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Externalities associated with plastic bags consumption
Plastic pollution and its effects on the environment
Plastic pollution and its effects on the environment
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Plastic bags tend to disrupt the environment in a significant but humans are mainly to blame for this. We as humans do not see the destruction that we caused to the environment every time we toss plastic bags onto the bare streets. The plastic bags that we throw away and are not being recycled tend to end up in the oceans or landfills where poor animals happen to eat them. Charging ten cents for plastic bags to decrease CO2 emissions and environmental waste can in fact help the planet by helping stop pollution in the ocean, increasing landfill magnitude and also by diminishing plastic bags production. To begin with, water is a major aspect for all living organisms. Nearly about 96.5 percent of all earth's water is from in the ocean. …show more content…
They also disagree because plastic bags aren't the only things polluting the earth. While this is true and we do take it into consideration, plastic bags are the only substances that can be found all over the earth lands and water, as said in EPA Blog, “When it rains, storm sewers, sewer overflows, and drainage outflows transport litter to rivers which eventually carry the plastic into lakes or oceans where it pollutes water and kills animals.” This is why their argument was a major flaw that they are forgetting because they are not considering the well being of the earth’s atmosphere and all the living organisms. In conclusion, humans need to realize the benefits of recycling plastic bags can do for the environment because with recycling, we can clean up parks, roadsides, parking lots and many more other places that has a massive amount of litter. This will also have an enormous impact on future generations, thus to the fact that we can decrease pollution by just charging ten extra cents for plastic bags. Furthermore, plastic bags are unnecessary because humans can just purchase a reusable bag instead of using toxic
Cities, towns, streets, everything has plastic litter all about and this too has repercussions. Source F tells us that there is a multitude of litter and plastic bags are the most easily spread. Plastic bags are light so they can be blown all about and can get stuck on things such as streets and fences. Since plastic bags are so versatile in their spreading Source B tells us that they can often clog drainage systems causing floods later on. Causing problems for us as humans, a bigger reason why plastic bags should be removed or banned. Generally plastic lying all about can really make an area look horrendous. Source C reports a high amount of plastic items. With all this junk lying about it makes our cities and beaches look dirty and ragged. What better motivation to get of plastic when it hurts us as humans. Plastic bags cause way too much problems compared to their ability to aid
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 &
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
According to a study conducted by the University of British Columbia, approximately “93 percent of beach fulmars (migratory seabirds related to the albatross) had bellies full of plastic, with one even having upwards of “454 pieces of plastic in its stomach” alone. (Source B) Similarly, in a 2011 International Coastal Clean-up, there were 964244 plastic bags found in the ocean, each having the potential to kill wildlife (Source C). A major reason as to why plastic bags are so hazardous to animal health is the fact that they have no biodegradable capabilities, meaning that instead breaking down into organic materials, plastic takes 500 to 1000 years to simply photodegrade, fragmenting into smaller pieces but not presenting any less danger (Source F). As these pieces become smaller, making it easier for any animal life, marine or not, to ingest it and suffocate as a result of the blockage. This is when the implementation of a tax on plastic bags could become extremely useful as a method of regulation and
Plastic water bottles have been the new trend in ECMS lately. But are they worth the costs? No not in my opinion. One time use plastic water bottles should not be allowed at ECMS. Plastic water bottles are unnecessarily expensive, negative to the environment, and not very healthy for our bodies.
Recycling helps protect the environment. Recycling creates sustainable environment. All of the wastes and all of the industrial processes creates air and water pollution. Process of recycling helps to minimize the risks of air and water pollution. It helps to solve the problem of global warming. The waste we produce come in the form of bottles, boxes, cans, refuse, furniture, clothing, paper products, packaging waste, glass, aluminum, plastic, metals and paperboard. It take so many years if we just throw them away to spoil on its own and to destroy. During the disposal process, this waste releases poisonous gases and chemicals into the environment. When the non-biodegradable products in our waste are burned, they often emit gases that deplete the ozone layer in the atmosphere, which in turn allows more ultraviolet radiation to reach our living atmosphere, giving rise to global warming and rising sea levels. Now in this present world global warming is the major issue. Like in the North Pole and South Pole the ice caps are melting. This is just because of the failure of the ozone layer to block the ultraviolet rays coming from the sun. This means we are heading to the age of global warming. We can stop
The bill passed against this prevented cites from banning plastic grocery bags or charging an extra fee for the bags. Many argued that current plastic bags are mostly made from recycled items and that they produced the same harm as paper bags. However, other argued that the excess use of these bags and the impact that they cause to the environment is uncontrollable. Several farmers also argued that their animals were becoming sick because they were exposed to them and would often eat them. Many industries would also be affected by this ban, but if we look at the issue with the environment in perspective, the benefits that would come with a reduction of plastic bags is numerous. These bags are consumed every day, and it would be interesting to see how much less damage and other benefits would come from this practice. There are many cities in Texas where this ban was passed on successfully. For example, in a comparison between Austin where the ban was approved, and some of the requirements are that the bags must contain a minimum percentage of recycled content, and Fort Worth were the ban was disapproved. “Advocates of the policy are supported by a comparison with Fort Worth, which has no plastic bag ordinance and had four times the amount of plastic bags in its litter stream as Austin. The amounts were calculated based on local litter sweeps done earlier this year in each city” (Miller par. 6). This shows the benefits of the ban and how it has impacted the cities environment. Other places are still pending the approval and in the other hand Dallas is one of the places where this ban was
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
There is a current discussion as to whether or not plastic bags in grocery stores should require a fee. This is mostly brought up because of the amount of plastic waste that humans are creating each year is quickly lowering the health of our planet. Between plastic bottles, bags, and various other products, the amount of waste is drastically increasing and humans seem to fail at recycling as well as they should. This leads people to discuss things like bag taxes to try and promote more people to participate in a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Althought there are positive and negative contributions to every argument, this argument is, for the most part, unreasonable. It is more harmful to our society to add a $0.25 bag tax on plastic bags than it is beneficial. Adding a bag tax is not only inconvient for store employees, it is an excessive amount to tax and many low income families will not be able to afford it.
Most importantly, it saves lives. We should all learn the importance of recycling. For example, some sea lions won?t get stuck in plastics if we recycle. We would also breathe better air. We can recycle and aluminum can and put it back on the shelf for something useful. If we just leave it in the landfill, it?ll decompose and it?ll be of no use. It?ll also reduce pollution or else it?ll make a new one.
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. Although plastic bags appear to be fragile and light, their negative environmental effect is devastating. Plastic bags may cause large amounts of pollution at every step of their limited life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials, production, transportation, and recycling or disposal. Plastic bags can be defined as the most damaging form of environmental pollution.
Plastic bags take less money to recycle. On top of that, there are many household uses for plastic bags, more so than for paper, which can rip or become soiled easily. To help with recycling dilemmas, many stores offer recycling bins for plastic bags (McGarth). Plastic bags are sturdier when in use.
Water is the most vital part of life. Water is needed from humans, to plants and other organisms, and to do basically everything. Water allows our bodily functions to work and to remove waste from our bodies. Plants need water to grow, and humans need plants to gr...
It cuts back on global warming. The world is starting to feel the effects of global warming. We should want to do whatever it takes to help our planet (Recycling).
Therefore, recycling can protect natural resources, preserve energy and lessen pollution. If people want to save planet Earth for generations to come, then recycling is necessary. On Debate.org, the question “Should there be mandatory recycling?” was asked and 84 percent said yes, while only 16 percent said no (“Should There Be Mandatory Recycling”). Recycling is very important to the planet and can make a huge difference in so many ways. Recycling is a way of life and once a person has made the choice to follow through with the steps, recycling can become second nature. Every small contribution adds up to how the society shapes the Earth’s future. How will someone make a difference?