Plastic Pollution & Biodegradable Plastics
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Najaf Rizvi
Plastic pollution
is one of the biggest problems that plagues our world today. Although plastic
doesn’t look very harmful, it is very dangerous to the environment- us people
included. This is because it is constantly affecting the environment in some
bad way instead of breaking down peacefully. When the little plastic that
breaks down actually breaks down, its small particles attract toxic and harmful
chemicals. Animals and plants eventually come into contact with these chemicals
which harms the food chain itself. These harmful chemicals are unfortunately
present within almost every one of us, even newborn babies. Even worse is the
fact that this problem is just spiraling out of control because people
constantly use plastic items. And even if these plastics are used for just
seconds, their effects are seen for years.
However, there is
some hope regarding plastic pollution, and that’s biodegradable plastics. A
biodegradable plastic is a plastic that can be broken down through biological
means into their base compounds. This is very useful and helpful to the
environment because it can be broken down, in proper conditions, completely
into carbon and gasses. However, as perfect as biodegradable plastics may seem,
there are some disadvantages. There are some concerns that an oxo biodegradable
plastic- which is basically a polyolefin (a polymer made from a simple alkene)
plastic with added amounts of metal salts- would release metals and take a very
long time to break down in some circumstances. They might also produce small
fragments of plastic that do not degrade at any recognizable rate no matter the
environment. However, that is only in certain conditions and otherwise,
biodegradable plastics are one of the best things we can incorporate into our
daily lives in order to help the environment.
The problem of plastic pollution is not taken seriously as it should be taken. Many people don't pay attention to this pollution and think there is no harm for using plastic. People don't realize that toxic and harmful chemicals originate from these plastics that can harm animal life and newborns, just as the student stated. Take plastic bags for example, 500,000,000,000 plastic bags are used per year. In other words, that’s almost 1 million plastic bags used per minute. As you can see, people constantly use these plastic items without realizing the danger plastic can do. Only about 1 percent of these bags are recycled globally and are dumped into oceans and landfills which can effect the living things around them. As the student stated, a solution of plastic pollution would be to use biodegradable plastics instead, however they have their disadvantages as well. There really is no solution to this pollution because almost all the population use plastics for their needs. People are trying to find an ideal solution but can not. Nowadays, people try to cut down on the use for plastic in order to reduce plastic pollution.
ReplyDeleteThe effects that plastics have on our environment are detrimental in the least, but the journey to a solution that can be put into mass effect is a long one. The obvious answer is to start replacing these harmful plastics with biodegradable plastics, which will involve mass economic manipulation. Thus, I will propose that we as consumers attempt to purchase biodegradable plastics more often. If done on a large scale, then companies will eventually realize that it is in their best interest to switch to biodegradable waste. We can do so much on our own that we should not need to rely on the government or companies to do everything by themselves. As humans its our moral obligation to keep this planet healthy and running, so keeping track of the products we purchase is the least we can do.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the author of the essay and my fellow class mates that plastic pollution is not taken seriously enough. According to stopplasticpollution.org, "Between 60 and 80% of marine debris is derived from plastic products and enormous quantities of plastic are concentrated in the 5 largest gyres of our oceans, with known serious consequences for marine life and possible grave consequences for the food chain and human health. Some plastic items are so light that they are easily carried into the environment by wind. Plastic debris causes substantial economic impacts to coastal economies because of the high costs of removal and disposal, but cleaning this waste from watersheds, coastlines, and the nearshore seafloor is critical to prevent flooding, navigational hazards, detriment to the tourism industry, and ecological destruction." One possible solution to preventing plastic pollution is to use more plastic 1-5 (since they are easily recyclable). According to http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org, the most effective way to stop plastic pollution is by making people,
ReplyDelete(1)Encourage, inspire and support individuals, organizations and businesses to end their dependence on disposable plastic, and to reduce their plastic footprint;
(2) Encourage, inspire and support plastic product manufacturers to own the end of life of their products; to invest in truly biodegradable products; and to self-regulate the output of non-biodegradable matter;
(3) Encourage, inspire and support the creation of economic incentives for businesses willing to invest in plastic alternatives; legislation that curbs irresponsible proliferation of disposable plastic;
(4) Encourage, inspire and support international leaders to form global alliances against plastic pollution.
Most people believe that as long as they toss plastic products in a recycling bin, they have done their part to prevent the horrors of animal death due to plastic pollution. This is unfortunately not nearly true. 93 percent of "recycled" plastic goes straight to landfills where it adds to the problem. The only solution is for people to understand the dangers of disposable plastics and to begin re-using and altogether moving away from plastics in general. Even biodegradable plastics are not at a safe standard yet, so until there are regulations in place it is a consumers duty to use non-plastic materials.
ReplyDelete