This paper explores the environmental impact of disposable diapers not being as disposable as they seem which take years to decompose. Diapers are not what usually come to individual’s attention when they think of pollution. Disposable diapers are a common item used every day and changed constantly. They make a wide range of our planets landfill and use a great amount of our natural resources. The disposable diaper came in 1950 due to a shortage of cotton. Switching back to cloth diapers may be the solution to the problem. There is some advantage to switching back to cloth diapers which would be much more affordable and use up less resources to produce but the disadvantage is they are not as convenient as disposable diapers. New …show more content…
Diapers are something used every single day and changed constantly. We are wrapping our babies in non-biodegradable garbage. Diaper are used every day in the US even though they are convenient with every advantage there comes a disadvantage. Diapers account for most of the landfill which influences the environment as well as individuals. According to Amber Keeper (2017) The Environmental Protection Agency reports that about 20 billion disposable diapers are dumped in landfills each year, accounting for more than 3.5 million tons of waste. Not only does it have a great effect on the amount of waste it produces they are not as disposable as they seem, and we also need to keep into account the amount of resource it takes to produce them. Amber also includes that, “more than 200,000 trees each year are lost to the manufacture of disposable diapers for babies in the U.S. alone. In addition, it takes 3.4 billion gallons of fuel oil every year to make diapers. What it comes down to is that disposable diapers use 20 times more raw materials, two times more water and three times more energy to make than cloth diapers (Amber, 2017). Diapers are using up our natural …show more content…
Diapers are not what usually come to individual’s minds when they think of pollution therefore we need to get individuals more informed and bring this to their attention. We are wrapping our babies in nonbiodegradable trash. It takes nearly 500 years for diapers to decompose therefore filling up thousands of landfills. One solution to this problem of disposable diapers it to go back to cloth diapers even through there are several drawbacks. Cloth diapers are not as absorbent as disposable diapers which are more comfortable, thinner and more absorbent. An advantage to switching to cloth diapers is it would save you good amount of money, diapers can get pricy one in three American families cannot afford them. With every advantage for example should we be trying to protect our planet from being a landfill there will always be a disadvantage on what is more convenient for
There is also debate on how much better biodegradable plastics are in the first place. This is because as biodegradable plastics break down, they break up into smaller and smaller pieces, but never quite disappear. This leaves the potential that the plastic would continue entering the food chain. But although biodegradable plastics aren’t perfect, they are still much safer than standard plastic and present a much lower risk. In addition, by making the shift to ban single use plastics, research towards better plastic alternatives will speed up and better solutions will become available. Over time, these new alternatives to plastics may spread to other items that aren’t single use, making an even greater impact on the health of humans and the
The environmental impact of making textiles and clothing is damaging to natural resources and is unsustainable. Buying a cotton shirt seems like a good choice to most consumers because its material is produced from a plant. What people don’t know is that cotton is the world’s dirtiest crop due to the heavy use of insecticides and pesticides. “Cotton covers 2.5% of the world's cultivated land yet uses 16% of the world's insecticides, more than any other single major crop” (Organic Trade Association, 2011). In addition to the ground pollution from crop production, coal burning factories and textile mills leach chemicals into the air and water. As Leonard (2007) discusses, the factories being built overseas not only pollute their water, land, and air but pollution also ends up coming back in water and wind currents. Water is contaminated with countless toxic chemicals and used in excess to grow and produce textiles for clothing production. A great example of this abundant waste is that one t-shirt requires 2,700 litres of water to produce. Fast fashion is damaging the environment on a global scale and that is just the beginning of this flawed system.
“Today expect something good to happen to you no matter what occurred yesterday. It can only continue to hurt you if you hold on to it. Let the past go, A simply abundant world awaits”. I don’t really remember a whole bunch about my childhood, but I know my mom would go out and party and never change our diapers. The diapers would be gross and me and my sister would have diaper rash. I wouldn’t even doubt she had a drug party while we were in the apartment she was profound about her drugs. My mom would give us medicine to go to sleep so we couldn’t bother her. I fell down the stairs when I was about one that’s how I got the scar on my right eyebrow. I had to go to the hospital to get stitches I wasn’t bleeding a whole lot.
To begin with, the absorbency aspect of diapers is a major detail when it comes to
In today’s society it is uncommon to see people walking around without water. Those who carry water with them either have their water in a reusable bottle or have bought bottled water. Bottled water is the more commonly found type of water carried around, reason being that it is easy to just buy a huge pack so that a person can just grab a bottle a go. The problem with bottled water is that more often than not, the bottle does not get recycled, but instead gets thrown into the garbage. The problem with this is that the bottles end up in a landfill. However, in this past year alone American’s used “about 50 billion plastic water bottles” (Ban The Bottle, n.d., Para. 4). Most people do not see the big difference between bottled water and tap
Most Americans can easily recognize the popular footwear brand Crocs even if they do not own a pair. With over 50 million pairs are sold annually, this comes as no surprise ("Crocs 2014 Sustainability Report”). However, the majority of American consumers give little to no thought of the entire life cycle of Crocs, but only to their use of the shoes. They do not question what exactly they are made of and what occurs after they are discarded, which can be potentially dangerous. Although Crocs are a popular everyday shoe with high functionality and more eco-friendly than others, the life cycle of Crocs has both negatively and positively altered today’s society socially and ecologically due to the disposal processes, presence of chemicals in
Many believe that recycling will barely impact our environment and many believe that all plastic material is organic and can biodegrade. Those individuals are incorrect, most plastics are not biodegradable and can harm the environment which includes our water sources. Our solution of banning plastic water bottles will benefit the environment by decreasing the amount of pollution in our area and increasing the water quality. It is not just beneficial for our planet but for ourselves as well. When our school community starts using more reusable water bottles that are safer for nature rather than disposable ones, they’ll save money, live healthier, and take part in a movement for global sustainability. Additionally, individuals will no longer have to worry about disposing the bottles in the right
Claudio, Luz. "Waste Couture: Environmental Impact of the Clothing Industry." Environmental Health Perspectives 115.9 (2007): A453-A454. Jstor. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
2. Waste Couture: Environmental Impact of the Clothing Industry. From Environmental Health Perspective, Volume 115, Number 9.
Millions of plastic bags are given out to consumers by supermarkets and stores to carry their goods in. They are also cheap, light, durable, easy to carry and in many cases, free. The most commonly used shopping bag is made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). This type is used in the majority of supermarkets and stores. After these bags are used, they often end up in landfills or as litter, roughly only three percent of plastic bags is actually recycled per year (Planet Ark, 2011). The materials used in making plastic bags make them non-biodegradable. According to the science dictionary, 2011 refers to “these materials cannot be decomposed into environmentally safe waste materials by the action of soil bacteria.” These harmful substances are toxic and take approximately four hundred years to break down, or in this case photo-degrade; which is how plastics made from (HDPE) break down. Since they are not biodegradable, they remain in the environment and are absorbed in soil or water (Indian Centre for Plastics in the Environment, 2010). This essay will discuss the various harmful effects of plastic bags, and demonstrate the risks that these bags impose on humans, animals and the environment. It will also discuss a series of suggested solutions that could help reduce plastic bag usage.
Many people jump to the conclusion that paper bags are better for the environment without knowing the facts. Since plastic bags are preferred by customers and plastic bags actually do not hurt the environment as much as paper ones do, consumers should feel at ease when choosing plastic. Plastic bags are less harmful to the environment than paper bags because it takes more water to make paper bags, it takes more energy to make them, and the resources to make paper bags are limited. The misconception is that only paper can be used.
Do you hate seeing litter on the streets, or seeing and smelling heaps of garbage sitting, and rotting away? Humans recycling more will help to reduce this. We throw many things that can be recycled. Recycling glass, plastics, paper, and metals will reduce solid waste dumped into the ecosystem daily. “96 percent of U.S. plastic, and 50 percent of its paper, goes into landfills. Mexico, not exactly a bastion of environmental awareness, recycles more glass than the U.S.” (Alice Horrigan 1). That’s 96 percent of the millions of tons of plastic, which will outlive most of us in a landfill that we could recycle and keep it out of our landfill. Paper is made from trees, if we recycle it, we can decrease our rate of ugly deforestation and the destruction of animal habitats. When paper gets to the landfill, it is guaranteed to get wet. The wetness and decomposition of paper atracts mold spores, which produce an odor and are potentially bad for your health. Also k...
The article is about “Plastic Bag charged introduced in England”. “Plastic bags used for just a few minutes but take 1000 years to degrade”. Therefore when resources are not used efficiently, market failure arises, which is a situation in which the market does not allocate resources efficiently. Therefore plastic bags are negative externality of consumption, which is when a third party is affected by the consumption of goods and services for which no appropriate compensation is paid.
The United States produces “about 8.25 billion tons of solid wastes each year” (Russell 1). People do not realize the impact they have on our planet and environment. When people throw anything in the trashcan, they are contributing to the destruction of our planet. The number landfills in the United States are decreasing, but the amount and volume of waste being thrown into the new landfills is increasing (Russell 4). Because of this escalating amount of garbage, Methane which contributes to global warming is an outcome of these landfills (Russell 7). As a result, our planet is suffering because of this epidemic. The garbage being put in the landfills could be recycled, but not enough businesses, ...
Wahab and Lawal (2011) assessed the forms, causes and factors incidental to waste and measures to effe...