Single-use plastic items pose a big threat to the environment in USA as well as on a global scale.
Items such as single-use plastic bags, coffee cups, and plastic wrap for lunch items such as sandwiches all contribute to a growing waste problem around the world.
What’s the problem?
In some years, Americans have used up to 100 billion, or sometimes more, lightweight single-use plastic bags. These are the kind you get at supermarkets, fast food outlets, petrol stations and other shops.
The making of plastic bags also take energy to create, which produces greenhouse gas emissions. Driving a car one kilometer emits the same amount of energy as manufacturing 8.7 plastic bags.
The U.N. Environment reports just nine per cent of the world’s nine billion tons of plastic has been recycled. Most of our plastic ends up in landfills, our oceans and waterways, and the environment. Many of the bags end up as litter polluting waterways and other parts of the environment. Plastics do not biodegrade. Instead they slowly break down into smaller pieces of plastic called microplastics.
Microplastics:
Microplastics are a main part of the problem. Microplastics are minute bits of plastic which originate from bigger plastics that have degraded over time. 80% of microplastics are from land-based sources like bottles and bags.
Sea animals frequently eat micro plastics because of their minor size. In 2014, a projected 15 to 51 trillion microplastic particles were floating in the world’s oceans, weighing between 93,000 and 236,000 tons.
Animals eating plastics:
Animals are eating plastics. And if we eat those animals, we’re eating plastic. This contamination doesn’t go away when these fish are consumed by other animals either. The fish dinner you have this week could contain traces of last month’s grocery bags along with the chemicals associated with them. What’s even more unappetizing is the prediction made by the Plastic Pollution Coalition that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean in 2050.
By then, you might as well rummage through the recycling bin if you’re craving the taste of seafood. Even if you abstain from eating meat, we are still haunted by the effects of plastic since all of us are born into this world already contaminated by the substance.
Changing attitudes:
Manufacturing a reusable, Eco friendly shopping bag can cut energy waste as it consumes only nine per cent of the energy and produces only ten per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions compared with using a traditional plastic bag.
This shows that USA still has a significant waste problem. At any given opportunity, switch to reusable products e.g. biodegradable brush, bamboo reusable cutlery set, and eco-friendly drinking water bottle, in order to avoid having to use plastics.
The making of Plastic bags also take energy to create, which produces greenhouse gas emissions. Driving a car one mile emits the same amount of energy as manufacturing 8.7 plastic bags.
Manufacturing a reusable, Eco friendly shopping bag can cut energy waste as it consumes only nine per cent of the energy and produces only ten per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions compared with using a traditional plastic bag.
