Junkyard Planet Travels In The Billion Dollar Trash Trade Summary

Each year there is an increase in demands for plastic bags, and therefore more are shipped, creating further environmental pollution concerns. This increase in demand has lead to the phenomenal upsurge in the use and misuse of plastic bags globally, both in developed and developing countries. Statistics show that 4 to 5 trillion plastic bags are produced per annum, whereby North America and Western Europe account for nearly 80% (Geographical, 2005; Reusable Bags, 2005). Cheeseman (2007) states that approximately “380 billion plastic shopping bags are used in the United States annually”; in turn, only 0.6% of this is recycled.

In order to get actively involved in preventing the Pacific Trash Vortex from getting even bigger people need to focus on using as little plastic products as possible and refrain from buying plastic products when they are not in need of such objects. "The best thing you can do to stop the growth of these monsters is use cloth bags, reuse and recycle plastic bags when you do end up with them, limit your purchase of new plastic products and use alternatives when available, and of course recycle any other plastic that ends up in your possession." (Hren & Hren 45) The world is thus in a critical condition as many fail to understand the degree to which their actions have a negative effect on the environment.

Americans have yet to face the unnerving reality of the fact that “in 2008 only 7.1% of the 30.05 million tons of plastic waste in America was recycled” (Linn). This low percentage is shocking, outrageous, and should terrify the American public, but this number can change. Recycling is not just a feel good experience; it is a way to help save energy, space, and money. However, with the enormous amount of trash being thrown out each year, landfills are increasing in size creating numerous issues. The staggering amount of waste increases greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming and building up dangerous toxins that sink underground into our soil and water, overflows into wildlife habitats and oceans, and costs a large amount of money to remove. By fining residents who incorrectly dispose of recyclable goods, implementing recycling as a requirement in educational institutions and other business and residential settings, categorizing the

America’s waste production is one of the highest in the world, with less than 27% of all its waste produced is actually recycled. The United States has lenient waste and littering laws, making landfills much fuller than what they would be if the laws were stricter. America also places little to no reward on recycling; those who recycle more often than not pay a fee making it more of a hassle. The U.S. is one of the biggest contributors to waste production in the world, in turn the least green of all countries. “Citizens and government alike in China are taking steps to encourage recycling; this has also become a profit machine” (Norleen). The Chinese have a system where one is able to turn in recyclables and therefore are paid for waste collected. China isn’t the only country others have also started this system and some even have integrated tax reductions. In Japan, one is able to pay for a beverage or a parking meter with recyclable items such as

The average American creates about one hundred-thirty pounds of trash a month, and an article in the journal Nature estimates that global solid-waste generation will triple, to eleven million tons a day, by the year 2100 (Semuels). Plastic does not break down; it’s not biodegradable nor does it

Plastic is in every part of modern day life. Today’s civilizations use it for everything from cleaning products to storage to safety equipment. Plastic has effectively become part of everyday life. It’s able to be used and discarded quickly, and often after it is tossed into the trash can it is forgotten. After it is thrown away, it may end up in one of two places, the local landfill or the oceans, where approximately fifteen to forty percent of plastics end up.

take up space and hurt communities. The large-scale consumers of plastic are the citizens of

In the world today, not a single of us can truly say that we don’t at lest come in contact with plastic. They are everywhere, in our cars, carpets, food, and virtually every other product we consume; it has becomes a globalization needs that we can’t run away from. As according to the National oceanic and atmospheric administration (NOAA) state the approximately 1.4 billion pounds of trash enters the ocean per year. Most of it get washed up on the beaches by waves and tides, some of it sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor, some got eaten up by marine animals mistaking it for food. Ultimately plastic pollution is a man made catastrophe, as soon as it enter the Oceans it is causing harm to the ecosystems and environment, as wells as affecting

About 299 million tons of plastic were made in 2013 (Lytle). Plastic waste gained popularity when animals begin to die do to mistaking plastic for food (Lytle). Plastic also causes drains to be clogged and then flooding issues. (Moore) “Global plastic consumption has gone from 5.5 million tons in the 1950s to 110 million tons in 2009,” (Lytle). The overuse of plastic is still important today because plastic is causing many global issues such as draining floodage, animal deaths, and pollution (banthebottle.com). Experts, like Renee Cho, say that plastic is “slowly taking over the country.” (Artwohl). Plastic waste affects the word in many ways. Americans should help decrease this issue by using less plastic

Plastics of the 20th century should consider the health of the environment. Over the past 153 years http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/14/fsummit.climate.plasticbags/ of producing plastics there is an evident impact of the environment. The Earth’s ocean has 5.25 trillion pieces, which is equivalent to 269,000 tons floating on the surface. Some of plastic is as small as 1cm2; this makes this every difficult to reverse the already existing impact of humans. This large scale disaster also affects the wildlife. 100,000 marine animals and 1 million birds have to suffer the consequence of plastic pollution every year. Globally a million single-use plastic bags are used every minute, this number is also increasing. http://oceancrusaders.org/plastic-crusades/plastic-statistics/

At the point of production lower income communities are the ones living in neighbourhoods surrounding the plants and so they are the ones affected most by the emissions that are produced making plastic products. At the point of use lower income people are the ones most affected by the use of cheap plastics that leak poisons into their foods. They do not have the privilege to choose BPA free. This creates sickness in their communities and hinders their ability to better themselves and move to higher income levels. At the point of disposal those in the developing countries are the bearer of the health risks associated with plastics. Our wastes travel over oceans to developing countries to be burned filling the air in that area with toxins released from the plastics as well as the toxins leaked into their soil in which they grow their food and their water(Van Jones,

Plastic pollution is something that has plagued the world for decades, but no one has been able to figure out a viable solution for it, until now. Chãoyùe ping has a solution that first starts out locally, then globally. We are going to create youth groups using fundraisers, and send them out to China to clean beach shores of all of the filth created by big name companies who care nothing of their impact on the environment. The youth groups will also travel by boat out to China’s oceans and drag massive nets through the water to capture as much trash as possible. Many say that Chãoyùe ping can’t complete such a strenuous task, but we know we can. With the help of the community, and the goal to have a better tomorrow for everyone we can achieve any task. Plastic Pollution can be reduced drastically, but the only way we can do that is by we holding those accountable for their contribution to destroying our environment, and getting together as a community and cleaning up our beaches.

“The affluent, fast-paced, throwaway American culture is producing trash on a stupendous scale.” (Young,Mitchell page 14). We are living in a plastic universe, and very unaware. The problem with plastic, is how frequently it is being used, and having no true way of disposing it. The fibers of plastic are in just about everything on Earth, not only is it sitting inside the Earth, it is in everything surrounding us. There is plastic materials in food containers, make up, fuel, and so much more. Using science, and technology, we need to find new ways of disposing unwanted shreds of plastic, and other recyclables. Recycling might not get rid of all the issues growing with global warming, but being aware of what is being

China witnesses rapid economic growth after the economic reform in 1978. This economic development brings people great wealth and also a huge cost on the environment. Water and air pollution are among most serious environmental problems, others like soil retrogression and degradation, deforestation, and human health problems coming with these issues are becoming more severe too. In addition, due to China’s biggest population on earth, the impact of these pollutions goes beyond border and becomes a global issue too.

Human everyday actions and decisions are negatively impacting the environment in a long-term run, causing pollution, by destroying our motherland, destroying our oceans, and killing wildlife due to the plastic trash. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is a floating landfill of garbage in the Pacific twice the size of Texas, is mostly composed of plastic (“US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration”, 2010).