Topic: Environmental issues like pollution
Issue: plastic use leading to pollution
Sources:
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_pollution
Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth’s environment that adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitat, and humans.[1][2] Plastics that act as pollutants are categorized into micro-, meso-, or macro debris, based on size.[3] Plastics are inexpensive and durable, and as a result levels of plastic production by humans are high.[4] However, the chemical structure of most plastics renders them resistant to many natural processes of degradation and as a result they are slow to degrade.[5] Together, these two factors have led to a high prominence of plastic pollution in the environment.
Plastic pollution can afflict land, waterways and oceans. It is estimated that 1.1 to 8.8 million tonnes of plastic waste enters the ocean from coastal communities each year.[6] Living organisms, particularly marine animals, can be harmed either by mechanical effects, such as entanglement in plastic objects, problems related to ingestion of plastic waste, or through exposure to chemicals within plastics that interfere with their physiology. Effects on humans include disruption of various hormonal mechanisms.
As of 2018, about 380 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide each year. From the 1950s up to 2018, an estimated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced worldwide, of which an estimated 9% has been recycled and another 12% has been incinerated.[7] This large amount of plastic waste enters the environment, with studies suggesting that the bodies of 90% of seabirds contain plastic debris.[8][9] In some areas there have been significant efforts to reduce the prominence of free range plastic pollution, through reducing plastic consumption, litter cleanup, and promoting plastic recycling.[10][11]
Some researchers suggest that by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by weight.[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_shopping_bag
Plastic shopping bags, carrier bags, or plastic grocery bags are a type of plastic bag used as shopping bags and made from various kinds of plastic. In use by consumers worldwide since the 1960s,[1] these bags are sometimes called single-use bags, referring to carrying items from a store to a home. However, reuse for storage or trash is common, and modern plastic shopping bags are increasingly recyclable or biodegradable.[citation needed] In recent decades, numerous countries have introduced legislation restricting the sale of plastic bags, in a bid to reduce littering and plastic pollution.[2][3][4][5] Some reusable shopping bags[6] are made of plastic film, fibers, or fabric.
Because plastic bags are so durable, this makes them a concern for the environment. They will not break down easily and as a result are very harmful to wildlife. Each year millions of discarded plastic shopping bags end up as plastic waste litter in the environment when improperly disposed of.[17] The same properties that have made plastic bags so commercially successful and ubiquitous—namely their low weight and resistance to degradation—have also contributed to their proliferation in the environment. Due to their durability, plastic bags can take centuries to decompose.[17] According to The Outline, it can take between 500 – 1,000 years for a plastic shopping bag to break down. The use lifespan of a bag is approximately 12 minutes of use.[18]
On land, plastic bags are one of the most prevalent types of litter in inhabited areas. Large buildups of plastic bags can clog drainage systems and contribute to flooding, as occurred in Bangladesh in 1988 and 1998[19] and almost annually in Manila.[20][21] Littering is often a serious problem in developing countries, where trash collection infrastructure is less developed than in wealthier nations.[22] According to Sharma, Moser, Vermillion, Doll, and Rajagopalan (2014), they have noted that in the year 2009 only 13% of one trillion single-use plastic bags produced were recycled, the rest were thrown away, which means they end up in landfills and because they are so lightweight end up in the atmosphere blown into the environment. The number of plastic grocery bags disposed of in the U.S. apart from the rest of the world is a number that is difficult to comprehend, this is why it is important that solutions are considered, weighed and measured to address this growing problem. Phasing out plastic bags is a viable option, however, there are many that argue that this puts a strain on businesses and makes it more difficult for the customer to take goods home. There are alternatives such as purchasing cloth grocery bags so that those who don’t agree with using plastic reusable bags can still have a bag that can be used many times over; however, government studies have found that cloth bags have a high carbon footprint.[23] Many states have used legislation to stop the banning of plastic bags. Plastic bags were found to constitute a significant portion of the floating marine debris in the waters around southern Chile in a study conducted between 2002 and 2005.[24]
Plastic bags don’t do well in the environment, but several government studies have found them to be an environmentally friendly carryout bag option. According to the Recyc-Quebec, a Canadian government agency, “The conventional plastic bag has several environmental and economic advantages. Thin and light, its production requires little material and energy. It also avoids the production and purchase of garbage/bin liner bags since it benefits from a high reuse rate when reused for this purpose (77.7%).”[25] Government studies from Denmark[23] and the United Kingdom,[26] as well as a study from Clemson University,[27] came to similar conclusions.
Google Scholar:
•Science direct- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301650
Plastics in the marine environment are widely recognized as a global issue.•
Current international strategies and policies to reduce single-use plastics (plastic bags and microbeads) are reviewed.•
Many nations have adopted policies (since 1991) to reduce single-use plastic bags.•
A rising tide of policy strategies to reduce microbeads began in 2014, but are yet to be implemented.•
More research, policy and legislation efforts to reduce single-use plastic marine pollution are recommended.
Science Direct-https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0043135417309272
38 mineral waters were analyzed for microplastics by means of μ-Raman spectroscopy.•
Microplastics were found in every type of water, almost 80% are sized between 5 and 20 μm.•
Statistically significant difference from blank value could only be proven towards returnable bottles.•
The found particles correlated with the materials the bottles/cartons were made of.•
This indicates that plastic packaging emit microparticles, ingested directly by consumers.
Public Health Management and policy- https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/15d7/a3ed3e708e403c7838d474984c91eeab1ec5.pdf
The issues surround the toxicity to human from the single use plastics are primarily due
to their use in packing food stuff. Here drinking water bottles are often the most talked
about sources of toxicity to humans from plastics. Pthalates and Bisphenol A (BPA) are
the two most notorious toxin which leach from plastics into the contained food or water.
Moreover when these single use item are discarded improperly, they often end up in
water bodies where they continue to leach these harmful chemical for an very long time,
on account of being non biodegradable.
Google:
UN Environment Program-
While plastic has many valuable uses, we have become addicted to single-use or disposable plastic — with severe environmental consequences. Around the world, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, while up to 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year. In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once — and then thrown away. Plastic waste is now so ubiquitous in the natural environment that scientists have even suggested it could serve as a geological indicator of the Anthropocene era.Researchers estimate that more than 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since the early 1950s. About 60% of that plastic has ended up in either a landfill or the natural environment.
Marine Safe-
Disposable plastic shopping bags take around 20 years to break down in the ocean – leaving chemicals and toxic particles (microplastics) behind. A bottle that holds one drink and is disposed of immediately after consumption will take an incredible 450 years or more to break down into microplastic. The majority of all marine litter is plastic and comes from use on the land, traveling via wind and river until it reaches the sea. The energy and economic cost of recycling it is immense and less than 10% is recovered, with 50% going into landfill, some being made into durable goods and much of the rest ending up in the ocean¹.
Millions of tonnes of plastic floats in the ocean in giant islands of plastic trash. Unknown quantities have broken down into tiny toxic microplastic particles that act in the same way as micro beads, attracting and binding other pollutants and making themselves more toxic in the process. While it floats and degrades, the plastic leaches marine-toxic chemicals into the water.
The effects of plastic bags and bottle caps on seabirds, turtles, seals, whales and other species is graphically illustrated by their deaths from starvation after mistakenly consuming the plastic or from getting tangled up in it.
Youtube-
