Environmental Effects Of Plastic Bags

It has a direct and deadly effect on wildlife. Plastic debris, laced with chemicals is often ingested by marine animals and can injure or poison wildlife. Cattle and other animals are ingesting it, a substance that doesn’t break down, piling up within them. Thousands of marine mammals are killed after ingesting plastic mistaking it for food or getting caught in it. The marine animals mainly affected are: sea turtles, ingesting plastic; seals and sea lions, entangled in packaging; seabirds like the Laysan albatross, ingesting plastic; fish, consume and breath plastic; also whales and dolphins, consume 31% of the marine plastic

Today, Americans are worried about the effects plastic bag impact the environment. In the dispute between the Gulftowne Gazette Committe and gift shop owner Theo Jones, the Gulftowne Ordinance Committee provides a stronger argument for it point that plastic bags litter our landscape and threatening surrounding wildlife. As the Gulftowne Ordinance Committee points out cities across the country and globe have banned the use of plastic bag.

Plastic bags users have long received backlash and criticism from the majority of public, seeing as it is a known fact that plastic is harmful to the environment and the planet, but is this actually true?

What are the main problems associated with using plastic bags? Identify solutions to reduce these problems.

Every year, millions of tons of plastic are tossed into the ocean, harming all types of marine animals as well as the environment. Hundreds of marine mammals like whales and dolphins are found washed ashore filled with bottle caps, plastic bags and basically anything they can swallow. Not only does plastic pollution harm marine life, but it affects the entire ecosystem. If a predator is dependent on a certain species for prey and the predator has a role in the environment, it is important for the prey to not be disturbed by pollution. If that species of prey were to go extinct, then the predator species could be seriously impacted as a result. These problems warrant the need for more research into the magnitude and causes of plastic

Plastic bags begin as crude oil, natural gases, or other petrochemical derivatives. By some estimates almost 12 million barrels of petroleum oil are used to make 100 billion plastic bags. One solution is to stop using plastic bags. Plastic bag bans are spreading across the country with over 100 community bag bans across 16 states. Hawaii right now is the only state in the nation to adopt a full statewide ban. Internationally,19 countries from Bangladesh to Ireland have passed bans. Reducing plastic bag usage and shoppers to use reusable bags will help decrease our demand for a new fossil fuel and reduce our environmental impact. As a nation we need to begin to move away from the concepts of single use and waste. Plastic is made from oil.

Australians approximately use 6.9 billion plastic bags per year (Errata Nolan ITU, 2002). The high consumption of plastic bags highlights one outstanding issue. The adverse impact, consumption and disposal of plastic bags have towards the environment. This involves the resources used to make

- Plastic storage bags can kill animals in the oceans like dolphins, turtles and whales. It is easy for wildlife to swallow and eventually causes death.

As the United States deals with the overwhelming amounts of waste building up, Nitin et al explain that “plastics take anywhere from 15 to 1000 years to biodegrade” once they are discarded (Nitin). Changes in recycling methods can no longer keep up with the exorbitant amount of waste produced in the United States. This is why some states choose to take their initiative one step further by placing either fees or a ban on the use of plastic bags. Due to the enormous waste the United States produces on a daily basis and the negative outcomes of this trash including adverse health effects, harmful impacts on nature, and the exponential piling of trash in landfills, the US government should ban plastic bags.

Throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s, there were as many as 10 other plastic grocery bag designs available, including a flat-bottomed one that could stand on its own. But by 1984 the T-shirt bag was the only style in use. Plastic bags didn 't become cheaper than paper bags until the early 1980s when Windmoeller and Holscher introduced a machine that produced 500 bags a minute and Mobil Chemical challenged Celloplast 's patent the T-shirt bag--and won. In 1982, plastic bags had eight percent of the sack market. According to the Food Marketing Institute, today, 96 percent of U.S. groceries use plastic bags, and seven percent offer only plastic, (The Environmental Magazine, Koontz Tracy) Throughout the history of the United States, plastic bags have served in supermarkets or grocery stores for the half of century. It built the base of the systems of transporting goods, products, food and so on.

Mangu-Ward discusses the rise and fall of plastic bags in her article, Plastic bags are good for you: what prohibitionists get wrong about one of modernity's greatest inventions. In the 1960s, the invention of the plastic bag began to spread to supermarkets around the world. Plastics bags were cheaper and lighter than paper bags. At the same time, they were also durable and very useful. The plastic bags were a very important invention that helped change the way people shop. It wasn’t long, however, that people began to realize the environmental impact of plastic bags. The plastic bag was soon replaced by the reusable bag and many cities began taxing or even banning plastic bags. Fears over the environment resulted in the downfall of the plastic bag. Mangu-Ward’s article is an example of People making emotional discussions instead of logical discussions.

Picture this: A person goes out to the store to purchase a couple of necesites. Those necesites then get put into a plastic bag as per usual. They get home and take everything out of the bag. They then trash the bag because it is no longer needed. The plastic bag then ends up in some landfill where it is blown away into the middle of the ocean. The plastic bag then goes on to danger the marine animals. Plastic bags should be banned from stores because there are other ways people can carry their things, they are dangerous to marine animals, and cause pollution.

Introduction: Have you ever wanted to help the environment, but you just didn’t know how? When we go shopping we see a lot of people carrying bags made of plastic. I must admit; plastic bags can be very convenient at times, but the use of plastic bags has it disadvantages. If you knew about the dangers of the use of plastic bags, then I'm sure you will think twice about using plastic bags and use tote bags instead.

When analyzing both paper and plastic bags across these cycles, paper and plastic will both consume energy (renewable and non-renewable) and produce pollutants. This LCA will determine the more environmentally friendly choice.

Five hundred billion used globally and one hundred billion of them end up in U.S. landfills, taking about one thousand years to decompose, but only 5.2 percent were recycled (Borrud, 2007, p.75).-These are the figures plastic bags have produced every year. Human beings invented plastic bags for the convenience of carriers and packers. However, just as other great inventions, say, nuclear energy and biotechnology, plastic bags are causing serious issues like global warming, environment pollution and energy consumption. They are gradually becoming sword towards ourselves. In responding to this problem, the city of San Francisco has become the trail blazer to prohibit non-biodegradable plastic bags in its large supermarkets and pharmacies.