The Plastic Pollution Essay : The Use Of Plastics

Plastic – an American-made synthetic material, renowned and praised for its almost indestructible quality and versatility, yet on the contrary has had detrimental consequences on our environment and ourselves. It is quite amazing to observe how plastic has completely changed our way of life. In Susan Freinkel’s book “Plastic: a Toxic Love Story” she writes about the effects of plastic on our world. The author points out, a commonly overlooked fact, that plastic is literally everywhere. Plastic is in the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the cups we drink from, and sometimes even the ground we walk on. Two chemical bonds made in a laboratory have forever changed the way we live, through small commodities like

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.

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,

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

People would say that plastic in landfills would just stay there and if we keep on using plastic the waste problem would just worsen. I think that the problem here is why do people put plastics in landfills mixed with biodegradable materials. There are ways to properly recycle plastic. This comes to my third argument for why plastic beats paper. It is better because we could change its physical shape to things we really need. Richard Stein, from the University of Massachusetts, stated that plastics could be melted and formed into different structures such as propellers for wind turbines, food containers and many more [3]. Imagine being able to reuse plastic as long as the quality of it can still be recyclable, but if it isn’t anymore, Richard Stein also suggested that plastic could be converted to energy by burning it since it is made of petroleum [3].

Plastic debris and litter is a serious pollution that is currently affecting oceans, waterways and coastal lines. Plastic is a man made tangible substance made from a range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC, and nylon. This material is high on demand with the human kind but takes an average of 450 years to disintegrate. This product is impacting the marine environment, wildlife, and then eventually circling back to humans. Currently, the world’s biggest plastic patch is located north in the Pacific Ocean, trapped in what’s called a gyre (known as an ocean rip). There are also another two plastic islands located in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. These three plastic patches contain a higher amount of plastic but to today's count, in total there are 5 forward. Sea Education Society scientists studied plastics in the Atlantic and calculated there are 580,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer. Causes of plastic are endless, but trash is the main contributor. Plastic is located in almost every item around, and once it's in the trash, all the garbage gets dumped in land fills and seeps into the ground and soil affecting wildlife. Plastic is cheap and substantially available, so over production of plastic is high. The cause of plastic filling up land and oceans is a couple of reasons. People normally have a one-time use for plastic then throw it away but after that, the plastic is hard to eradicate. Burning plastic leads

Although plastic bags, as well as paper bags, can be recycled in order to postpone running out of resources, the creation and destruction of the plastic releases CO2 or (Carbon Dioxide) into the air damaging the Earth’s atmosphere along with all the other horrific machinery emitting the same toxic and harmful gas. This is more popularly known as “Plastic Pollution”, one of the biggest causes of climate change. “An estimated 12 million barrels of oil are used to manufacture the 30 million plastic bags that Americans use each year.” (Durkin, 1 bag at a time) Factories creating and destroying these plastic bags have the some of the highest rates of CO2 emission. No matter how the plastic bag is disposed of, either way it will end up releasing the catastrophic chemicals that are killing our planet.

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.

“We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.” – George Carlin. Since 1950 humans have made 8.3+ billion metric tons of plastic, 6.3 metric tons have become waste; only 9% of that waste has been recycled. In the last 50 years, plastic has done more harm than good. If we continue we leave our legacies with this world and leave Earth to restore itself.

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

The overuse of plastics in today's society has become major environmental issue for our oceans. Plastic pollution is the dumping, littering, or disposing of any type of man-made plastic that has been produced and has ended up in our ocean and has not been recycled.

As the United States deals with the overwhelming amounts of waste building up, Nitin et al explain that “plastics take anywhere from 15 to 1000 years to biodegrade” once they are discarded (Nitin). Changes in recycling methods can no longer keep up with the exorbitant amount of waste produced in the United States. This is why some states choose to take their initiative one step further by placing either fees or a ban on the use of plastic bags. Due to the enormous waste the United States produces on a daily basis and the negative outcomes of this trash including adverse health effects, harmful impacts on nature, and the exponential piling of trash in landfills, the US government should ban plastic bags.

Approximately, 280 million tons of plastic is produced year round around the globe (Sigler, 2014) which accounts for 8% of the worldwide manufacturing for oil (Vegter, et al., 2014). Plastics are a major component in most consumer products; the reason being is that plastic is inexpensive, lightweight, durable, and an excellent insulator. For this reason, plastic can be found in most items from: storage containers, packaging material, communication devices, and transportation. Unfortunately, 3.5 million pieces of plastic are estimated to enter the ocean shores daily; one-third to a half of the garbage found in the ocean originate from the beverage industry (Cohen, 2015). This litter is a symptom of our throw-away society and our approach on how we manage our natural resources (UN, 2011). Nearly one-third of plastics that is generated are for single use items such as: floss, straws, stirrer, coffee lids, and disposable cutlery (Sigler, 2014).

Do you like destroying this world? Well that is what we are doing because of the number of plastic bags we use I might be a step up from paper bags but it is still destroying this world little by little. Some claim that the plastic bags on the ocean is the size of Texas and if this claim is true It means it is affecting a lot of sea animals. Sea animals are digesting the plastic bags which is causing an agonizing death and it is not comfortable. This animals are consuming many plastic bags and it is not only affecting some animals but maybe most of them not only in one area but everywhere because the plastic bags are traveling through the ocean and affecting all of the animals. There is no one to blame but ourselves because it is all our fault that this world is falling apart. Our usage for plastic bags are minimum so why not just get rid of plastic bags and find a new way to carry our groceries and a way to not only help us but our home? Did it ever occur to people that we are damaging our home and the only home that is survivable because the way we are treating our only home it is cruel but we are not only damaging our home but the animals homes and soon we might run out of animals. So by trying to help this world we are actually destroying it. There is a way to help this planet we just have to do it before it get's worst.

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.