animals and humans alike. So, it is clear, the removal of this harmful debris, specifically plastic is something that must be done through this Citizen Science
Plastic bags are useful tools to use and have other benefits as well. This is a statement that is up for debate. Many people disagree with the statement that plastic bags are useful. The question is whether or not that is true. American stores offer both plastic and reusable bags, but when customers go through a line and say he or she wants a plastic bag, he or she might get a disgusted look. For most stores plastic bags are now frowned upon. The stores want their customer to use the reusable bags that the store offers them to purchase. Throughout the article Plastic Bags Are good for You, Mangu Ward goes back a forth of weather or not the bags are good. Mangu-Ward explains the cause and effects of which plastic and reusable bags have based
Every year, an estimated 8 million tons of plastic waste enters our environment, severely polluting oceans, beaches, forests, and even the towns and cities we live in. In the ocean alone, it is believed that 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic pollutes the waters (“Plastic Statistics”, Ocean Crusaders).The majority of plastic pollution can be traced back to single-use items, such as grocery bags, bottles, and plastic packaging. According to United Nations Environment, “At the rate we are dumping items such as plastic bottles, bags and cups after a single use, by 2050 oceans will carry more plastic than fish…” (“UN Declares War on Ocean Plastic”, UN Environment). This pollution is a major problem and endangers not only the environment, but human
Most of the necessities humans need are provided in supermarkets, in fact supermarkets have become a necessity for our everyday life. They are now the main source of water, food, clothes and everyday tools. Therefore, the plastic bags demanded and supplied in this industry increase every day. In the past decade, we produced as much plastic as we did in the whole twentieth century (Freinkel, 2011). This exponential increase of a non-biodegradable material has negatively impacted our environment immensely. Plastic production requires our dwindling fossil fuel resources, robs away animal lives, litters our beautiful landscapes and even affects our very own well-being. Hence, if plastic production doesn’t diminish immediately, we will suffer great
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/plastics.html “Ocean Plastic Pollution” Biomass Packaging Company NP web 16 April 2014 http://bomasspachaging.com/education/ocean-plastic-pollution The “Plastic Trash Vortex” National Geographic. NP Web. 16 April 2014. http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-grabage-patch/?ar_a=1.
Many plastic products such as plastic water bottles and plastic grocery bags are poorly disposed and end up in our water system. Plastic affects our water by releasing harmful chemicals into the soil, which can later on seep into our groundwater and other water sources. Most plastic is not easily biodegradable. The plastic in our oceans annually take the lives of one million seabirds and 50 thousand marine mammals. If we keep on disposing our plastics carelessly, by 2050, there will be more plastic in our water than there will be fish. Since water is key to life, we do not want it to be badly affected. Every year, the plastic that gets thrown away is enough to circle around the world four times! To improve our watershed we can encourage people to recycle more and ban certain harmful waste
The world population is living, working, and vacationing along the coasts. They are contributing to an unprecedented tide of plastic waste. Pollution is defined as the process that alters a substance or molecule on planet earth, the pollution is caused by the physical contact of an organic decaying particle with a clean particle in the same spot, at the time the two particles join together is when occurs pollution in which the environment is greatly altered. Too many, plastic is a modern day miracle, versatile, inexpensive and durable (Rochman 2014). To others, it is a scourge, a non-degradable pollutant that threatens to choke the global environment. Plastic pollution has led to the deaths of many animals, natural resources, and people (Rochman 2014). It is time to change America’s thinking and to learn from past mistakes.
Using plastic bags are second nature to people in this day and age. Warner acknowledges, “Much to the dismay of the environmentally conscious citizens worldwide, the ubiquity of the free plastic carryout bag has bred nonchalant consumers who take this modern convenience for granted” (646). Although some people are conscious about the environment, people strive more for convenience and do not think about the impacts using bags have not only on the environment, but on themselves as well. If something is bad for the environment, it will alternatively be bad for humans as well. When plastic bags are exposed to the sun from being littered all around, the ultraviolet rays cause the substances of plastic bags to weaken. After the substances weaken, the substances become invisible to the naked eye. The substances that are no longer able to be seen are toxic to humans (Warner 649). As a result of plastic bags being littered around, animals consume plastic bags. This is negatively affects humans because animals are often consumed. When humans consume animals like, fish, there can be plastic in the fish’s belly, which then transfers to the humans and this poses a concern for human’s health. Humans are negatively affected by plastic bags because of the toxic chemicals in plastic bags, as well as, consuming animals with plastic in their
Being convenient enough for everyday use and even tasting better to some, plastic bottles are a popular way of consuming beverages. They are convenient and to some people, can even taste better. However, the process of manufacturing and transporting the millions of bottles produced is detrimental to the environment. Continued use of plastic bottles could exponentially hurt the planet.
Research from the University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography said that species in the ocean consume a projected 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic every year in the Pacific Ocean (Nall, 2014). Pollution of recyclable materials in the oceans is one of the leading causes of why some marine species are nearing extinction. Many authors of articles and books analyzing this topic tend to agree that pollution of our oceans is a problem. The future of this problem is where their ideas tend to differ. The following four literature reviews attempt to demonstrate and support my belief that pollution is getting worse in the ocean and more marine life ecosystems are being affected, but there are things that we as humans can do
The methodology adopted in this paper was the following. First, the composition and the life cycle of plastics were briefly discussed. Second, the benefits from plastics were elucidated and their inevitability in India established. Third, the ecological harms and health hazards caused by plastics were elaborated. Fourth, the viability of command-and-control measures for addressing these harms and hazards was 21 investigated. Finally, the competence of market-based solutions in this regard was
Plastics have revolutionized the way we do business, the way we move from place to place, and the way we imagine our world. Devices like cellular phones, laptops, syringes, cars and credit cards all use plastic in their manufacture and were not uneconomical or in some cases physically impossible to make without this malleable substance. Plastic manufacturing varies by product.
In the 1870’s, plastic was discovered in the United States when John Wesley Hyatt was trying to create a different material to make billiard balls (Manrich, 3). Little did he know it would majorly evolve into material we use everyday. However, plastics are now taking over our landfills. The average American throws away one-hundred and eighty-five pounds of plastic a year (Popescu, 121). The answer to decrease this statistic is easy: recycling. I believe that recycling will help eliminate littering and the growth of landfills, while also creating jobs for the unemployed. Not only does recycling plastic help eliminate littering, but also reuses the plastic so there is not a production of additional unneeded plastics. The