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Externalities of plastic bags
Three effects of plastic pollution on the world
Three effects of plastic pollution on the world
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The debate of whether plastic bags are more beneficial to the environment and our community continues to find little resolution. Although there’s an abundant opposition to the use of plastic bags, the benefits of using plastic bags should be acknowledge. Manufacturing and the usage of plastic bags produce less pollution, require little energy, and is efficient for recycling; therefore, our community should avoid limiting the use of plastic bags because plastic is a valuable material. First, our community should continue to extend the use of plastic bags because they produce less pollution in the environment. The opponents of plastic bags agreed that limiting the production of plastic is beneficial to the environment because they claimed that “...plastic bags don’t biodegrade…”, therefore, the bags “...often (clog) drainage systems (which) contributed to flooding,” (Doc B). Since plastic bags are easily moveable, they regularly get caught in trees, poles, and even drainage systems; however, the EPA noted that “...paper doesn’t degrade all that much faster than plastics,” (Doc F). Despite being criticized for causing damage to the environment, the rate at which plastic bags degrade is similar to that of paper bags; therefore, this shows that if plastic …show more content…
Also, according to the BRC, “...paper (is) more likely to take up landfill space and cause greenhouse gases and pollution rather than plastic bags,” (Doc A). Although plastic materials can become a hazard to the
Using plastic bags were something everyone feels bad using. We use them everyday in some form or another, but we tend to forget the bad that they do. Plastic bags should not be used or allowed in the U.S because it tends to do more harm than good in our society or world.
The article Plastic bags are Good for you, by Katherine Mangu-Ward was written to explore the pro’s and con’s of three different types of bags. Which is better between plastic, paper, or reusable bags has always been a debatable question with an opinionated answer. In the article Mangu-Ward characterizes the cause and effect relationships which have lead to the unpopularity of plastic bags in terms of guilt.
Plastic bags have never been free. Instead, their private cost is incorporated into the price of the purchased products, but this is not the only cost of plastic bags for the consumer (Allan 2002). There is additionally a social cost, a price paid for the impact of the pollution upon the aquatic environment and, ultimately, upon the consumers own health. Of the 3.92 billion plastic bags that Australia consumes annually(Commonwealth of Australia 2016), 80 million enter the litter stream, with 1-3% entering Australian waterways (Allan 2002; Dunn, Caplan & Bosworth 2014). About 35% of aquatic life has ingested plastic, resulting in the human consumption of plastic from seafood and eventually leading to increasing cost of healthcare for the consumer
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
In today’s world, there is enough plastic thrown away each year to circle the world around four times. This is a major global problem that all countries have. Plastic is something we use for a few minutes and throw away. What most people don’t know is these simple plastics actually take centuries to degrade. Take for example a simple plastic bottle, this innocent looking plastic bottle that everyone uses take about 450 years to degrade. As said by Jeb Berrier in the movie BagIT, "Think about it. Why would you make something that you're going to use for a few minutes out of a material that's basically going to last forever, and you're just going to throw it away. What's up with that?".
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
When most people hear the word recycling they think of plastic water bottles, milk jugs, or even old paper that they can reuse, but this is not necessarily the case anymore. Scientists and researchers have discovered a new form of recycling that is going to help better the environment and it can even help make people money! Smokers around the world do not think about recycling their used cigarette butts, but this new form of recycling has changed some of their minds on this subject. Recycling has been a major environmental issue, but most people have forgotten about it or they just do not care for it anymore. Paper recycling dates back to as far as 400 B.C. Some people even say that the early Romans recycled their bronze coins so that they
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
Very few are reused or recycled. One of our most useful modern-day conveniences has become a threat. Plastic bags are environmentally unfriendly in so many ways. They are causing serious issues like soil infertility, environmental pollution and energy consumption. A simple plastic shopping bag carries a very high cost to the environment which is the reason many cities and countries from around the world have already put plastic bag bans in place.
Another reason why plastic bags should be ban is other countries like Australia have already banned them. In May 4 2009, the ban on any light weight plastic bag was ruled and now any stor...
Plastic bags are considered worldwide concerns because of its disadvantages in a long run to the environment. People have tried solving the problem by banning it and yet still it is ineffective. So thus it is not only the concerns of government alone but also each and every individuals responsibility to help tackle the issue if we are to live a healthy environment , and for generations to come, help address issues pertaining to environment, not an individual input but rather a collective effort from all the side to fight against it.
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.
The advantages of paper are it is inexpensive to buy, second it is easy to fabricate and has a lot of uses like plastic bags and inexpensive patio furniture. The disadvantages are it is not biodegradable since it is not biodegradable it makes a large quantities of landwaste, second the production of plastics requires large amount of crude oil as the major ingredient. Increasing the oil prices and difficulity on obtaining oil has meant that the costs of producing plastics have risen. In a study last Feb 2012 that was done by the city government of Illinois showed that 24% most of the time used plastic bags. Also in a pie graph it showed that 31% infrequently used plastic bags and 24% chose to use plastic bags most of the time. 42% infrequently chose paper bags in retail stores and 34% chose to never use paper bags. Therefore I conclude that we should use plastics more than papers but use it properly and wisely should be used. The disadvantages of paper are you are using more tress and the costs it holds every time you cut trees. Therefore I conclude that we should use plastics than paper for the earth to be maintained properly. My recommendation is to have an association for every region to monitor the usage of plastics and if paper is still being used. Also that even though we recommend of using plastics we should still be conscious of how we shall use it. Overall I can say that if we shall use plastics than paper we will
All over the world the debate has been between paper and plastic, but recently there has been the introduction of the reusable bag. This reusable bag is said to eliminate the problems between paper and plastic and be the most environmental friendly compared to both, this would seem to be the most obvious choice when it comes to which bag is the best bag. However, this may not be the case, in fact, using a plastic bag may even be better than a paper or reusable bag in comparison. A plastic bag, unlike the other bag contenders is more energy and cost efficient when it comes to production, it is fundamentally recyclable, and overall just more convenient to have.