The Problem Of Plastic Bags And Solutions To It

Introduction

Over the years, the use of plastic bags is increasingly popular. The utility of the use of plastic bags is widely accepted in the direction of use disposable. Stroll around the markets, large and small, we can easily find people who go shopping just go empty-handed. They want to buy something from the bits, the sales ready to offer plastic bags to contain the number of the item. The advent of plastic bags has brought more comfort, especially in the packing of the goods, but to this point are plastic bags is an environmental problem and many countries are looking for ways to remove it. Thus, the aim of this paper is to illustrate the disadvantages of plastic bags and the ways to diminish the number of used plastic bags.

Background Information

Plastic is any synthetic or semi-synthetic organic polymer. While plastics may be made from just about any organic polymer, most industrial plastic is made from petrochemicals. Thermoplastics and thermosetting polymers are the two types of plastic. The name 'plastic' refers to the property of plasticity, which is the ability to deform without breaking

Advantages of Plastic Bags

Plastic bags have more functional and convenient packaging option for businesses and consumers. Firstly, it is good for branding and quite inexpensive. You can eassily print your logo on the bag brand to advertise, it not spend too much money . The price of plastic bags are much cheaper than the price of the paper bag or cloth bag. Minority Business Enterprise pointed out the utility of plastic bags is: durability with weather, versatile. You can use them in many different ways for many different purposes: food containers, old appliances packaging, or you can fold into small and carry one in your pocket for to use when needed. Plastic bags are known for their durability. They are less vulnerable to tearing and are resistant to many chemicals.

Plastic bags outperform paper or cloth bags when it comes to protect the contents from rain or water. Furthermore, the plastic bags often have many nice styling, extremely eye catching users (my opinion).

Disadvantages of Plastic Bags

Use the plastic bag is convenient but their harm to the environment and humans in extreme big. Plastic bags are adversely affecting the ecosystem, which as a debris mostly caused pollution in the ocean. Fish, sea mammals can be stuck into the plastic bags floating on the sea or drifting in the water when they move, it will make them choke and drown. Sometimes, fish, animals, birds eat into pieces of plastic bag, that block their diggestive system and causes them to die. Plastic bags do not disappear completely but it will turn into the small pieces and are the sea creatures eat fish, sea creatures, who eat the fish. Then plastic bag's toxin was accumulated from the food chain and ultimately causing the disease to humans. Plastic bag kill marine mamal, contaminated water resource. Under the reports Ecowatch about consumption of plastics: 'One million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed each year'.

The floating bags accumulate and add to other plastic items that form gyres. There are five huge garbage islands in the Pacific. These are growing in size over the years. In 2016 'The Great Pacific Gyre' was 386,000 square miles wide, with a periphery or outer circle of 1,351,000 square miles, according to The Guardian. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources states that: “the bags clog gutters and sewer grates, leading to flooding”. Because too much waste of plastic bags, they drift into sewers, rivers, lakes and accumulate to cause blockage of drainage has no place when there's heavy rain, leading to the flooding situation.

Besides, plastic bags will affect the ecological development of the region. Plastic bags if buried will pollute the soil and water environment, hinder the growth and development of plants, preventing water from soil to plants do this less developed types the cause of the erosion. On the other hand if the burning plastic would create emissions have dioxin and furan cause poisoning, affecting the endocrine glands, decreased immunity, disorders of digestive function and birth defects in babies and more dangerous is the likely cause of prostate cancer. The abuse of convenience of plastic bag combine litter habits of people making plastic bags become rampant junk stuff in life. This fact not only loses the landscape of the town but also a hidden potential disease bacteria, clogging drains, polluted the environment. The most dangerous plastic bags can cause cancer when that the additives used to make the toughness, to create color for plastic bags can cause toxin if heated at high temperatures. At temperatures of 70-80o C, used plastic bag manufacturing additives will dissolve into the food. If using plastic bags to contain highly acidic foods such as pickling salt, coffee, hot food additives will split off from the plastic components and goes into the food causing food poisoning. And The United Kingdom Marine Conservation Society states that plastic bags require 450 to 1,000 years to decompose in the environment.

The ways to Reduce Plastic Bags Pollution

The use of plastic bag brings a lot of advantages in the daily activities of the people, should it need restriction starting from the consciousness of the people. First of all the “propaganda” for the people to understand the harmful of using plastic bags with the surroundings and directly influence the current and future life like? This work is necessary to the relevant departments in the Ministry of propaganda the consciousness of the people. Now, we set up for ourself habit bring eco-friendly bags (e.g paper bags) when we go shopping or we can say no to the use of plastic bags even if the stores offer it and ask if they have eco-friendly.

In other way, we should not throw away indiscriminately, because it's the very light, they can be swept away down into the sewers, it will clog drains and cause more environmental problems. We should take the used plastic bags and then send to the recycling factory. Instead we threw it away after one use, then we let it back for use later. Let's make the most of the functions of a bag not throw it away when it can be used (my opinion).

Furthermore, many stores and supermarkets in developed countries are made to reduce the number of plastic bags. They switch from using nylon bags to use more environmentally friendly bags to canvas bags, paper-like environment. If consumers want to use nylon bags to buy with prices quite high. Many countries and territories around the world has opened a campaign to remove fur bag with high taxes for the plastic product or use of this product in large cities. In Vietnam, the Government has implemented tax increases for the production of nylon bag, some businesses have invested in the technology production of environment-friendly bags.

Conclusion

The purpose of the research paper is outlined the benefits, harms and some solutions to solve the problem of plastic bags. To decline the pollution caused by plastic bags, the most important is human consciousness in the use of plastic bags. Hopefully with the things I outlined above, the use of nylon bags will be limited, the spam scourge nylon for the environment and health will be prevented.