What Is Plastic Pollution?
People should remind that "We do not inherit this earth from our ancestors; we have borrowed it from our children"
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| Beat plastic pollution and save the earth |
Why people use plastic more?
Now a days, plastics are used widely everywhere in our life and without plastic modern civilization would indeed look very diverse. There are different reasons leading to the uses of plastic in
excessive manner. Some of the major reasons are
described below -
- Cheaper price and affordable to manufacture: Plastic can be bought at cheaper price and are most affordable materials to manufacture. As it is cheaper than wood, metal or glass we are able to get quality products easily at lower cost. Using plastic rather than wood, metal or glass is affordable for all. As a result, people use it excessively making environment polluted.
- Light-weight: Plastic goods are normally light-weight. Using light-weight material like plastic, our laundry baskets, storage solutions and such other items can easily be moved around from one place to another. So people find more convenient to carry these products/goods along with them which bring into existence a large number of plastic wastes every day.
- It can be used for longer period of time: Plastic is a hard wearing material. It is water resistant and strong. It is highly resistant to aggressive environment and to most chemicals. So it has a long lifespan. Therefore, people mostly prefer use of plastic in their everyday life.
- It is not breakable easily: Plastic is not breakable easily unlike glasses and other metals. Because of this nature people uses various plastic products for their household uses also. As a result, various kitchen items like container, bowl spoon and so on are used every day in their life which also leads to more uses of plastic.
- Plastic can be recycled: Another important reason for using plastic is it's recycling nature The recycling system means a process by which plastic products like - trays, baskets, boxes, bins etc. that we use in our everyday life can be made into something new. For that reason, it is also one of the important factors that lead to uses of plastic excessively.
What are the main Causes Of Plastic Pollution?
Human activities are the biggest cause of plastic pollution. Plastics are manufactured by Humans and used extensively in their daily life. Without having proper recycling and disposal methods they dispose plastics in the environment which in turn pollutes our surroundings in different ways harming river, land, water and all living things. Some of the causes of plastic pollution are enumerated below:- Over usage of Plastic bags: Plastic are common form of packaging. Due to the nature of durability and very thin plastic bags are used extensively for containing and transporting goods such as foods, produce, powders, chemicals etc. Every year, about 1 to 5 trillion plastic bags are used and discarded around the world. These over-usages of plastic bags in turn cause plastic pollution.
- Disposal of plastic products on landfills and soil: Plastic wastes take too long to decompose. Normally, plastic items can take up to 1000 years to decompose in landfills. Practically, for some people, garbage bins are just out of reach while other simply do not care. As a result, plastic bags, bottles and other items made of plastic are thrown away on streets. The increasing volume of plastic waste in landfills has raised a serious concern about the soil fertility among the environmentalists.
- Burning of plastic products: It is known that toxic chemicals are used in the production of Plastic materials. When it is burned these chemicals vaporize and lead to several respiratory illnesses of human being and harmful weather conditions such as acid rain. While plastics are burned chemical gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide and hydrochloric acid and other harmful gases are also emitted. As a result, these toxic gases pollute our atmosphere and make a contribution to global warming.
- Fishing nets: One of the major contributors to the plastic pollution is fishing nets. Fishing net is a net used for fishing. Fishing nets when discarded or lost in ocean it leaches toxins into the ocean water and can take up to 500 - 600 years to decompose. As a result it continues to pollute water and harm living beings of the ocean.
- Overpopulation: Overpopulation has harmful impact on environment. In today's world a single person uses many types of plastic products (from Sprite bottles to Polythene bags) in a single day. "More people" mean "more needs". As result, when population become to be increased the usage of plastic also rises than earlier. Consequently, it brings large number of single use plastic into existence leading to environmental pollution.
What are the major effects of Plastic pollution?
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| Plastic wastes |
Today, plastic pollution is globally one of the most discussed issues in the world. Plastics are essential materials in modern civilization and many products are manufactured from plastic. Now, approximately 70 percent of total productions of plastic items are found in landfills, rivers, lakes, seas oceans etc. It has many serious effects on the life of the living organisms on the earth. Some of the major effects of plastic pollution are listed below:
- Plastic is harmful to human health and environment: Today plastics are essential materials in modern civilization and many products are manufactured from plastic. But, plastic contains many chemical and hazardous substances which are very harmful to human health and environment. These chemicals leach out of the plastic into human body and can lead to different illness. Today, human population uses plastic even after knowing serious effects of plastic on their health and environment. Different human health problem like - irritation in the eye, breathing difficulties, respiratory problems, cancers, skin diseases, lungs problems, liver dysfunction, headache, dizziness etc. causes for using toxic plastics. Moreover, plastic occur several serious environment pollution also such as - soil pollution, water pollution, air pollution etc.
- It destructs fertility of soil: Plastic contains a lot of chemicals which are harmful to the earth in any way. Bulk of plastic wastes on land takes many years to break down. It forms a ground for breeding bacteria and viruses and retards the growth of plants and trees on the land. Consequently, littering of plastic wastes on land degrade the quality of soil leading to decline of productivity.
- Pollution of ground water: It is happened when large numbers of plastic materials are dumped in landfills. When there is rain then these plastic wastes comes into contact of rain water and form some hazardous chemicals. As a result, these chemicals seep into the groundwater supply and contaminate it which flows into our lakes and rivers and eventually the sea.
- Ecological imbalance: Plastic is made up of several toxic materials. When plastic wastes are disposed in rivers and seas then it makes water polluted. It releases toxic substances and kills living beings on water. Sometimes, Big fish mistake plastic for food. As a result of this entire food chain tends to be affected and leads an imbalance in the ecosystem.
- Air pollution: Burning of plastic introduces pollutants into air and cause air pollution by emitting some toxic gases. These chemicals and toxic gases released during the burning of plastic affect the ozone layer and cause global warming.
- Threat to animal health: Plastic pollution brings a serious threat to animals also. Sometimes, we notice that animals, especially cattle eat plastic bags laying on the roadside. These plastic bags are not digestible. When these plastic bags go into their stomach it releases some chemical toxins and causes poisoning on their stomach.
Tips to control plastic pollution:
Today plastic waste has become a huge problem worldwide. Plastic pollution is caused by the activities of human being. Today, natural environment is going to be degraded with the same pace of modernization and development. So, it is the responsibility of humans to control the affects of plastic pollution and save the environment. Some tips to curb this problem are highlighted below -- Finding out of a affordable alternatives to plastic items.
- Cleaning up plastic wastes if anyone finds.
- Avoiding plastic packaging.
- Creating innovative methods required to recycle and reuse plastics.
- Avoiding use of disposable plastic water bottles and using reusable water bottles.
- Environmental awareness by local-self government body and education on conservation of environment.
- All the stores and shops must avoid providing plastic carry bags to their customers and should supply cloth bags and reusable carry bags.
- Reduce the usage of unwanted plastic products and items in the house, office and other places.
- Putting pressure on manufacturers in different ways for best alternatives to plastic.
Globally, plastic pollution is one of the largest threats to the environment. Researcher estimates that if current trends of using plastic continue, our oceans could contain more plastic than fish by 2050. It is the responsibility of everyone to save our earth from getting polluted. Though plastic is very useful in modern civilization it serves as a serious threat to our environment. We should try our best to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic whenever possible.
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