Plastic Pollution And Its Effects On The Environment

Overall, recycling plastic benefits the environment, the economy and the future of America. Although there are flaws to recycling plastic such as the sorting step overlooking additives and the washing step leaving some impurities, technological advances and more labor will be needed to fix those drawbacks in order to conserve the environment. Therefore, the U. S government should mandate recycling so that the recycling rate increase. Through this action, America will gain the benefits of recycling plastic. In addition, Americans should recycle specific types of plastic such as PET and HDPE as those two are the most commonly accepted by recycling programs. This will be strenuous upon Americans because they will have to do more work however,

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

Recycling is reusing materials like paper, plastics, and glass, breaking them down and turning them into a new product. This way no materials get wasted and not as many resources are used up for new products. There are many ways to dispose of waste, in this case plastics; incineration, landfilling, biodegradation and recycling. Incineration is effective however creates negative environmental risks and health risks by releasing different harmful gases. Landfilling requires space and many chemicals and energy in plastics are lost in disposal routes. Biodegradable plastics may not degrade fast enough to avoid a build of plastics and to help the environment. Recycling plastics is time consuming and plastics must be sorted through by the types of

Plastic, whether it is for a container, a wrapper or the product itself, has become an everyday part of our lives. The plastic itself is not a waste. We use it to contain food, construction workers wear it to protect their heads, and arthritic patients have it for their replaced hips. However, “Only 9 percent of the total plastic waste generated in 2012 was recovered for recycling”(“Plastics, Common Wastes & Materials”). If we just throw it away instead of recycle it, it will become a plastic waste and pollute the environment. When it reaches the ocean, it will turn into floating debris, which is even harder to

Everyday people visit grocery stores where the majority of products sold are liquids wrapped in plastic. The top sold item in supermarkets today is water. Many people believe that drinking bottled water in grocery stores is safer than drinking tap water, and as a result, plastic is damaging our animal life and oceans. These plastic bottles are often stored in open face refrigerators, freezers and non refrigerated aisles. Unfortunately plastic, after manufactured with coal, is simply used once then thrown away. It is within our reach to educate the general public on more viable resources for obtaining drinking water rather than encourage

Plastic. What is plastic doing to our planet is it helping it or is it killing it?Plastic is affecting our oceans. CNN say “plastic that was made one hundred years ago might still be around” it is affecting our planet but in a bad way plastic finds its way to our water and we drink that water we need to save our planet. In the end plastic is affecting our planet in one way or another it goes into our oceans it pollutes our water sea life ites it animals eat the plastic in our water. There should be a fee a fee on plastic bags because animals are dying plastic takes too long to decompose and our oceans are getting polluted it will also reduce how much amount of plastic we are using and will change our lifestyle for ever.

Plastic has become a staple, and the use of plastic products is abundant in everyday life even if it is not apparent. The production and use of plastics has increased dramatically over the last sixty years, and a vast majority of plastic being produced is not recovered after it is used. It is clear that much of what we have today would not be possible without plastics, but the fact that it is not biodegradable and toxic creates a product that just takes up a vast amount of space and poisons animals. The overflow of plastic eventually makes its way into the ocean and is affecting marine life at an alarming rate. Plastic debris pollutes oceans all over the world as it breaks down into smaller pieces and are ingested by a large range of species. Animals exposed eat the plastic products and it causes health problems throughout the marine ecosystem. Some humans rely on these animals for food without knowing that they have been exposed to toxic products. The smallest organisms or exposure to chemicals can wreak havoc on the human body causing serious illness. It is clear that much of what we have today would not be possible without plastics, but the fact that plastic is not biodegradable and toxic creates a product that takes up a vast amount of space and poisons animals. Plastics contain chemicals that can interfere with the bodies natural functions and can cause adverse health issues if left untreated. Plastic pollution is rampant all over the globe exposing everyone

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.

There is trash everywhere and our oceans are collecting a big majority of it. Animals in the ocean are dying more and more early in their lifetime because they’re eating plastic, metal, nets etc. Only us humans seem not to care or even think about the animals that do not know any better. This includes ships dropping unburned oil and gas into the ocean. The majority of us love to swim or fish in those pristine oceans, to surf, sail, watch the sun set, or play. Yet, hiding under the beautiful aqua surface is the hard truth. We are in the midst of an environmental catastrophe that is destroying our oceans.

Since it’s commercial inception in the late 1930’s, plastic has revolutionized, modernized, and undoubtedly eased human living. Unfortunately, this leap in consumer and industrial technology also came with an unforeseen and devastating side effect. It is speculated that there are at least 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing a combined 268,940 tons currently floating in the world’s oceans (“Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans” par. 17). Given that ocean pollution is in such an advanced stage, my research question is this, is it too late or impossible to remove a majority of plastics from the oceans? Although the design and production of large scale ocean clean up equipment is still in it’s infancy, my thesis will be centric to idea that through this equipment, it is not too late to efficiently clean the oceans. Through faith in the machinery currently under

There are many forms of pollution that occur from oil spills, radioactive wastes, urban air pollution, the release of greenhouse gases, or agricultural pollution, and one of the most preventable, plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is an accumulation in the environment of man-made plastic products to the point that they become problematic and harmful to wildlife, wildlife habitats, or human populations. This accumulation is due to the excessive use of plastics, which has become a worldwide issue, and is accountable for approximately 10% of discarded waste. It has been calculated that 275 million metric tons (MT) of plastic waste was produced in 192 coastal countries in 2010, with as much as 12.7 million MT entering the ocean (Jambeck et al., 2015). Plastic pollution can be classified based on the overall size and thickness, as microdebris (2 µm), mesodebris (1-5 mm), or macrodebris (>20 mm). Plastic can be very harmful to the land, waterways, and the ocean due to its extremely slow biodegrading process, which can exceed hundreds of years. Plastic debris can also be harmful to marine life causing, entanglement, ingestion of plastic waste, and exposure to the chemicals within plastics, which ultimately affect humans as well.

Our waste such as plastic and contaminated water makes its way to the ocean. There, it has a devastating effect on marine life. “5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing some 269,000 tons are floating on the surface of the sea” (Seltenrich). In Seltenrich’s article, “The World Bank estimates that 1.4 billion tons of trash are generated globally each year, 10% of it plastic.” “Plastics that reach the ocean will gradually break down into ever-smaller pieces due to sunlight exposure, oxidation, and the physical action of waves, currents, and grazing by fish and birds.” (Seltenrich). A marine life that is mostly affected is the sea turtles. The sea turtles either consume the plastic or become trap in it, or even both. According to Lowenberg, ingestion of plastic can “result in poor health, reduced growth rates and reproductive output, or death”. Their nesting sites and the baby sea turtles are also at risk. The baby sea turtles can become trap to the plastic as they make their way from the polluted shore into the ocean.

We know that nowadays plastic is the one materials that widely used by human in all of the country. Most of our goods become from plastic. The bad news is, plastics wastes that come from our unusable goods end up in the oceans. There are 60% to 80% plastic wastes on the sea are coming from the land and it will cause a big problem to 267 sea species in this world (Moore, Lattin, & Zellers). That one example is more than enough to start recycling our plastic waste. We can start from reduce and reuse first. For reduce example: when we buy something, we should prepare our own bag to put the goods we buy, dispose the waste according to the bin that specially provided for plastic, use a refill bottle for our drink bottle, and prefer a paper bag than plastic bag. How about reuse plastic bag? Some of countries have creative company that selling fine art and use plastic waste as the basic materials. One of the countries that have company like that is Indonesia. Indonesia has a lot of home industry that use plastic waste as their main materials. They make new thing from plastic bottle, such as plastic flower art, windmill toys for children, table lamp, and house accessories. Some schools in Indonesia teach the students how to reuse the plastic waste and make a fine art from it. Reduce and reuse the plastic waste already counted as recycling the plastic waste. Never think

This research question aims to think deeper on the circumstances of the overuse of plastic and paper, and what could happen more to the animals/birds, our environment, and our bodies if consumers keep on using plastic and paper products. This research question should be asked to raise awareness to users and most importantly designers, so they consider using other eco friendly material in designing their products.

In “Better Planet Garbage Patch”, Thomas Kostigen tells his experience of traveling to the Eastern Garbage Patch to witness this growing problem first-hand. Kostigen describes this area to be one and a half times the United States with a depth of 100 feet or more (Krostigen). The size of this garbage patch is so massive, encompassing around ten million square miles of the North Pacific Gyre. On the other hand, according to “An Ocean of Plastic”, Doucette claims that nobody knows its exact size or if it has any boundaries at all. (Doucette). Although there have been many estimations on the size