Why Plastic Bags should be banned
Banning the use of plastics is a necessary action than should be undertaken without any delay. Plastic bags, despite being useful, carry more harm to the environment than good. Plastic bags cause an extortionate amount of pollution, induces illnesses to humans and animals, cause clogging of drainage systems, and make waste management difficult.
First, plastic bags should be banned because plastic bags contribute to the immense amount of environmental pollution both on land and in the sea. Over 40,000 plastic bags are found in the shores every year. An example is the great pacific garbage patch, which contains a massive pile of plastic debris in the North Pacific Ocean. The pollution of the ocean by plastic has hazardous effects on the animal’s life. Marine animals eat the plastics in the water, thinking it is food. The plastics ingested pierce the animal’s intestines causing death or unrelenting hunger. Research has shown that plastic bags have been the primary cause of untimely animal deaths. Plastic bags also lead to pollution of groundwater. Dumpsites containing plastic bags release toxic chemicals that sink to groundwater reservoirs, thus contaminating them.
Secondly, plastics induce illnesses to humans and animals. These plastics emit toxic elements, including sulfur, carbon, and Hydrochloric acids that accumulate in the animal’s body, inducing diseases, and eventually death. Bisphenol (BPA), which is found in plastic-packaged processed foods, for example, is known to be a significant cause of chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart diseases (Vandenberg et al., 118). Phthalates, which are a component in plastics used to improve durability, transparency, and longevity, are known to be related to increased cardiovascular disease and hypertension in men.
Thirdly, recycling of plastic bags has proven to be a difficult task. Customers don’t take the initiative of recycling these bags. The United States uses enormous plastics bags, yet less than 50% is recycled (Van der Walt, 9). Banning should be done so that the customers will recycle the bags 100%. Plastics are also light and can catch the wind and be blown away, making it difficult to confine them to their disposal area. This makes recycling even much harder to be done. Citizens should be educated on the importance of reusing and recycling plastic bags. Improper disposal of plastics cause clogging of sewers and waterlogging in cities. For example, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the city experienced disastrous flooding because the plastic bags blocked the drainage system. Bangladesh passed a law against plastic packaging, which has so far helped curb the situation.
Plastics cost a lot of money and natural resources to produce. A lot of energies, such as fuel from petroleum, are nonrenewable, and they are used in the production of plastics, which are eventually thrown away. Plastic also uses a lot of water in its production. It is estimated that twenty-two gallons of water are required to produce one pound of plastic. Plastic production cost 60-100 million barrels of petroleum oil from the world’s petroleum reserve, thus depleting the resource and making other petroleum products’ prices rise. These valuable resources can be channeled to other useful uses such as fuel instead of converting them to useless garbage heaps.
Also, plastic bags are non-biodegradable. All the plastic bags and plastics ever produced still exist in some form. Only 18% of the total plastic produced is recycled. The remaining 82% is found in the environment polluting soil, water, and cogging drainages. This means that we are adding more rubbish to the environment that we get rid of it.
Due to the fact that plastics do not decay nor allow decaying, every bit of plastic thrown accumulate to hundreds of thousands of tons and continue destroying the environment. Plastics produce harmful gases such as sulfur dioxide, dioxins, and heavy metals when burnt (Alam et al., 132). These gases destroy the ozone layer, which absorbs UV rays that are harmful to life. The destruction of the Ozone layer propagates global warming and climate change. Therefore, it is impossible to destroy plastics without harming the environment, leaving us with only one option to prevent its production and usage.
In conclusion, plastic bags have become an imminent catastrophe that requires banning. The governments of the world should make conscious efforts to mitigate the usage of these bags. They should develop initiatives and create awareness campaigns to curb plastic usage. These governments need to introduce alternatives for plastics. People should be involved in making a wise choice to make a healthier environment. Such options include using cloth, paper, and jute bags and adopting reusable bags.
Work cited
Vandenberg, Laura N., et al. “Biomonitoring studies should be used by regulatory agencies to assess human exposure levels and safety of bisphenol A.” Environmental health perspectives 118.8 (2010): 1051-1054.
Alam, Ohidul, Mukaddis Billah, and Ding Yajie. “Characteristics of plastic bags and their potential environmental hazards.” Resources, Conservation, and Recycling 132 (2018): 121-129.
van der Walt, Jeandré. “Plastic packaging should focus on recycling.” Farmer’s Weekly 2019.19027 (2019): 6-7.