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What Negative and Positive effects does plastic have on the environment?

What are the effects of plastic bags on the environment ?

  • Plastic bags have been known to cause a lot of damage to the environment and they are also loved for being economical. What are the main problems associated with using plastic bags?

  • Answer:

    Disposable plastic bags are an environmental problem for several reasons.   First, they are manufactured from oil, creating further demand for environmentally damaging oil extraction.   Second, they do not quickly and harmlessly biodegade, and due to their disposable nature build up far more quickly than they break down. This causes a waste problem.   Third, due to their lightness and shape, they are readily prone to be blown or washed away to places outside the waste management stream. They get caught in trees and waterways.. They are unsightly, but more importantly they are frequently hazardous or lethal to wildlife (choking, suffocation, internal blockage).   Probably billions have ended up in the sea, to break up into tiny pieces and causing widespread harm when ingested, at all levels of the food chain. Even while whole they are hazardous - turtles, for instance, mistake them for jellyfish, and may die upon eating them.   Back on land, bags can block drainage systems, and thus contribute to localised flooding.   Despite all this, disposable plastic bags are by no means the greatest threat to our environment. Some have argued that paper bags actually carry a bigger ecological 'footprint' (felled trees, higher energy input to manufacture, heavier weight in transit) despite the fact that paper readily biodegrades.   Plastic bags are a legitimate target for criticism, however, since completely unnecessary. The reusable bag has been around for millenia, and does the job as well if not better.   At the very least, disposable bags ought to be used a second time as bin liners, which also ensures that they end up in the managed waste stream, rather than causing havoc to wildlife.

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Plastic is not http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/bengaluru-citizens-take-up-no-plastic-bag-challenge,  so the plastic bags we carelessly throw remains there for hundreds of  years. It does not break down into its elements and join nature. They  release toxic fumes into air when burnt, and the residual ash pollutes  the environment. When mixed with wet waste in landfills, they release  gases including ammonia and methane, which is toxic and foul smelling.  The http://souravroy.com/2013/04/01/outside-the-garden/ is a testament to why waste segregation is important. Even the  so-called biodegradable garbage bags are just degradable. They  physically disintegrate and remain in nature as small plastic particles. White pollution is so rampant in India,  that an estimated number of 20 cows die per day as a result of ingesting  plastic bags and having their digestive systems clogged by them.  According to Toxics Link, an environmental NGO, Delhi alone generates  almost http://www.dw.de/india-to-ban-plastic-bags/a-16345169 of plastic waste every year. If we go by or the data made available by  BBMP, of the 5,000 tonnes of waste generated every day in Bangalore,  3,000 tonnes is dry waste including http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/Plastic-waste-will-soon-pave-Bangalore-roads/articleshow/25235468.cms of plastic. While the actual numbers can be be much higher. Original article here - http://souravroy.com/2014/12/21/plastics-aholes/

Sourav Roy

Absolutely not. Plastic bags are not as environmentally damaging as we are led to believe.  One important way to measure the environmental effect of a product is to calculate its "embodied energy" or the amount of energy it takes to mine the materials to produce the product, to manufacture the product, to transport the product, the use the product, and to dispose of the product.  And the plastic bag is EXTREMELY efficient.  For every paper bag, 100 plastic bags can be produced for the same amount of embodied energy. Now, there are other factors than embodied energy, like physical damage to the environment and how easily the product breaks down.  Plastic doesn't break down as easily as paper, but paper requires an enormous amount of water in its manufacture and it causes a great deal of pollution.  Furthermore, manufacturers are getting better and better at producing plastic bags that decompose faster.  And plastic bags can be reused more often than paper bags. Plastic bag bans are BAD for the environment.

Anonymous

Kick the Plastic Habit! Yes, here in the US we have a bad habit. We consume an outrageous quantity of plastic bags. It’s time to change our habits. Each and every individual has a responsibility to the planet they live on, to change their plastic bag habits! If you come home from the supermarket with 50 plastic bags that you carry back and forth from your car to you kitchen, you have a plastic bag addiction. In this day and age, our American addiction to plastic bags has to STOP! http://bit.ly/blogPLASTICBAGS

Karen Jones

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