It topped 60 million tons (54.4 million metric tons) in 2010 based on a September 2018 report titled "Plastic Pollution."But China announced it plans to outlaw the production and sale of . A wave of single-use plastic bans is sweeping the country and the globemost often on plastic bags, straws, stirrers, and takeout clamshells. Some tributaries of the river have been filled with plastic waste to the level that you could almost walk across them without getting your feet wet. These are known to be hormone-disrupting chemicals. Its Plastic Incineration. According to the researchers, the turtle likely mistook the straw for food and swallowed it. More and more states are looking to pass a new kind of recycling law that asks manufacturers to foot the bill for the waste created by their products. As plastic bags are not disposed properly . Plastic straws (like most plastic) are non-biodegradable, meaning that it cant be naturally broken down by decomposers. 5 Metals in your Home that can be Recycled for Cash, How exactly bidets offer a healthier, green option for your bathroom, A Closer Look at General Motors (GM) Sustainability Initiatives. Theyve even made their way up to the secluded Pyrenees mountain range and down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Marine animals bear the burden of this influx of garbage into their habitats. Additionally, someone has to pay the cost of dealing with plastic bags in the waste stream. If the environmental movement drew up a Most Unwanted list for 2018, the plastic drinking straw surely would land On average, taxpayers end up paying about $88 per year just on plastic bag waste [15]. Car Modifications for Electric Vehicles: Whats Possible. Refineries where crude oil is turned into plastic make up one of the most greenhouse gasintensive industries in the manufacturing sector. Car Recycling: Everything You Need to Know (With Statistics), Sustainable Diving & Snorkeling: How to Prevent Damage to Marine Ecosystems, What Are Microplastics and Why Are They a Concern? This strategy has been adopted by some countries and municipalities so far and has proven to greatly reduce plastic bag usage by consumers. They're bad for the environment, kill marine life and damage human health. These costs include the true environmental costs of resource extraction and depletion, the loss of quality of life, economic loss from littering, and wildlife loss. It was first invented in 1907 by Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland. LEAPE:Plastic straws are only a tiny fraction of the problem less than 1 percent. (Source: Water in the West), Analysis reveals how restoring relatively narrow forest buffers could substantially improve regional water quality and carbon storage in Costa Rica and elsewhere. Plastic Straws: Is Paper Really Better for the Environment? The most common are inorganic dyes that are added to change the color of plastic bags. In fact, plastic straws only make up around 0.03 percent of total plastic waste by mass. The problem with plastic straws is that they are one of the biggest causes of unnecessary plastic pollution. We should also try to give up plastic straws if we are capable of doing so. Reduce Aesthetic value of your neighborhood. New York State and Hawaii just passed theirs, set to go into effect in 2020, and Californias bag ban, which was passed in 2014, has been shown to have reduced plastic bag usage by 85 percent (with some customers opting to pay a 10 cent fee for thicker plastic bags) and has reduced coastal pollution. However, if a plastic straw ban is properly implemented with education about single-use plastics, then the ban could encourage the public to reduce their usage of other single-use plastics as well. For example, in Botswana, the consumption of plastic bags dropped by 50 percent after the introduction of the tax in 2007. Plastic bags are everywhere. Each day, the United States of America uses 500 million drinking straws. Plastics also permeate freshwater systems like rivers and streams. A plastic straw ban could be a good step in the right direction, but we must use less single-use products overall to actually help the environment. In fact, it is estimated that up to 10 million plastic bags are used every minute around the world [1]. Its because Asian and US coastlines release large amounts of plastic waste in the ocean [7]. If youd like to learn more about how plastic straws negatively impact the environment, you can check out this article I wrote about the environmental impact of plastic straws. [PDF] Skip The Straw - 10 Reasons Fact Sheet - Kids. Instead of searching for another buyer, maybe some soul-searching is in order. Many of the chemicals in plastics are known endocrine disruptors,and research has suggested that human exposure could cause health impacts including hormonal imbalances, reproductive problems like infertility, and even cancer. A 2018 study of coral reefs in the Asia-Pacific has confirmed that plastic waste deposited on coral reefs promotes outbreaks of diseases that gradually destroy whole reef colonies [12]. Well, lets have a look at the most important reasons why single-use plastic bags should be banned right now. Rating: 5 (913 reviews) Highest rating: 5. Scientists are showing that we are sending tons of tiny plastic particles into our soils each year, potentially affecting crops and our health. This blog covers a variety of topics including plastic pollution, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and much more. Another example of a locally issued ban is Seattle where not only single-use plastic bags have been banned but also single-use compostable and biodegradable bags. Communities and consumers can play vital roles in sparking action. Summary: Reduce your use of single-use plastics. India, for example, generates 25,940 tons of plastic waste every day but collects only 60 percent of it. You are free to have your own personal opinion on whether or not we should ban plastic straws. Better alternatives are available 10. American beaver populations are booming in the western United States as conditions grow hotter and drier. Forty years after the launch of the first universal recycling symbol, only 14 percent of plastic packaging is recycled. Tangled in trees and fences along roads, floating in water, lying on the ground in parks and forests, surrounding garbage bins, washed off on beaches. Single-use plastics in particularespecially small items like straws, bags, and cutleryare traditionally hard to recycle because they fall into the crevices of recycling machinery and therefore are often not accepted by recycling centers. The process of drilling for plastics source materials, oil and gas, leads to methane leaking and flaring and is often combined with clearing forests and wetlands that otherwise would have sequestered carbon. We should just stick to plastic. Such changes could have outsized benefits for vulnerable populations that rely on rivers for their water supply. In my opinion, plastic straws should not be banned outright, because many disabled people require plastic straws to drink. The following are ten lines on why plastic bags need to be prohibited: 1) The careless disposal of trash in plastic bags leads to an increase in litter.2) The use of plastic bags contributes to the depletion of our natural resources, including water, trees, and agricultural products.3) Because of the danger it causes to marine life, the total Once a paper product has been contaminated with food or drink, it must be disposed of in a landfill. Straws made of paper are neither recyclable nor capable of decomposition. Spare Yourself the Guilt Trip This Earth DayIts Companies That Need to Clean Up Their Acts, These Fanciful Sea Creatures Were Carried in on the Tide. We do not know the full impact of microplastics exceeding the mass of plankton in the ocean. The production of these bags is very energy intensive. According to a study carried out in 2013, up to 35 percent of turtle deaths were caused by plastic ingestion and the probability that sea turtles will consume even more plastic increases every year [9]. If plastic straws are completely banned, local small businesses like boba tea shops will have to look for pricier alternatives. They are a part of our modern lives, and we dont tend to think much about them. Over time, sun and heat slowly turn plastics into smaller and smaller pieces until they eventually become what are known as microplastics. The bottom line of any plastic ban is that we must use less single-use plastics overall. Plastic straws have an especially high propensity to end up in our rivers after being thrown away. However, in 2014, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) supported the first project to calculate the real cost of plastic, including adverse environmental impacts of its production, use and disposal. Not easy to recycle 7. Have some dirty clothes that you just wore today? Some companies are taking initiative on their own. As communities act to ban single-use plastics and individual consumers raise concerns, bigger actors pay attention. Stanford experts discuss the limitations of these bans and the potential for meaningful change. Greenwashing Alert: Chemical Recycling Isnt Actually Recycling. ), then its clean! In 2008, a crocodile in Australia died because of 25 plastic bags filling its stomach [11]. There are numerous reasons why PLA straws are not the right substitute for plastic straws . The truth is that we do not know yet the full scale of negative impacts plastic waste can have on marine and terrestrial environments because it hasnt been around long enough to allow us to assess possible scenarios of its influence on natural cycles. In fact, plastic bags are considered by many recycling facilities the number one contaminant and their removal from the recycling stream costs municipalities close to $1 million a year [18]. For most, straws are not a necessity, but a convenience. And they help shift consumer mind-sets, as people begin to recognize that exorbitant and avoidable waste is not sustainable. A complete ban on plastic straws would harm disabled people, which definitely isnt the goal of such a ban. Leape has long been a leader in ocean conservation efforts. So that free plastic bag isnt so free after all. If it looks clean, smells clean (and sounds clean! There are many uses for plastic that are not only reasonable but important, such as surgical gloves, or straws for people with disabilities. Sadly, one of their newly acquired enemies is created by us who should protect them instead. That's a whole 900 tons of plastic waste produced every day, and that's just for plastic straws! How can you help to ban plastic bags in your area? Beached whales have been found with stomachs full of plastic trash. What can I do for you? (Photo credit: Shutterstock). How? Your email address will not be published. NRDCs Eric Goldstein gives the scoop on the latest environmental villain and explains why plastic straws really are a big menace to our oceans. There are some great initiatives that strive to provide jobs for women in rural communities with limited possibilities of securing monthly income. Tiny plastic particles have been found in human feces. As a result, the actual recycling rate for plastic bags globally is between 5 to 15 percent, while in the United States it makes only 1 percent a year [17]. This means that the average consumption of plastic bags per person dropped from 328 bags per year to just 21 [20]. Well, before putting it into the laundry basket, take a look at it closely. Avoid plastic wrap altogether by storing leftovers in reusable containers. And cracker plantswhich break, or crack, ethane molecules, a component of natural gas, into the chemical building blocks of plastic productsare energy intensive and highly polluting. Ultimately, we can further decrease costs and achieve economies of scale through decentralized production systems and perhaps also at large biorefineries. Communities with good awareness about negative impacts of plastic bags have been more successful at enforcing the ban [20]. But beyond these impacts, the bans have cultural effects. The manufacturing of reusable bags or compostable alternatives to plastic bags offers a new opportunity to create sustainable products and provide jobs that go with them. Beyond the costs associated with the production and purchasing of plastic bags by retailers, there are many external costs that are often not considered. As a result, they are thrown away and frequently wind up in the ocean, where they pollute the water and eventually kill marine birds, animals, and fish. Plastic use costs approximately $75 billion a year [16]. Getting rid of a single plastic straw may not have a very large effect on the environment. Increased awareness about the negative effects of single-use plastics would help the environment a lot more than just a simple plastic straw ban. In effect, nature has designed this plastic for disassembly. It is estimated that there are now 150 million metric tons of plastic in the ocean. The country instituted the ban in 2013 to minimize livestock deaths. Among the U.S. cities to outlaw plastic straws are Malibu, Berkeley, Seattle, and Miami Beach. Yeah I end up going through like 5 paper straws because they keep disintegrating and I can't drink my drink anymore. CRIDDLE:We need to think about what incentives will promote a culture of recycling and innovation with respect to waste streams. Plastic bags being the major component of the trash thrown away, most of it ends up on the streets. And when it comes to waste that lasts forever, every ton counts. China doesnt want our plastic waste anymore. Plastic pollutionwhether in our oceans, piling up on our coastlines, or contributing to our climate crisisimpacts vulnerable communities first. by TFK Kid Reporter Maria Suarez, 10 Bellaire, Texas Plastic straws should not be banned until we can find alternatives that are affordable, environmentally friendly, and acceptable for disabled people.
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