Negative Effect Plastic has on the Environment

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In 1862, Alexander Parkes unveiled an invention, a compound known as celluloid that would change modern history. This is the first known plastic compound to demonstrate the ability to mold when heated and maintain its shape once cooled. While the chemical compounds have evolved over the years, so have its uses and our dependency on them. If we look around our room today, we can see that nearly every product in our house either consists or was built by some form of plastic. This dependence raises some alarming questions. What are the ramifications of our dependency on this highly versatile resource? Is our consumption truly sustainable as demand continues to grow? To better understand the problems we are faced with, we should educate ourselves on the negative effects plastic has on the environment, the sustainability of plastic, and the alternatives that could be used to better recycle, reuse, or assist in decomposition of plastics.
Every trip to the grocery store more and more items are packaged in plastic, which are then placed in a plastic shopping cart, possibly paid for with a plastic credit card and carried out in plastic bags. In short almost everything we use consists of or was built by a plastic based product. So what’s the issue? Plastics represent one of the biggest pollutants in the world because they take an immense amount of time to break down. Today most plastic is made from polyurethane.
The main negative effect that plastic has on our environment is how hazardous it is. Polyurethane plastic does not biodegrade, it photo-degrades with solar radiation and oxidation from sunlight. It breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, but they never really disappear. A example of this would be a plastic cigarette lighter ...

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