The Environmental Hazards Of The United States

Leaving plastic on the beach or throwing trash on the floor can cause it to go into the ocean, creating a dangerous environment for marine life especially since plastic never goes away, it can only get smaller. People do not realize that the trash that they throw on the floor , even if someone lives inland, can end up in the ocean. One of Algalita's sponsored programs called Plastic Debris Rivers to Seas inform, “Nearly 80% of marine debris comes from land-based sources.(4) Most of the land-based debris is conveyed to oceans via urban runoff through storm drains. The main sources of plastic and other types of anthropogenic (human-made) debris in urban runoff include: litter (mostly bags, packaging and single-use disposable products), industrial discharges, garbage transportation, landfills, construction debris, and debris from commercial establishments and public

Have you ever been to the beach? I have and swimming in the ocean is one of my favourite things to do when I go on vacation! You wouldn’t want someone to come into your house and throw their cigarette butts or their plastic drink container on your kitchen floor when they’re done would you? I know I wouldn’t. Littering in the ocean does not magically get rid of your garbage; the marine wildlife has to deal with it in their homes. Roughly 75% of our earth is covered with water (IDRC 2010). Many people think that when you dump trash into the ocean that nature will biodegrade. It can take up to hundreds of years for this trash to fully

Society has become better acquainted with the dangers associated with pollution during recent years and people have started to adopt environmental attitudes as a result of learning more concerning the harm their actions can provoke to the natural world. The Pacific Trash Vortex is an area in the Pacific Ocean that contains a series of pollutants with most of it consisting of plastic. The area is twice the size of Texas and is killing millions of birds, animal, and fish as they are unable to distinguish between foods they can eat and things that are likely to cause their death.

Within regions of the U.S. that are home to heavy snowfall, it is a common practice to pour salt on the roads. The reason for this is because a property of salt allows it to lower the melting point of water, which makes it much easier to clear the streets of snow and ice that would otherwise leave the roads dangerous, unusable and slippery. It is a simple way to reduce car accidents, and it is also much cheaper compared to the alternative chemicals that can be used for the same purpose. However, the salt that most cities use doesn’t simply disappear after it has done its job. It typically gets washed away into reservoirs, watersheds, lakes and streams. In fact, researchers in Minnesota found that 70% of the salt used on roads in the twin

There are growing numbers of problems involving marine debris in the United States for the past few years. There have been excessive amounts of waste and dross that washed up to the West Coast from the 2011 Japanese Tsunami, as well as other places, in recent years. Even though voluntary groups and other organizations are trying to clean up the ocean, the debris keeps coming, as if it has an endless current of waste. People are frustrated of how much the ocean is being polluted; after months of cleanup services, by obtaining hundreds and thousands tons of garbage, the ocean is still contaminated with debris.

Plastic and plastic based products have turned the American society into a single use, throw away lifestyle (Eriksen, 154). Due to the introduction of plastic to everyday life, it has become a main source of pollution and liter to the Earth. Whether it is on the side of the road, being collected in large masses such as in landfills, or located in the depths of our oceans, plastic has integrated itself into our environment as well as our society. However, no one environment sees the most impact from plastic pollution than our waterways and oceans. Plastic waste can enter the ocean a multitude of different ways such as through illegal offshore dumping, storm-water drainage, lost fishing equipment, overflowing during high-volume rain events, improper or lack of sewage treatment of water, or simply by blowing off of piers,

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the effect of the human population’s waste. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of trash floating in the ocean where there is a high density of garbage because of the Pacific Gyre. “Though their name suggests rafts of bobbing refuse, the patches are instead areas with high concentrations of trash — mostly wee bits of plastic particles that have degraded from larger pieces of litter such as water bottles. The bits amass within ocean vortices, driven by wind and ocean currents.”( Mole) The types of waste found in the garbage patch are micro plastics and macro plastics. Macro plastics can range from

A significant amount of my childhood was spent on the beaches in my mom’s hometown of Ketchikan, Alaska. A small tourist town, few people can identify it on a map and even fewer recognize the damage being inflicted on its environment. As I have become older, the issue of trash on these beaches has become more apparent and I have become more involved with this issue. For me, being a global citizen means protecting the planet and the people who reside in it, and this can be tackled by altering the way we treat waste.

In the United States alone, nearly 150 million people live in areas that don’t meet federal air quality standards. For many years, air pollution has been on the rise but more recently it’s been proved how pollution poses a greater danger to both the environment and the everyday individual. Its everlasting effects on the world, such as global warming and its depletion of the ozone layer, are going to play a huge role in the years to come. Consequently, there has been an increase in death rates from various illnesses caused by air pollution, varying from breathing problems to even worse, lung cancer. While these effects may go unnoticed, they are still an enormous issue at hand and are triggering more complications within our society. Though

Every potato chip bag thrown on the floor, every balloon released into the air, and every gum wrapper discarded on the sidewalk has an affect on our planet. In the short term we view these acts as miniscule and irrelevant, but what most of us fail to understand is that every act of pollution has a snowball effect that only harms us and our environment. Unfortunately, most of the plastic waste we throw on the floor ends up on our beaches, in our waterways, and in our oceans. Especially in Florida, where everyone is at most 45 mins from the beach, it is not difficult for trash to find its way to our oceans. Marine debris, ocean trash or ocean pollution, regardless of its many names the rhetoric still stands; every piece of litter has a ripple effect that ultimately makes it to our oceans.

In 2010, Americans produced about 250 million tons of garbage and only 34 percent was recycled. Littering may be small, but when it accumulates it can become a serious issue, which nowadays unfortunately already exists. There’s numerous amounts of negative impacts caused by this matter that not everyone is aware of. These ramifications not only impact the people itself, but animals and environments as well. In addition, this incident has enough power to contribute to other pollution types that exist as well. For example: an article by the Chicago Tribune from 2011, called “Chicago River cleanup required”, states that because of all the waste in the waterways, approximately $72 million will be needed to disinfect these waterways. As any bad

Marine waste has been a problem for some time now. However, it has recently become an issue that is in need of attention. As stated in the article Plastic Island, Midway Atoll is covered in many corpses of dead birds. When researchers examined the carcases, they found that the cause of death was the fact that the birds consumed pieces of plastic, causing malnutrition. 64% of waste in the ocean is created from shoreline and recreational activities (Marine Debris is Everyone’s Problem). Thousands of organisms are dying purely because of ignorant people who are too lazy to throw away their trash. The Ocean Conservancy spokesman, Tom McCann, said that the issue of marine waste is "entirely preventable” (Ciampaglia 14). But how exactly can we prevent

There is a place called the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch, which weighs 7 million tons, and twice the size of Texas. This makes me feel disgusted that some humans don’t care about the environment. I am writing this essay, because it makes me frustrated that animals are dying, because of plastic we have created, accident, or on purpose, this is a huge problem. With this information, please spread awareness of saving wildlife and our oceans. I am going to be talking to you about the follow topics: First, what is the ocean trash problem, second, how does this ocean trash impact the health of our oceans and animals, and finally, what can we do to resolve this ocean trash problem. Let’s get started with figuring out why this ocean trash problem is

Trash should be something that people see as disposable and cleanable. People have to worry about where they dispose the trash they use, because if disposed in the wrong places, it will most likely end up in our water systems and ultimately lead into our oceans. Back on the shore, the garbage that washes up on our beaches is much more than an eyeshore: it can be dangerous to animals and children, and cost millions of dollars in cleanup costs and loss of tourism. The trash in our oceans have the opposite effect, it stays in clumps and piles on itself; it not going away makes it the biggest issue. Most of the plastic that invades our oceans isn’t biodegradable (“Plastic Pollution in Our Oceans”). People tend to think because plastic isn’t biodegradable they can just take machines and pick up all the trash piles that have accumulated. This is a wrong idea because the plastic shrinks into smaller pieces over time releasing dangerous chemicals. The unknown dangers of plastic is what makes this a huge social awareness problem. Plastic does not biodegrade in sea water. It breaks down into infinitely smaller pieces when exposed to sunlight (some particles smaller than a centimeter) and remains in the ocean for hundreds of years (“Heal the Bay”).

The level of waste management in the United States and around the world is unacceptably low. Many people think that waste management is just a garbage and recycling company. Although, “Waste management is the handling of discarded materials, also known as waste or garbage” (“Waste Management”). Waste management is not just a company, it is a global crisis. Waste management is a process leading to less pollution in the oceans and many other places. It can be the igniter for people in the world to go green and preserve the environment and the animals in it. The Barents and Greenland Seas are north of the United States and Europe. These seas are hotspots for plastic pileups. “Plastic has been gathering in the Barents and Greenland Seas” (Johnston). Due to