Plastic pollution, it is a major killer in the worlds seas life, with over 30% of turtles worldwide and 90% of seabird species having ingested plastic debris that has contaminated their ecosystem1. One of the major contributors to this pollution is plastic bags. Each day Australians use over 10 million plastic bags, resulting in 4 billion produced every year. "An estimated 2.4 billion beverage containers and 1 billion lightweight plastic shopping bags are used in Queensland every year, ending up in our waterways and killing and maiming our native animals." – ABC News. While plastic bags represent only about 2 per cent of landfill, there is certainly sufficient scientific evidence that plastic bags do present risks to marine life and clog …show more content…
This Act follows the legislation set out by previous Australian states and federal governments that have been pushing for a ban on single-use plastic bags for almost 10 years. South Australia was the first to ban plastic bags from supermarkets in 2009, followed by the ACT in 2010, Northern Territory in 2011 and Tasmania in 2012.3 In 2016, the Queensland Government released a discussion paper on the proposed ban and it won’t be till mid 2018 when the new laws will commence in both Victoria and Western Australia as well as Queensland, with only NSW being without.5 The Act also included the beverage container refund scheme which aims to reduce the amount of plastic bottles, can, etc going to landfill in exchange for a 10-cent refund for each item. Both are set to commence on the 1st of July 2018. Under the Waste Reduction and Recycling Amendment Act 2017, the legislation in Part 3A: Banned plastic shopping bags, section 99A, is regarding the goals of the introduce law. In it it states that: The objects of this part are to: (a) reduce plastic pollution by reducing the number of plastic bags that become waste and enter the environment as litter; and (b) encourage retailers and consumers to— (i) reduce the overall use of carry bags by considering whether it is necessary on every occasion to use a bag to carry goods; and (ii) use alternative shopping
In the National Geographic article “Eight Million Tons of Plastic Dumped in Ocean Every Year”, author Laura Parker expresses how violent the simple act of dumping trash into the ocean really turns out to be. This article goes into depth telling exactly what plastics pollution is causing, where it’s mostly coming from, and what you can do to decrease this problem and help save both our planet and ocean wildlife.
Plastics are light and convenient handling, achieving widespread customer acceptance. In general, plastic packing growths fast and posts significant threats of substitution to cans
The author proves the falsehood of the long known assumption that plastic is a threat to our planet. By citing the research done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the author convinces his readers that not only are plastic bags not harmful as people think, but also beneficial. This surprises his audience and shows them how exaggerated the cries of environmentalists, which gets the readers wondering what else have they falsely believed in and what other information are paper-bags advocates hiding from them, and that pulls them into the argument and intrigues them further. Additionally, Summers lists the harmful consequences of using reusable bags by presenting research results and observations. This alarms the audience and raises concern in their
Many of these issues however, can be addressed and even resolved in several ways. Nowadays, a number of countries have begun to impose taxes on plastic bag consumption, with few even banning the use of plastic
Well first off i'm all for recycling more but making it a law would be going to far in my option. The three tash can idea is to much if you ask me. Food an normal trash should be in one can and recyclables she be in another. If its a law and someone messes up then they get a ticket for putting the wrong thing in the wrong trash can. Because if you have three cans that will probley end up confusing for some poeple, like older men and women.
According to Ocean Crusaders, there is over 100,000 marine animals that die each year because of plastic bags. “Beaked whale species in particular are highly susceptible to swallowing plastic bags as they are believed to strongly resemble their target prey, squid,” Britannica Advocacy for Animals states. Animals do not know what a plastic bag is, and often mistaken them for food. When an animal ingests a plastic bag, the plastic bag will be stuck in the gut for a very long time, sometimes more than 1000 years! Also, food would not be able to go through the intestines anymore and would probable cause the animal to die slowly. Since a plastic bag takes around 1000 years to completely decompose, it means that by the time the animal decomposes, the plastic bag is still not fully decomposed and will be back in the ocean, ready to kill another animal. As you can tell, plastic bags are very harmful to animals, especially marine animals. When plastic bags are banned, there is no chance of it going into the ocean, and many animals will be saved.
Summers’ facts and examples in this article to support his claim that banning plastic bags would be bad. A fact that he uses in his article is that the bill would have prohibited grocery stores and convenience stores at least $2 million in gross annual sales. People often debate that plastic bags hurt the planet and marine life. However, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, plastic bags, sacks, and wraps make up about 1.6 percent of all solid waste materials. Out of that little percent, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bags, the most common plastic grocery bag, only make up about 0.3 percent of them.
In 2013, the Senate disapproved of the law which would ban plastic bags in California. Environmentalist wanted to limit the waste the country produced, so they brought the case to court. This incident caused Adam B. Summers to think about the uses of plastic bags. He thought of various uses plastic bags have and the negative effects a ban on them would cause the California economy. Although his essay consists of only nine bullet points, Summers makes a great argument against banning plastic bags.
The objective of this report is to illustrate the effect of the implementation of a plastic bag tax in Australia. By providing a brief overview of issues, correlated with plastic bag consumption in conjunction with current and proposed changes to policies in Australia. Through the application of economic theory, it can determined whether a tax would decrease consumption and through supporting evidence indicating its efficiency when applied in practice.
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.
Second of all, recycling plastic bags is a huge issue. Customers don’t take out the initiative to recycle plastic bags. Only about one-third of Quebecers recycle plastic bags. Canadians use a huge amount of plastic bags, yet 50% of them are used once then thrown away. If plastic bags were banned, 100% of bags would be reused. Educating the citizens of Canada about recycling plastic bags is inoperative because recycling plastic bags does nothing to help the environment. This is because the market price for recycled bags in Canada is $55 per tonne. The energy and funds required to collect and process plastic bags far exceed the $55 market price after recycling. More resources would be used to recycle plastic bags; making recycled plastic bags more inadequate for the environment.Therefore, using reusable bags is more environmentally friendly.
"Plastic" entered the world through chemistry in 1909 and was originally coined to describe Bakelite, the first fully synthetic resin. What make's plastic so unique is when it is heated it can be molded but it retained its shape when cooled (Reddy, 2010). The modern plastic bag was not possible until the accidental discovery of the first industrially practical method of polyethylene synthesis in 1933. Fast forward to today, the use and
Using these plastic bags are increasing the dangers of thing that are happening in the world.
Where does all the plastic go. Every bit of plastic that has been created is still here. This is because plastic is one-hundred percent non-biodegradable! Even the most degraded plastic down to polymers cannot be digested by bacteria (Laist, 1997). If global issues like starvation and climate change are not enough to stress on, the weight of an issue literally churning in the Pacific Ocean is startling. For decades the majority of the world’s population has not been properly educated on the nature of plastic and the potential harm it can do to our environment and our physical health. Due to factors of man and the natural effects of nature, a major problem has developed that is now harming our food.
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.