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Can plastic bags effect our environment research paper
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The use of paper, plastic, and reusable carrying bags has yielded much controversy over the past couple decades. Some argue that plastic bags aren’t as much of a hindrance as paper bags can be to the environment, however our well being on Earth seems more at risk in terms of longevity when it comes to plastic bags. My community should should limit plastic bag use by imposing a fee on it to both boost waste programs and reduce the amount of non-biodegradable material in the Earth. PLastic bags can prove to be convenient and useful for many circumstances, however convenience never directly meant positivity, and fees should be put in place to limit the use of plastic bags. Some may argue that plastic bag use should be up to the user, that choosing …show more content…
Imposing a fee on plastic bag use can supply as a very effective way of both reducing plastic bag use and enhancing the programs put in place to deal with environmental waste. As Source E describes, the City of Aspen in Colorado had a 20 cent plastic bag fee put in place for the two grocery stores in the area. With, “...$44,826 in fees since the ban was put into place in May of 2012…”(Soruce E) such a report has proven how a small change to limit plastic bag use can go a long way. Source E describes these proceeds as another means to boost waste programs in which, “... the money goes to a city-administered fund which is used to pay for outreach, implementation and a waste and reduction program which supplies …show more content…
While paper bags may not be seen as the panacea for pollution and waste issues, they are proven to still eventually breakdown in the Earth, even if it is at a slower rate. As source F details, while “...paper doesn’t degrade all that much faster than plastics.”(Source F) it still manages to degrade eventually. No one wants to look at human civilization on Earth as something that will eventually end, so why prepare for such a thing? Source F explains, “Light breaks down plastic so it photodegrades rather than biodegrades… this process can take up to 1000 years in land fills.”(Source F) Source F indicates that plastic doesn’t even biodegrade, it breaks down overtime by light, but not by natural degradation from Earth. The first step in a healthier Earth environment would be reducing the plastic waste built up globally. Source C includes a bar chart displaying how 969,244 plastic bags were found in their ocean litter search as opposed to 412,879 paper bags, that is more than double! A fee placed on the plastic bags of the many grocery stores in my community would greatly aid in reducing such numbers of waste and pollution. As both an incentive to not use plastic bags and a method of boosting waste programs, my community should implement a fee on the use of plastic bags to reduce the overall buildup of non-biodegradable material in the
“Paper or plastic?” This is often a question customers are asked at the weekly trip to the supermarket to purchase groceries to keep families fed. Adam B. Summers has created a highly plausible argument that may change customer’s answer next time. In Summers’ “Bag ban bad for freedom and environment” editorial for the San Diego Union-Tribune, he argues against the possible laws hindering Californians from using plastic bags at grocery stores. He believes they would do more harm than good, and that “a little reason and perspective is in order.” By the end of this piece the reader will likely find themselves nodding in agreement with what Summers has to say, and this isn’t just because he’s right. Summers, like any good writer, employs tactical
Most of the necessities humans need are provided in supermarkets, in fact supermarkets have become a necessity for our everyday life. They are now the main source of water, food, clothes and everyday tools. Therefore, the plastic bags demanded and supplied in this industry increase every day. In the past decade, we produced as much plastic as we did in the whole twentieth century (Freinkel, 2011). This exponential increase of a non-biodegradable material has negatively impacted our environment immensely. Plastic production requires our dwindling fossil fuel resources, robs away animal lives, litters our beautiful landscapes and even affects our very own well-being. Hence, if plastic production doesn’t diminish immediately, we will suffer great
The article Plastic bags are Good for you, by Katherine Mangu-Ward was written to explore the pro’s and con’s of three different types of bags. Which is better between plastic, paper, or reusable bags has always been a debatable question with an opinionated answer. In the article Mangu-Ward characterizes the cause and effect relationships which have lead to the unpopularity of plastic bags in terms of guilt.
Every year, an estimated 8 million tons of plastic waste enters our environment, severely polluting oceans, beaches, forests, and even the towns and cities we live in. In the ocean alone, it is believed that 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic pollutes the waters (“Plastic Statistics”, Ocean Crusaders).The majority of plastic pollution can be traced back to single-use items, such as grocery bags, bottles, and plastic packaging. According to United Nations Environment, “At the rate we are dumping items such as plastic bottles, bags and cups after a single use, by 2050 oceans will carry more plastic than fish…” (“UN Declares War on Ocean Plastic”, UN Environment). This pollution is a major problem and endangers not only the environment, but human
The bill passed against this prevented cites from banning plastic grocery bags or charging an extra fee for the bags. Many argued that current plastic bags are mostly made from recycled items and that they produced the same harm as paper bags. However, other argued that the excess use of these bags and the impact that they cause to the environment is uncontrollable. Several farmers also argued that their animals were becoming sick because they were exposed to them and would often eat them. Many industries would also be affected by this ban, but if we look at the issue with the environment in perspective, the benefits that would come with a reduction of plastic bags is numerous. These bags are consumed every day, and it would be interesting to see how much less damage and other benefits would come from this practice. There are many cities in Texas where this ban was passed on successfully. For example, in a comparison between Austin where the ban was approved, and some of the requirements are that the bags must contain a minimum percentage of recycled content, and Fort Worth were the ban was disapproved. “Advocates of the policy are supported by a comparison with Fort Worth, which has no plastic bag ordinance and had four times the amount of plastic bags in its litter stream as Austin. The amounts were calculated based on local litter sweeps done earlier this year in each city” (Miller par. 6). This shows the benefits of the ban and how it has impacted the cities environment. Other places are still pending the approval and in the other hand Dallas is one of the places where this ban was
Plastic bags are useful tools to use and have other benefits as well. This is a statement that is up for debate. Many people disagree with the statement that plastic bags are useful. The question is whether or not that is true. American stores offer both plastic and reusable bags, but when customers go through a line and say he or she wants a plastic bag, he or she might get a disgusted look. For most stores plastic bags are now frowned upon. The stores want their customer to use the reusable bags that the store offers them to purchase. Throughout the article Plastic Bags Are good for You, Mangu Ward goes back a forth of weather or not the bags are good. Mangu-Ward explains the cause and effects of which plastic and reusable bags have based
Everyone knows that the environment is not going great, for anyone, or any animal for that matter. Though that we know its a problem we do very little in ways to help the environment. With a 25 cent tax on bags, we could do more to help with the environment. While the bag tax might be a bit harder on the poor the benefits will out weigh the cost. The bag tax should happen for it would help the envirnoment heal, even through it would be rough on poor people, and will create money for the government.
A new proposal has surfaced: A small tax on plastic grocery bags. This proposed fee would add a 25¢ fee per grocery bag to your grocery bill. Some supporters of this tax say that it will help reduce the usage of non-reusable grocery bags and help keep our water cleaner. However, opponents of the tax argue that it will make groceries not affordable for some, and that reusable grocery bags are health hazard as well.
... converting plastic waste into useful products are being affected by pollution; this contamination is found within containers where plastics are collected. But the same risk of pollution carries downside consequences in which workers and people responsible for cleaning and disinfecting the plastic materials are not doing the best to eliminate plastic waste, and to disinfect the infected bacteria and microorganisms from the atmosphere and environment. Organizations from China and India are the largest in the world, they collect and purchase used plastic from United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America (Minguez 2013). These companies do not bother to sanitize the products before the recycling process; for this reason the planet earth is getting a worse environmental condition, and it is destroying lives of living beings, and natural resources as well (Uddin 2014).
Do you hate seeing litter on the streets, or seeing and smelling heaps of garbage sitting, and rotting away? Humans recycling more will help to reduce this. We throw many things that can be recycled. Recycling glass, plastics, paper, and metals will reduce solid waste dumped into the ecosystem daily. “96 percent of U.S. plastic, and 50 percent of its paper, goes into landfills. Mexico, not exactly a bastion of environmental awareness, recycles more glass than the U.S.” (Alice Horrigan 1). That’s 96 percent of the millions of tons of plastic, which will outlive most of us in a landfill that we could recycle and keep it out of our landfill. Paper is made from trees, if we recycle it, we can decrease our rate of ugly deforestation and the destruction of animal habitats. When paper gets to the landfill, it is guaranteed to get wet. The wetness and decomposition of paper atracts mold spores, which produce an odor and are potentially bad for your health. Also k...
Plastic or paper, is a choice that people face when going to the grocery stores. Plastic bags are often the choice that is made. A controversial issue in the world today is the use of plastic bags. Plastic bags are used because of the convenience they give, by being able to carry several items at once. However, in the article, “Banning Bans, Not Bags”, Jennifer Schultz claims, “Plastic bags clog up local waterways, litter roadways, and get swallowed up by unsuspecting fish” (6). Plastic bags are used once, then are discarded or, littered all over the place. When they are littered all over they become problems for more than just humans. These plastic bags pose a big hazard for animals on land and in especially the ocean. Humans eat land and
Millions of plastic bags are given out to consumers by supermarkets and stores to carry their goods in. They are also cheap, light, durable, easy to carry and in many cases, free. The most commonly used shopping bag is made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). This type is used in the majority of supermarkets and stores. After these bags are used, they often end up in landfills or as litter, roughly only three percent of plastic bags is actually recycled per year (Planet Ark, 2011). The materials used in making plastic bags make them non-biodegradable. According to the science dictionary, 2011 refers to “these materials cannot be decomposed into environmentally safe waste materials by the action of soil bacteria.” These harmful substances are toxic and take approximately four hundred years to break down, or in this case photo-degrade; which is how plastics made from (HDPE) break down. Since they are not biodegradable, they remain in the environment and are absorbed in soil or water (Indian Centre for Plastics in the Environment, 2010). This essay will discuss the various harmful effects of plastic bags, and demonstrate the risks that these bags impose on humans, animals and the environment. It will also discuss a series of suggested solutions that could help reduce plastic bag usage.
Everyone has heard a cashier one time or another mumble, “Paper or plastic?” as he put their groceries in a bag, but do shoppers know the effects of each vessel in which they carry their comestibles? There are many issues and benefits to both paper and plastic. The making and recycling of both paper and plastic bags can harm the environment. One must also look at the costs of making each bag. The convenience of each is also something to look at. Many people jump to conclusion that paper bags are better for the environment without knowing the facts. Since plastic bags are preferred by customers and plastic bags actually do not hurt the environment as much as paper ones do, consumers should feel at ease when choosing plastic.
In the 1870’s, plastic was discovered in the United States when John Wesley Hyatt was trying to create a different material to make billiard balls (Manrich, 3). Little did he know it would majorly evolve into material we use everyday. However, plastics are now taking over our landfills. The average American throws away one-hundred and eighty-five pounds of plastic a year (Popescu, 121). The answer to decrease this statistic is easy: recycling. I believe that recycling will help eliminate littering and the growth of landfills, while also creating jobs for the unemployed. Not only does recycling plastic help eliminate littering, but also reuses the plastic so there is not a production of additional unneeded plastics. The
People should know the negative impact throwing away a water bottle or newspaper, purchasing meat from the grocery store or consuming gasoline has on the environment, and many do not. By informing society about how their decisions affect the environment, we can help save our planet and change our attitude toward the land we live on, the water we drink and the air we breathe” and truly show respect for the stuff that we depend on. The United States produces “about 8.25 billion tons of solid waste each year” (Russell 1). People do not realize the impact they have on our planet and the environment. When people throw anything in the trashcan, they are contributing to the destruction of our planet.