Producing And Using of the Plastic: Damaging the Environment

There is rising unease about throwing out plastic products as well as the accumulation of plastic products in our oceans and landfills. This poses problems for all species in the environment, such as animals becoming tangled in smaller products, organisms consuming the products, or transferring chemicals directly to humans in the surrounding environment. Plastic products being dumped into landfills is not sustainable for our present and future environment. A small amount of fossil fuels is being used to create plastic products. The fossil fuels are practically wasted because the products are cheaply made and are thrown out shortly after purchase. Depleting the amount of fossil fuels, rapidly filling up landfills, and manufacturing briefly used plastic products is not sustainable for our environment. Increasing the amount of recycling, cutting down on plastic production, and reducing on the amount of littering are all valuable solutions to cut down the amount of plastic in landfills. (Thompson, Moore, vom Saal,

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.

According to ecowatch.com, all the plastic humans added up thrown away added up can circle the Earth four times. This is around 500 billion plastic bags, and most of them end up on landfill sites. The plastic bags in landfills usually lay there for over 300 years until they are completely photodegraded, or decomposed by the light, especially sunlight. During the process of being photodegraded, the plastic bags break down into small toxic particles that are either released into the air, or into the soil. These small toxic particles contaminate many different things such as soil and waterways. Since it is in the soil and waterways, animals often come and end up eating these dangerous toxic particles. Some supermarkets use biodegradable bags that are said to be “environment friendly,” but that is a total lie. According to an article about plastic bag pollution by Sharon Jacobsen, it says, “...the truth is that the process of breaking down these petrol based bags causes carbon to become methane which is a greenhouse gas.” Greenhouse gases are very dangerous to the environment since it causes temperature increase around the whole entire globe. Therefore, in conclusion, neither plastic bags or so-called “environment friendly” bags are good for the environment all around us, and we should not use them. Instead, we should use reusable

Do you know that it will take 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose? Our world is the most friendly planet for human beings and every other living thing. We should never take our planet for granted because there is no other like this one and in order for us to keep our planet safe and sound, we should get rid of plastic bags. The other most effective way to keep our planet safe is to recycle every plastic bottle that we used. Every plastic product should not be thrown to the garbage because plastic bottles will take several decades to decompose in soil.

The plastic around the world is building up to become a huge world problem. Each year eight million tons of plastic

avoid plastic as a whole will do us all a great deal of good. If we don't, we will surely

“The amount of plastic the world consumes annually has steadily risen over the past seventy years, from almost nil in 1940 to closing in on six hundred billion pounds today. We became plastic people really just in the space of a single generation” (Freinkel, 2011, p. 7). This quote is from the first chapter of Susan Freinkel ’s book, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story. She talks about how much plastic has taken over our world, but specifically in the past decade, she notes, we have produced more plastic than we did the entire 20th century (Freinkel, 2011, p. 10).

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

In response to the growth of our world indiscriminate use of plastic bags, Summers (2013) has stated that the plastic bad is harmful for people and environment in his article “Bag ban bad for freedom and environment”. He uses some facts, examples, statistical data and rhetorical question. Also, he tried to make emotionally readers when he explained how many jobs can be lost because of the bill and how much waste is caused by plastic bags to compare with paper.

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/

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.

Many individuals underestimate the amount of plastic we use each day. According to the article “Plastic Bags Wars”, “the world consumes 1 million plastic shopping bags every minute”. Plastic bags, along with many other types of plastics, have become a leading source of pollution worldwide (Doucette). Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita foundation states that we use two million plastic bottles in the United States every five minutes. Discovered by Charles Moore in 1997, the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is a prime example of the amount of plastic pollution that enters the

With the combination of polymers that don’t biodegrade and mass overproduction, companies are harming the environment in severe ways. Plastic, a material seen everywhere, is a polymer made from oil. It is mass produced to make everything from shampoo bottles to automobiles and does not biodegrade. When it is eventually thrown out, the waste usually finds it way into the ocean, where it is either buried under sediment or eaten by marine life (Weisman 287-295). Creating a material that will ultimately kill marine life will undoubtedly wreak havoc on the

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.