Plastic bags are one of the most objectionable types of trash n urban areas. The sheer volume of plastic waste generated coupled with energy and material resources required for production, as well as emissions resulting from these processes paint a grim picture of the environmental havoc created by plastic bags. Plastic bags are a huge threat to the environment as more than 1 trillion plastics bags are consumed worldwide every year. Read on to know why you should not use plastic bags:
Environmental Threats
Plastic bags are notorious for their interference in natural ecosystems and for causing the death of aquatic organisms, animals and birds. In 2006, The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean and upto 80 percent of marine debris worldwide is plastic which are responsible for the death of a more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals each year from starvation, choking or entanglement.
Infact, there is a huge floating dump in the Pacific Ocean called the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” which is hundreds of miles wide and consists mostly of plastic debris caught in the ocean’s currents.
Plastic bags are mistakenly ingested by animals, like cows and camels, clogging their intestines which results in death by starvation. In addition, plastic bags clog urban drainage systems and contribute to flooding, as witnessed in Mumbai, Dhaka and Manila in recent decades. Moreover, toxic chemicals from single-use bags can enter the food chain when they are ingested by animals and birds.
Unfortunately only a small percentage of these bags are recycled each year, and most float about the landscape and create a tremendous expense in clean-up costs. Several countries, regions, and cities have enacted legislation to ban or severely reduce the use of disposable plastic shopping bags. Plastic bags serves as a floating transportation agent that enables alien species to move to new parts of the world thus threatening biodiversity.
The Way Forward
Environmental education at workplaces, schools and residential areas is a vital tool in the fight against plastic bags. Empowering people to take proactive actions and encouraging them to be a part of the solution can also be helpful in reducing the reliance on single-use plastic bags.
Municipalities can make use of 5Rs of waste management – Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover – to encourage safe disposal of plastic bags which may be facilitated by mass deployment of plastic bag collection systems and recycling facilities at strategic locations.
Some of the alternatives are cloth-based bags, such as jute and cotton, which biodegradable as well as reusable. Infact, the range of durable fabric shopping bags is growing each year in the Western countries, including those that can be conveniently folded up into a pocket.
The introduction of ‘plastic bags tax’ can also be a handy weapon in restricting use of plastic bags. For example, Ireland introduced a plastic bag charge called PlasTax ten years ago which has virtually eliminated plastic bags in the country.
Salman is a prolific environmental writer, and has authored more than 500 articles in reputed journals, magazines and websites. He is proactively engaged in creating mass awareness on renewable energy, waste management, sustainability and conservation all over the world.
Salman can be reached on salman@cleantechloops.com
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If you make those bags out of plastic treated with ENA, they will biodegrade – in the ocean, in lakes and rivers, in landfills, and in composters.
True Salman, but don’t you think the article should read ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF HUMAN BEINGS rather than plastic bags . I am guilty too. We just can’t organise ourselves enough to ensure that we either re use bags several times and find better ways to recycle them . I am not a qualified scientist to speak on the subject , but simple logic tells me that if I can re use a plastic bag 50 times and find a safe way to dispose of them, I have removed 49 bags from the equation . And then of course , the scientists come in and find ways to make the bags bio degradable and non polluting.
I find the same logic in my Ligjt up a village initiative with a good quality Solar light ( like the ones from InteliZon) . Removing candles , on a daily basis from people’s lives with one Solar Light certainly has an impact . Batteries from torches pollute the soil in villages and so does the disposal of CFL and Florescent tubes. Soil productivity diminishes while we blame the CFL and the plastic bag. A little education to future and present generations will help in a far greater manner
Reusable cloth bags are a great alternative, when biodegradable bags are not available. I am not a scientist however, people must be educated that the reusable bags must be washed periodically; best practice is after every use. The bags will harbor viruses and bacteria, the problem grows exponentially when they bags are left to sit in a hot car, or in the sun which helps speed bacteria growth.
I have only one question. How is it possible that plastc bags endanger nature, when we pay so much to so many waste companies for waste processing and management?