Plastic Bags
The widespread use of plastic bags by businesses and consumer has been a longstanding concern for environmentalists, wildlife management advocates, and recycling programs. The issues with plastic bags include their low recyclability and the environmental hazards created by their production. Not only are plastic bags produced with petroleum, they are light, and easily travel into natural areas, causing waste build-up and hazards to animals. The byproducts of their production are also toxic, causing issues with air quality and aid rain. Campaigns to ban the use of plastic bags began in Rawanda and India, and by 2007, programs were developed in many other countries, including the United States. Efforts to stop the use of plastic bags and find realistic and environmentally sustainable solutions are critical to ongoing and growing campaigns.
Plastic bags create vast amounts of waste that don't have the ability to decomposed quickly. In fact, the environmental lobbying group, California's Against Waste (2010) estimates that between 500 billion and 1 trillion bags are used each year worldwide. These bags take an average of 1000 years to decompose, and often build up in landfills, with their decay causing toxic emissions. According to a report from The Ecologist, one of the most common chemicals in plastic is Bisphenol A. This chemical compound can behave as an endocrine disruptor and can mimic estrogen, and frequently contaminates our food and drinking water. It can also travel through the placental wall and is found in breast milk, indicating that it can harm fetuses and newborns. A wide variety of health issues and diseases have been linked to Bisphenol A, including heart disease, thyroid disorders, ADHD, Endometriosis, and infertility, and as such, many researchers note that water and land infiltrated by plastics can often become a "toxic soup" (Hawkins, 2010).
In addition to containing potentially harmful chemicals, plastic bags are produced using natural gas or oil. According to Californians Against Waste (2010) note that the process of making plastic bags is not sustainable because the materials used are not renewable. Thousands of barrels of
Thus plastic bags, which many people assume are low cost or even free, cost governments millions of dollars in production and waste management. For example, in San Francisco, California, officials estimate that city spends approximately 8.5 million dollars a year to manage plastic waste. In addition to these costs, the use of petroleum in the production of plastic bags produces greenhouse gases and reduces air quality. As such, the production of plastic bags can be directly linked to toxic gasses, global warming, and the destruction of our atmosphere (Hawkins, 2010).
The California Costal Commission also notes that although many people assume that all plastic is recyclable, plastic bags have very low recyclability. Plastic bags are often mixed in with other recyclable materials, and because they are often to store waste, they must be removed from recycling and discarded. They frequently cause jams in waste processing equipment, and they are light, so they are easily moved by wind and often littler public areas, such as streets, parks, beaches, and waterways. Thus, the low recyclability leaves plastic bags present in our environment, where they can cause vast amount of ecological damage and unsightly collections of waste.
The ecological impact of plastic bags is staggering. Californians Against Waste (2010) notes that,
"at least 267 species have been scientifically documented to be adversely affected by plastic marine debris and it is estimated to kill over 100,000 marine mammals and turtles each year."
Marine animals often mistake plastic bags for food, such as…
" (Ware, 35) The PHB is a high weight polymer that is used for energy storage and carbon storage by a large number of microorganisms. PHB is synthesized and degraded by a lot of organisms and is said to be the most economic alternative to petrochemical plastics. The commercial production of PHB is on and in the brand name Bipol. The attractive feature is that the polymer degrades into carbon
Life Cycle or Carbon Footprint of Plastic Bags Plastic bags are regarded as one of the most common items in daily life in the modern society. These products continue to be common in everyday life despite emerging concerns across many cities worldwide concerning their probable environmental impact. These concerns have increased in the recent past because of the problem of global climate change. Actually, the concerns have been fueled by increased
Using forensic medical evidence in court It is a requirement by the International law for all states to carry out investigations for all allegations of torture and bring to book the culprits. The victims of such torture also need to be compensated adequately by the state. Many torturers perform their heinous acts in the dark, and try to conceal all possible evidence, but still aim at inflicting as much pain as
Packaging Materials Comparison In the contemporary era, there is a hot debate going on regarding the usage of paper-based shipping container, wood-based shipping container, plastic-based shipping container or retail shipping package. Thus, this controversial issue regarding the usage of the mentioned containers and packaging in a variety of supply chains in the commodities' shipment has led to numerous dissimilar views about the appropriateness of the methods. This is the reason why
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