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What part should plastics play in our future
What part should plastics play in our future
What part should plastics play in our future
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Convenience. Making life easy. What better way to nourish your body than to remain seated the entire time you go get your food - the magical Drive-Thru. But it’s not really nourishing for your body or the environment. With everything made “disposable” so there’s no fuss with washing dishes, you are left with the simplicity of a complex material: plastic. It is mass produced and sold cheap, yet the cost is unfathomable. Convenience has been more of a hinderance than a help for our culture - more specifically, the American culture. Americans have become an obese and lazy population, our own fault. Plastic is a convenience that has made fast food prices drop; in the interest of the economic equilibrium, with such a high demand for cheap, disposable …show more content…
1945 was the year the 30’x50’ computer, Electrical Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC was created. Modern computers are far smaller - more than ten times smaller for some smartphones, a computer in your pocket - and are encased with a plastic shell around electrical circuits. True, there have been more years without computers than there have been with, however many, if not all, colleges and universities in America require computer access in order to complete assignments. Computers have become essential in our society today, and using something other than plastic for the body seems …show more content…
In case of a lightning storm, it is safer to be in your car - with a metal frame - than to be outside by a tree because the metal acts as a conductor to let the electricity circle around the car rather than enter because the plastic stops the current. Wood also has insulator-like properties because electricity would burn it before it would flow through it, and with gasoline running the engine, it would be dangerous to let the wood burn. Also, plastic would absorb impact in even the most gentle crash, whereas wood is likely to transfer the impact to the nearest object which would be the driver. As someone who drives nearly everywhere I go, I feel safer knowing that my car isn’t going to combust in a storm or kill me in a mild collision. Essentially, anything that is molded into a certain shape has been carved out of stone, wood, and other naturally occurring substances, or it has been molded by manmade plastic. Replacing the aforementioned five things would not be nearly as easy as switching up the following five everyday items: plastic grocery bags, water bottles, leftover containers, eyeglasses, and decorative household
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
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.
Many commodities, that are viewed as purely common, were not even invented as of 1950. Things like the credit card, television set, video recorder, radio transistor, the commercial passenger jet, black box, and so on were in the 1950’s just now being created. According to Weebly.com, “Science and medical technology has advanced a lot over the last 60 years” (Weebly.com). That is completely true, is it not? As stated an anonymous author on Weebly.com, “Things we were just coming out with back then are part of our daily life now; I'm using a computer to give you this information but back then a computer was unexplored technology” (Weebly.com). Moreover, until September 1958 the first integrated circuits, microchips or semiconductors as they are also called, had not been created. This made the first computer 30 tons in mass and take up approximately 2,000 square feet. Not to mention that without the integrated circuit this computer would have been teeming with roughly 18,000 vacuum
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
Americans live in a consumer society where majority of products are packaged ready for use. This is attributed to the availability of disposable merchandise that is favorable and efficient in delivering the various products that are on demand. Among the various favorably consumed packed products is bottled water. It does not however, make sense for people to buy bottled water and throw the container away after they have emptied it. This is because the plastic bottles have a number of defects to the environment as well as to the general welfare of the economy. For example, in 1976 an average American drank 1.6 gallons of bottled water and since then the quantity has increased to an average of 30 gallons whereby a lot of resources are spent importing synthetic fiber in spite of the pollution plastic cans have caused to the environment (Didier 214). The move has had an alarming statistic because some of the chemicals that are contained in the plastic water bottles have been recently proven to be harmful for the human consumption. The two types of chemicals that are particularly harmful are phthalates and biphenyl-A which are used to make the plastic bottles flexible. The use and manufacturing of plastic water bottles has negative consequences for humanity because it has health risks, is damaging to the environment, and is a waste of fossil fuels. Furthermore, there are other more feasible alternatives to bottled water.
Computers are a magnificent feat of technology. They have grown from simple calculators to machines with many functions and abilities. Computers have become so common that almost every home has at least one computer, and schools find them a good source for information and education for their students (Hafner, Katie, unknown). Computers have created new careers and eliminated others and have left a huge impact on our society. The invention of the computer has greatly affected the arts, the business world, and society and history in many different areas, but to understand how great these changes are, it is necessary to take a look at the origins of the computer.
The food we consume everyday touches plastic infinitely, whether it is during the preparation stages, packaging, storage or even just eating the food from a plastic plate. There is no escaping the fact that the food we eat has a huge contact with plastics. However, what does this mean for our food? There is an adverse effect to plastics and their contact with foods, particularly acidic, fatty or salty foods. The chemicals in plastics go through a process called “leaching” or “migration” which leads to transfer of polymer additives, impurities and polymerisation solvents into packaged goods with a consequent risk of toxic hazard to the consumer (Crompton, T. (1979). [book]). In this
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
Leonard shows us how passionate she is about the topic and how she ventured across the world to see how consumerism is affecting not only us, but countries all over the world. She worked hard in her research to show us that the plastic bottle is a concept that can destroy our ecosystems and in return hurt us as individuals.
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.
Everyone has heard a cashier one time or another mumble, “Paper or plastic?” as he put their groceries in a bag, but do shoppers know the effects of each vessel in which they carry their comestibles? There are many issues and benefits to both paper and plastic. The making and recycling of both paper and plastic bags can harm the environment. One must also look at the costs of making each bag. The convenience of each is also something to look at. Many people jump to 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.
Jessica Knoblauch, an author for the Environmental Health News, writes about the toll plastic has on the environment, "the process of creating plastic can produce biological effects in a range of wildlife species, crippling the local ecosystem." All forms of plastic are created using oil. Oils are refined, mixed with poisonous chemicals, and cooked at high temperatures in order to produce items. This process produces toxic byproducts and greenhouse gases, reducing our air quality and can disrupt the
computer. The electronic computer has been around for over a half-century, but its ancestors have been around for 2000 years. However, only in the last 40 years has it changed the American society. From the first wooden abacus to the latest high-speed microprocessor, the computer has changed nearly every aspect of people’s lives for the
Computers have changed the way that the world works in many different ways. Some of these changes are positive and some of these changes have had negative effects on our lives. From an industrial standpoint most of these changes have been helpful to businesses and the economy. In the medical field computers have had an impact in many different areas, ranging from the way appointments are made to the carrying out of everyday tasks.
From classroom activities to space flight and everything in between, computers are a vital part of daily life. Everything we do and every aspect of our life is affected by modern technology like the computers. Computers let us dissect any sort of data. Computers makes us reflect, hence we develop. Because of computers and the Internet, we can talk with individuals from diverse nations, and even see them via webcam. Computers have their weaknesses like they have a negative effect on individuals' health. One of the risky parts of any machine is the screen. Computers make individuals dependent. Computers are hampering individuals' improvement in regular life. We don't read printed books any longer, since we can listen and read on the web. We invest more of a chance talking online than talking face to face. Overuse of machines has numerous negative impacts, for example, creating physical/behavioral sicknesses, harming family connections and diminishing scholarly study.