Plastic Pollution and its Consequences.
The world population is living, working, and vacationing along the coasts. They are contributing to an unprecedented tide of plastic waste. Pollution is defined as the process that alters a substance or molecule on planet earth, the pollution is caused by the physical contact of an organic decaying particle with a clean particle in the same spot, at the time the two particles join together is when occurs pollution in which the environment is greatly altered. Too many, plastic is a modern day miracle, versatile, inexpensive and durable (Rochman 2014). To others, it is a scourge, a non-degradable pollutant that threatens to choke the global environment. Plastic pollution has led to the deaths of many animals, natural resources, and people (Rochman 2014). It is time to change America’s thinking and to learn from past mistakes.
Plastic pollution negatively affects America’s future. The origin of this environmental pollution is caused by the excessive lack of ethics that human beings have. Many times, people throw garbage on the streets, seas, etc. Not knowing that this will be severely altered the environment, and planet earth conditions. Environmental pollution is found in many places such as plastic products, cleaning products, food, animals, personal care products, and the most dangerous in the environment where the oxygen we breathe and share with other living beings (Eriksen 2013).
Environmental pollution produces bacteria which results as diseases and disorders in humans, animals, agricultural plantations. The process of pollution occurs when toxins are released into the ground water from landfill sites, this pollution stays in the environment for hundreds of years, while they break dow...
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... 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).
Which means their obviously bad for the aquatic marine life environment & are cause many different forms of damage for them & us as one. On p.g. 23 of The New York Times upfront magazine “Birds,fish, sea turtles, & others are getting tangled in plastic bags or mistake them for food & choke”. Someone else might argue that they could the plastic bags in landfills instead of oceans. But that counter- argument is flawed because you’re just polluting by burning plastic which is bad on our part we’re not doing our part to support & taking care of the earth. Plastic in the ocean isn't just bad for plants & animals but for humans too because of the food chain some of us eat animals as a meat source such as aqua marine life like fish. If the fishermen catch fish that have been eating plastic then it's in our food supply if we eat that fish it's gonna be bad for us so many will end up getting sick from the plastic inside of the fish then what will we do our aqua marine food supply will go down the drain we couldn’t eat the fish since it's basically contaminated with plastic that we’re dumping there instead of trying to fix it & getting rid of plastic bags for good for the good of the earth. We’re causing damage towards the earth by dumping all that plastic into the ocean which damages our water supply it’ll poison us although we clean the water it depends on how big the plastic particles are, it’ll make us sick & sense it’s been lying in the oceans could bring in new pathogens &
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
Every time we throw away a plastic bottle, drive our cars, and even burn those millions of fossil fuels to operate all those huge factories, there is a chance it will pollute the ocean and eventually affect the way we live. There should be stricter laws regulating human pollution, in order to protect our ocean ecosystem. The ocean is an abundant source of life. It is home to thousands of different creatures, provides a great source of food, and provides the earth with about one half of the oxygen needed to sustain life. National Geographic: Pollution, especially plastic, is a catastrophic problem.
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Using plastic bags are second nature to people in this day and age. Warner acknowledges, “Much to the dismay of the environmentally conscious citizens worldwide, the ubiquity of the free plastic carryout bag has bred nonchalant consumers who take this modern convenience for granted” (646). Although some people are conscious about the environment, people strive more for convenience and do not think about the impacts using bags have not only on the environment, but on themselves as well. If something is bad for the environment, it will alternatively be bad for humans as well. When plastic bags are exposed to the sun from being littered all around, the ultraviolet rays cause the substances of plastic bags to weaken. After the substances weaken, the substances become invisible to the naked eye. The substances that are no longer able to be seen are toxic to humans (Warner 649). As a result of plastic bags being littered around, animals consume plastic bags. This is negatively affects humans because animals are often consumed. When humans consume animals like, fish, there can be plastic in the fish’s belly, which then transfers to the humans and this poses a concern for human’s health. Humans are negatively affected by plastic bags because of the toxic chemicals in plastic bags, as well as, consuming animals with plastic in their
Mass plastic production began in the 1950s. Even though large amounts of plastic began being generated, the amount of waste was “estimate[d]… [to be] three to four orders of magnitude lower [than current societal statistics] and restricted to more degradable items” (Barnes 1988). The decades ...
Human activities are responsible for the increasing decline of the world 's biological diversity. In the oceans, activities such as over-harvesting, pollution, introduced species, habitat fragmentation, and habitat destruction can be a major threat. One particular threat by human impact that continues to harm marine life is plastic debris pollution. Plastic pollution contributes to around 60-80% of marine debris. These debris can reach the ocean in various ways such as disposing by merchant ships, left behind by beach-goers, or river and municipal drainage systems. As soon as it reaches the ocean, it can affect the marine life because the debris might sink to the seabed and later be consumed by living
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. Although plastic bags appear to be fragile and light, their negative environmental effect is devastating. Plastic bags may cause large amounts of pollution at every step of their limited life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials, production, transportation, and recycling or disposal. Plastic bags can be defined as the most damaging form of environmental pollution.
Plastic is used everywhere around us, but as humans, we are skeptical OF its negative effects on the environment and our lives (Plastic not so fantastic, 2009). Plastic is a widespread commodity in our contemporary world. Although humans are civilized in different aspects, they are skeptical of certain things that do not affect their lives directly. Yet, they cannot disregard the consequences of using plastic on the environment. Moore (2014) stated in his article that “Plastics are now one of the most common pollutants of ocean waters worldwide.” Yet, many are blind to the bitter fact that plastic leads to the death of marine animals and destroys the future behind the excessive usage of it. The following essay will focus on plastic usage and
In 1947, plastic containers were first commercially used to hold liquids, but not until the 60’s were they consumed by the general public. At first, plastic was extremely cheap to make; however, in recent years the price to manufacture plastic has skyrocketed. In 2011 alone, over eleven billion dollars were exhausted in the fabrication of plastic water bottles. All this money fuels the creation of about fifty billion bottles worldwide. Sadly, Americans have become reliant on disposable plastic containers; consuming around thirty billion of the fifty billion water bottles produced each year. Many of the bottles end up being toss upon the earth instead of being recycled, which has been detrimental to the planet’s land, ocean, and air.
Plastics are part of marine debris, which are defined “as any persistent manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed of or abandoned in the marine and coastal environment” (Gall, 2015). Glass, metal, paper and plastic are the waste materials that are found the most inn the marine environment (Gall, 2015). They are starting to be recognised as a global problem (Gall, 2015), due to the fact more and more plastics are being produced, and consequently, more are ending up in the ocean, and is more abundant in some areas – like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is mainly an increasing problem due to single use plastics, such as straws, and water bottles. In 2010, 275 million metric tons
It is sad to say but humans have played their part in deteriorating the earth. We have polluted and killed the very thing that takes care of us. If you ride by any lake or river you find trash and debris around it. In the “The Call of the Wild” the author says that we have committed war against the earth by the dumping of poisons and explosives upon it (337). Unfortunately, plastics are the things that are doing the most harm to our environment. Plastics are convenient and we use them everyday and these are the things that we find in the oceans, rivers and lakes. They are harmful to the earth as well as human health by directly intoxicating us with lead, cadmium and mercury. Plastic debris laced with harmful chemicals are often found inside of our marine life and can poison them. Plastic can survive for thousands of years and many invasive species are found in them which can disrupt our habitats. We need to limit our consumption of plastics and make sure that they are disposed of in their proper places.
In daily life, people use a lot of plastic which is a polymeric material that is used in products, such as bottles, trash bags, plastic crockeries, and many more. At any given moment, it is obvious that most things around us are made of plastic including, dishes, carrier bags and twist ties. While using these products, people do not have the slightest idea if these plastic products impact the environment, where they come from, where they are taken away after they throw them, or even the materials used to make these products. The only thing people are generally concerned with is that the plastic bags fulfil their temporary needs. Although plastic can make people’s lives easier, it can
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
Plastic is a material in our earth that affects us in lots of ways. If you look around you, you probably will notice that a lot of things around you are made of plastic. And this isn't a bad thing, because plastic is a very strong, light, and cheap resource. However, plastic can affect is in some bad ways as well. For example, plastic tends to get into the ocean very often, which ends up killing many sea life because they mistake it for food. Also, making plastic requires a lot of oils and fossil fuels, which is a resource that we are running out of right now. But for all its bad effects on the planet, plastic is much more important to us then you may think. As I mentioned before, plastic is incredibly cheap when it comes to money, and can be made into almost anything solid. Also, plastic helped weaken