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Solution And The Effects Of Plastic Pollution

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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

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