The effect of plastic pollution and why it needs to be stopped In a society that wants everything convenient and ready to use, plastic found the perfect market for its thousands of uses. Food, toys, medical equipment, and even clothing come either from plastic or at least wrapped or pre-portioned in plastic. While plastic makes the modern world so much cheaper and easier, it also comes with an environmental cost. With the endless amount of products made from or housed in plastic comes an endless amount of discarded wrappers, bags, straws, bottles, toys and even car parts. Some people wonder where all the plastic bottles and trash go that people carelessly drop on the daily, or think about about how recycling works, and if it even does work. For years the human race has been treating the environment like a landfill itself, and its about time there was some awareness raised. Plastic pollution is a major problem in today's society. Our first Earth day was celebrated 47 years ago while the nation was very poisoned. Places like Los Angeles were covered in thick smog. There were even rivers on fire in Cleveland due to massive pollution (Lytle). Ever since WWII the production of industrial chemicals has risen very rapidly. The USA generates and imports over 42 billion pounds of chemicals per day! These aren't just chemicals from a scientist's lab, they are hidden in everyday items from baby bottles to big screen tv’s (Lytle). The Toxic Substances act (TCSA) of 34 years has been a failure. The government is chosen to decide which chemicals are safe and which are hazardous, and the only way they test if it's safe is inspecting the data given to them by the factories. These industries can lie and hide major details when providing reports to the government (Lytle). Some chemicals like BPA can have strange effects at even the lowest dosage. BPA has been used since the 1940’s to harden polycarbonate plastics and make epoxy resin which is then used in the lining of food and beverage containers. Polycarbonates can be identified by the recycling number 7 on the bottom of their containers, this is known as the resin identification code. BPA does its job in plastic very well, over 6 billion pounds of it are produced
150,000 tons of plastic are littered into our ocean each year, yet we do nothing to stop it. Plastic is capable of being deformed continuously and permanently in any direction without rupture, making it almost impossible for the plastic to disintegrate. Our population uses plastic for almost everything, once these objects are used they are left in the street, beaches, and other places, natural sources then carry the objects into the oceans. There, the plastic becomes stuck in currents, where it takes years to disintegrate. The only people benefiting from this are companies who produced the plastic. The problem is this plastic is harming marine life. Some simple solutions to this include using reusable water bottles instead of plastic water
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
The plastic around the world is building up to become a huge world problem. Each year eight million tons of plastic
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.
Moore found a big problem about how plastic is turning our oceans into plastic. Not many people pay attention to this kind of problem because it's not talk about it a lot. But Moore saw nine years ago about the big problem about plastic and how it hurting out sea animals and us as well. By bringing this problem into our eyes we can now see where all of the plastic we throw away goes too the effects of it.
Plastic Pollution Outline Thesis Statement: Plastic pollution is an ongoing issue that is quickly growing as time passes by, and if humans don’t try to put an end to it, it will affect them in the long term. It is a serious issue that needs to be addressed because it is affecting humans, animals, and the environment. Plastic pollution affects humans even if they don’t realize it. Plastic pollution harms people’s endocrine system. Chemicals like BPA and phthalates causes development problems.
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.
People living society should be free from health problems. Every citizen as well as leader stay in local as well as state level need to think how to control these issues. Environment should be protected for today and for tomorrow. While making plastic bags, chemicals are used to process it. These chemicals pass while manufacturing as well as using plastic bags by customers when comes contact with foods. 1 “A whole host of carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and hormone-disruptive chemicals are standard ingredients and waste products of plastic production, and they inevitably find their way into our ecology through water, land, and air pollution” (“The Harmful Effects of Plastic on Human” 2012). Public are facing these problems. There is certain bill pass to ban single use plastic bags in Texas. But still it is not completely executing this policy in all cities of Texas. On the other side it is said that too many customers loose and loss money by the shopkeepers each day where single used bags are allowed. It has both advantage and disadvantage of this bill but it concerns with our health. Health comes first before everything.
The plastic pollution in the water is affecting our own well-being. There are many toxins in plastic, like Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), which is very dangerous for humans to digest. These toxins can be seen to cause cancer, birth defects, immune system problems, and childhood development issues (serc.carleton.edu). We
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.
Plastic is a non biodegradable material that is made to last forever, yet only about 50% of plastic products are used once then thrown away. (Plastic Oceans Foundation). The world uses 300 million tons of plastic every year for various uses, “Plastic is cheap and incredibly versatile with properties that make it ideal for many applications” (Plastic Oceans Foundation). Every few seconds humans are producing about 20,000 plastic bottles and “a million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute and the number will jump another 20% by 2021, creating an environmental crisis some campaigners predict will be as serious as climate change.” (Laville, Sandra, and Matthew Taylor). With the way the world is going with
When the discussion about pollution rises, the first thought that comes to people’s minds is the long-debated topic of air pollution from greenhouse gases. Certainly, this type of pollution will have a critical impact on the future of Earth’s ability to sustain life, but the widespread discussion on this one specific type of pollution has also masked necessary discussions on some seldom mentioned types of pollution which will be detrimental to the future of some of Earth’s life. One example of the various other forms of pollution is a kind which has existed for less than a century, yet it now greatly plagues a significant portion of the Earth: plastic pollution in the oceans. Although it may seem that this issue only endangers the health of marine life, plastic pollution is also harmful to all the species higher up in the food chain including humans. If not properly addressed, then plastic pollution will lead to a rise of significant health issues for both ocean life and humans as the issue escalates in the coming decades.
In today's time we are facing the problem of pollution, and dirty water, which is affecting our sea life as well as human life. It is a concerning problem. And although many don't infact believe in global warming, muck and smog is becoming a worsening problem as the years go on. If there is any way to overall help to decrease the amount of pollution that is is being put out, it would be a necessary option. the government is proposing a plastic bag fee that will range about 25 cents for each plastic bag.The hopeful outcome of this would be to see people bring reusable bags rather than paying for the 25 cent bag. Which would be a greater outcome in decreasing pollution in some slice of a matter way.
Our world has become infatuated with the idea of “fast, easy, and comfortable” consumption. We’ve grown accustomed to accommodating a fast pace lifestyle but we have forgotten about the repercussions of our actions. So many products have become “single use” or disposable, from our individually wrapped food to our hygiene products. Since the discovery of plastic it has become the go to material of choice due to its cheap price of production. Unfortunately because of its high production rate and the fact that it’s essentially non-biodegradable it has started to consume our planet from landfills, to rivers, and our oceans. When talking about plastic pollution people usually think about plastic bags and bottles but another huge product of plastic waste is a toothbrush. Currently there’s about 323,060,000 people in the United states; if you take a very rough estimate that there’s at least 5 million people/ babies who don’t have teeth, subtract that from the population, and then estimate that the average person goes through 3 tooth brushes a year, you end up with 955,800,000 toothbrushes being thrown away per year. That’s 1 billion toothbrushes from America alone, disregarding the fact that your dentist recommends you change your toothbrush at least 4 times a year.
I am writing this letter because our ocean’s ecosystem is in danger due to plastic pollution. According to the United Nations, approximately 60 to 95 percent of the pollution in our oceans is caused by waste, specifically plastic. In a study conducted by Plymouth University, they found that at least 700 marine species are negatively impacted by plastic pollution and approximately 100 million marine mammals are killed each year from plastic pollution. That being the case, plastics have affected a large amount of marine species. We see plastic everywhere; plastic bags, drink bottles, Styrofoam, micro plastics, and so on. Plastics also releases different types of toxins that are both harmful to marine animals and humans.