Plastic Bags

Plastic Bags

Grantham University

Plastic Bags

I agree plastic bags should be banned not only from certain cities, but all around the world. This is just another careless habit of humanity. Most people know it takes much longer for plastics to break down than paper. It would be much smarter for us to continue using paper bags instead of plastic. There are still poor effects on the environment by using paper bags. By manufacturing paper bags there is an increase in energy required for their production in comparison to the production of plastic bags.

I did not know that plastic bags broke down into smaller toxic fragments, or that these fragments could affect our soil, water, and the animals that ingest them. This is another reason we should go back to paper bags in lieu of plastic bags. Paper bags may cost more to produce, but they can be recycled and they are made from natural sources which means they are biodegradable.

It takes approximately one month for a paper bag to break down. It is believed that a plastic bag could take five hundred to one thousand years to photodegrade. This has been forecasted by experiments that measure the carbon dioxide levels as the plastics are broken down by microorganisms. When these bags are put into landfills their lifespan increases by an unknown amount because the photodegradation of these bags requires sun light. Plastic bags in a landfill do not receive any sunlight. It is also believed that biodegradable waste like foods will not break down, but instead will mummify due to the way a landfill is designed.

I was also unaware that plastic bags were products of oil. This alone is a great reason for going to an alternative like paper or cloth. Anything that will cut down our oil dependency will help our country in many ways other than just cutting back on pollution.

I knew plastic was a cause of animal death, however, I was not aware that it affected larger fish under water as...