Its Plastic Incineration. 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. All rights reserved. We should also try to give up plastic straws if we are capable of doing so. It means that most bags can be recycled. (Everything You Need To Know). Getting rid of a single plastic straw may not have a very large effect on the environment. Plastic bags are a convenient way to carry our purchased goods when we go shopping. Not only is plastic estimated to kill millions of marine animals and seabirds each year, but its also contaminating seafood that humans have relied on for millennia, particularly with microplastics in animals guts. In early January 2020, China joined the growing movement of more than 120 countries pledging to ban single-use plastics.The country of 1.4 billion citizens is the No. Using a straw directs a concentrated stream of liquid onto a localized area of the teeth, which can cause the enamel to wear away and lead to dental disease. Nows the Time. The trend has already started. There are definitely differing opinions on whether or not plastic straws should be banned. Nearly 20 years ago, a dead pelican was found with its stomach filled with 17 plastic bags [10]. O This requires the usage of 500 million straws, Straws and other items made of plastic are harmful, Every day in the United States. And the recent fracking boom, resulting in a surplus of oil, is fueling a subsequent rise in cracker plants, too. Unfortunately, such a high level of pollution doesnt come without consequences. The very best alternative is a reusable bag. And will a plastic straw ban actually be effective when it comes to saving our oceans and environment? Manufacturers began replacing traditionally paper or glass staples with lighter or more durable and affordable plastic alternatives; plastic jugs replaced milk jars, for instance. When you sip beverages through a straw you end up inhaling more air into your belly than you would otherwise. In effect, nature has designed this plastic for disassembly. So, for example, companies need to not only make products that are recyclable, but actually make them out of recycled or truly biodegradable material. Then, you should try to explain your reasons for not wanting your products packed in plastic bags. Overall, the goal of a plastic straw ban should be to increase public awareness for single-use plastics and their nasty effects on the environment. BY Rob Jordan, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, As Colorado River wanes, water supplies and ecosystems hang in the balance, Riverfront forest restoration can deliver outsized benefits, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, An AI solution to climate models gravity wave problem, Beavers will become a bigger boon to river water quality as U.S. West warms. If the environmental movement drew up a Most Unwanted list for 2018, the plastic drinking straw surely would land Not easy to recycle 7. Oene Moedt-Foto Natura/Minden via National Geographic Images, Major Corporations and Single-Use Plastics, secluded Pyrenees mountain range and down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and research has suggested that human exposure, 4.8 million and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic, one of the most greenhouse gasintensive industries in the manufacturing sector, could reach 1.34 gigatons per year by 2030, an audit of plastic pollution along coastlines. So, retailers incorporate this cost hiddenly into prices of other items sold at stores. Plastic pollutionwhether in our oceans, piling up on our coastlines, or contributing to our climate crisisimpacts vulnerable communities first. (Everything You Need To Know)Continue, Many restaurants have banned plastic straws due to their harmful effects on the environment, and have switched to paper alternatives instead. As communities act to ban single-use plastics and individual consumers raise concerns, bigger actors pay attention. If there is one piece of advice that everyone should remember, it would be that nothing is for free in this world. Activists Say Straws Should Be Banned Because They Are a 'Gateway Plastic' Advocates hope a straw ban will be the first step toward broader plastic prohibitions. But, getting rid of all single-use plastics definitely will. Our goal is to inspire people to change their attitudes and behaviors toward a more sustainable life. Learn how your comment data is processed. How can you help to ban plastic bags in your area? Reusable shopping bags are very durable and can be reused many times over the course of their useful life. Such is the case with many environmental crises: the worst effects are pushed onto overburdened communities with the fewest resources to fight back. This form of ban could lead to a reduction in landfill across the country, going a long way to protect the nature and serenity of the area. Making just one simple swap, like purchasing a reusable water bottle, can spare the environment hundreds of plastic bottles each year. Greenwashing Alert: Chemical Recycling Isnt Actually Recycling. However, we are all too familiar with situations when a cashier automatically puts your items in a plastic bag before you can oppose it. 1. Plastic bags are everywhere. You should examine what alternatives are available and whether local retailers, who often operate with a limited monthly budget, have the ability to make the switch. Plastic Straws: Is Paper Really Better for the Environment?Continue. These modern conveniences are so ubiquitousand so quickly thrown outthat they hardly register in our minds. Criddle isdirector of StanfordsCodiga Resource Recovery Center,a member ofStanford Bio-Xand an affiliate of thePrecourt Institute for Energy. Plastic straws are everywhere we look. Plastic waste, mostly broken down into tiny particles, floats in huge blobs amid ocean current patterns called gyres that together cover as much as 40 percent of Earths ocean surface. 6461 garfield street hollywood, fl. If we ban single-use plastic straws we will have to turn to the dangerous alternatives.In source Made from fossil fuels 3. A straw with our iced coffee, a plastic bag to carry our takeout, a wrapper on a candy bar: taken individually, each seems harmless. Well, lets have a look at the most important reasons why single-use plastic bags should be banned right now. 2015-2023 Greentumble. Logically, the key to starting a change in your community is education. Let companies that make your favorite products know that you care about the packaging. Starting in the 1960s, plastic straw manufacturing took off. Straws have been found stuck in a sea turtle's nose and wedged in the stomachs of dead birds and dolphins. So that free plastic bag isnt so free after all. 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 . Buy a metal or bamboo reusable straw. 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. According to market research firms, Americans use about 350 million plastic straws every single day. Ultimately, we can further decrease costs and achieve economies of scale through decentralized production systems and perhaps also at large biorefineries. Communities and consumers can play vital roles in sparking action. They discovered that Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestl products were found most often. Greentumble was founded in the summer of 2015 by us, Sara and Ovi. Policies like bottle bill lawswhich generally require retailers to add a fee on individual bottles, which can then be partially redeemed by customers when they recycleare a way to increase corporate responsibility for waste while providing a monetary incentive to recycle. Additionally, someone has to pay the cost of dealing with plastic bags in the waste stream. The reason to worry is that scientists do not know how our metabolism and immunity will react to the increased concentration of plastic particles in our system. Since the 1950s, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics have been produced, and half of that in the past 15 years alone. However, I do believe that we should limit our use of plastic straws by asking businesses to only give out straws on request. While these countries and municipalities have been making strides in their part of reducing circulation of plastic bags, in total there are 195 countries in the world [19] and the issue of plastic pollution is still getting out of our hands. Talk to the owners of the restaurants you frequent. Your email address will not be published. It also took 100% of those plastic grocery bags out of the recycling system, where they bound up machinery and increased costs. But you should also consider the other perspective what effect single-use bags have had on the local economy and product affordability. On other issues, from overfishing to deforestation, we have seen that consumer-facing companies like McDonalds, Unilever and Walmart can be exquisitely sensitive to the concerns of their customers. Greentumble is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. That is why the United Nations Environmental Programme Secretariat has recommended a ban on all plastic bags globally. and reefs composed of coral, F) I Plastic straws are one of the top five most often used items. Companies are forced to innovate, rethinking their designs and sourcing sustainable materials. Ill also go over whether or not plastic straw bans will actually help the environment, and explain everything else youll need to know. As plastic bags are not disposed properly . Plastic is putting a strain on waste management systems, our oceans, and vulnerable communities the world over. 4. Come with external costs 9. They are also not biodegradable and cannot be broken down naturally by bacteria and other decomposers into non-toxic materials. Ban of Plastic Can be Problematic. Animals living in the ocean might frequently confuse the plastic for food. The Natural Resources Defense Council works to safeguard the earth - its people, Look around and you will notice that plastic bags are the most common litter. You cannot recycle them in the regular curbside collection of plastic, but you should be able to find many larger food stores and retailers (for example: Target, Walmart, Tesco, Morrisons, etc.) Not only does banning single-use plastic reduce pollution, but it also reduces demand for plastic production thats contributing to global climate change. Its possible that using a plastic straw would make it easier for you to drink without spilling, but the long-term expenses are not worth it. edinburgh airport address. What about you? Most plastic straws are made from harsh chemicals making them impossible to reuse or recycle. Large producers of single-use plastics can make a big environmental impact. JIM LEAPE: Our oceans are currently swimming with plastics. They are a part of our modern lives, and we dont tend to think much about them. Although, really, these tips can be used by anyone, not just kids. There is a lot of research now underway on the health effects of ocean plastics, but we already know that some plastics, and the chemicals that attach themselves to plastics in the water, can cause cancer, genetic disruptions and other ill effects. This is due to the fact that the plastic tubes are far too lightweight to be recycled in an efficient manner. Plastic bag bansideally accompanied by a fee on paper bagsare also catching on. This means that you are not consuming more resources every time you need to carry your groceries home. If plastic straws are completely banned, local small businesses like boba tea shops will have to look for pricier alternatives. Items made of plastic that come into contact with food can be recycled, whereas products made of paper that absorb both food and garbage cannot. Rating: 5 (913 reviews) Highest rating: 5. For many of us it is hard to imagine that something as small as a plastic bag can actually cause flooding, but residents of some cities in Bangladesh have been struggling with this problem every monsoon season for the past two decades [3]. Her Stand-Up Paddleboard Is a Platform for Campaigning Against Plastic Pollution, A Growing Concern: Microplastic Pollution on Farm Fields. For most, straws are not a necessity, but a convenience. So, plastic waste only speeds up the destruction of these most biodiverse ecosystems on earth. 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. For example, some disabled people may not be able to properly hold or pick up a cup, so they need to use straws to drink properly. Companies are trying to sell communities on a toxic solution to the plastic pollution crisis. Sadly, one of their newly acquired enemies is created by us who should protect them instead. Banning plastic straws is also increasingly popular. 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. How? As a result, the ban will reduce the number of plastic straws polluting the ocean. 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. About; Disability Vote Blog; Organizer's Forum; Issues; News; NDLA Webinars Affiliate Disclaimer: Some links on this site may be referral or affiliate links. You can share this article on social media by using the share buttons below. Beached whales have been found with stomachs full of plastic trash. There are many uses for plastic that are not only reasonable but important, such as surgical gloves, or straws for people with disabilities. Such changes could have outsized benefits for vulnerable populations that rely on rivers for their water supply. (Its also important to remember that waste management is just one part of the global materials cycle. Plastic is not the largest contributor of pollution and the . Sugar and oils are too expensive. We can also decrease costs through improved bioprocessing methods, through metabolic engineering and by exploring and harnessing the incredible diversity of bioplastic-making systems that evolution has already created. 1. Have some dirty clothes that you just wore today? Plastic bags and plastic products overall contain substances that are harmful to our health. Thats a promising start. Plastic straws, being so lightweight and non-biodegradable, are readily carried into the water, where they eventually break down into smaller and smaller pieces of microplastic. 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. Left alone, plastics dont really break down; they just break up. The Pasig River is the eight worst source of ocean plastic pollution in the world. Those global companies can be important levers in driving change and shifting to a regenerative, circular economy. According to a study that was published by Bloomberg News, it is predicted that the percentage of contaminated ocean water that is caused by plastic straws and stirrers is a shockingly modest 0.03 percent. [PDF] Skip The Straw - 10 Reasons Fact Sheet - Kids. We hear everywhere around us that we need to save energy. Put simply, single-use plastics are goods that are made primarily from fossil fuelbased chemicals (petrochemicals) and are meant to be disposed of right after useoften, in mere minutes. Ideally, to be suitable for recycling, bags need to be clean to be accepted, which is often a problem, considering that we use them to carry groceries and potentially leaky goods. 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]. Tushy Ace Review (After 3 Months): Is this Luxury Bidet Worth it? Recently, however, plastic straws have been the subject of many plastic bans in an attempt to help the environment. Animals can also easily become entangled in this plastic waste. 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. Though plastica chain of synthetic polymers, essentiallywas invented in the mid-19th century, it wasnt until the 1970s that its popularity skyrocketed. 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]. Theyre in about a quarter of the seafood in our markets, and even in table salt. We are a couple of environmentalists who seek inspiration for life in simple values based on our love for nature. These pieces can be so small that they are invisible to our eye. There were numerous cases of birds caught in plastic bags, unable to fly and feed, eventually strangling themselves to death. Avoid individually packaged goods, like snack packs. We use them to drink beverages at home and we get them at almost every restaurant. NRDC scientist Jennifer Sass says yes and debunks the skeptics claim that in trying to wean ourselves off plastic bags, were only creating more troubles. They are also capable of being ingested by fish, seabirds, and marine mammals, which in turn causes the animals injury and, in the case of fish, allows them to enter the human food chain. Scientists have recorded some species of zooplankton eating tiny plastic particles. Individual actions can lead to collective actions. You probably already saw the video, but if you didnt, you can watch it below (WARNING: Graphic Content): Supporters of plastic straw bans claim that the ban will help reduce our use of single-use plastics. 12 Reasons for Banning Plastic Bags: Plastic Bags Are Made With Non-Renewable Energy Plastic Bags Use Up Lots Of Energy Plastic Bags End Up In The Ocean Beach Plastic Litter Is On The Rise Plastic Bags Kill Millions Of Animals Every Year Plastic Takes A Long Time To Disintegrate Plastic Is Harming The Ocean's Coral Plastic Bags Contain Toxins Then, they have a propensity to break down into microplastics, which then clutter the ecosystems in question. A 2017 Environmental Sciences and Technology study reported that up to 95 percent of plastic waste enters oceans from one of 10 riverseight in Asia and two in Africa. But only a few of us realize that each time we accept those disposable plastic grocery bags at store checkout, we actively participate in wasting energy and depleting non-renewable resources. The first country to ban single-use plastic bags was Bangladesh in 2002 when plastic bag litter clogged drainage channels and contributed to destructive floods. Instead it ends up in landfills or in the environment. Try reusable and compostable beeswax wrap for an easy and decorative option. CRAIG CRIDDLE: In addition to recycling more and reusing materials more, we need new materials that can do the same jobs as current plastics, but are biodegradable, nontoxic and do not concentrate in food chains. It is possible to enhance ones risk of developing cavities by using a straw while consuming liquids that are either sweet or acidic. How To Make A Bracelet Out Of Plastic String? Some microplastics are even small by design, like the microbeads used in facial scrubs or the microfibers in polyester clothing. Petroleum-based plastic bags are composed of very resistant synthetic polymers that may take up to 1,000 years or never until they completely degrade in natural environments [6]. Avoid plastic wrap altogether by storing leftovers in reusable containers. In New York, 23 billion plastic bags are used by residents each year. 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? In Taiwan, which was once overflowing with so much trash that it spurred public protest and the nickname Garbage Island, companies now either manage their own waste or subsidize government-run infrastructure. Is the Tide Turning on Our Plastic Addiction? When the monsoon rains start, streets get waterlogged just after the first few minutes because the water cannot pass through clogged sewerage pipes. Hi, Im Hugh, and my mission with Get Green Now is to raise awareness of environmental issues and teach people how to live sustainably. What do the bans accomplish? Then, the straw got stuck in the turtles nose after she/he tried to cough the straw back out. Using these non-renewable resources to make plastic bags is very short-sighted, considering that the typical useful life of each plastic bag is about 12 minutes and that the worlds oil reserves contain enough oil to cover our needs through 2050, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates. Although single-use plastic pollution accumulates most visibly on our streets, in fact our water suffers even more. Not only does the waste destroy the land itself, but when plastic is incinerated (as is the case for unrecyclable plastic at some illegal facilities) its toxic fumes quickly become a health hazard for residents, leading to everything from skin rashes to cancer. A last example of a true horror caused by plastic has been discovered just recently. Cause of environmental pollution 2. 13.07.2022 Harry Brown THE TOP 10 REASONS TO DO NOT USE THE STRAW O This requires the usage of 500 million straws Straws and other items made of plastic are harmful Every day in the United States. Since their birth, baby turtles have only one goal to get to the sea and swim into deep waters where they will feed and if successful grow into adult turtles. NDLA National Disability Leadership Alliance: Nothing About Us Without Us. In many instances, it may seem too awkward for you to refuse the bag, so you accept it this one time, but you should know that it is fine to say no politely even at this stage if you dont want that bag. Microplastics were found in soft drinks like Coca Cola, in tap water, in seafood It has contaminated our food chain, so it should not surprise us that it can be tracked in our body. Yes, it should. Plastic, in general, is one of the biggest pollutants in the world. 1. plastic straws litter our environment Every day, about 3-6 billion plastic straws are produced. Over time, sun and heat slowly turn plastics into smaller and smaller pieces until they eventually become what are known as microplastics. You can use some easy online locators to see the closest plastic bag drop-off. Help us break the cycle of causing unnecessary harm and damage in the name of "convenience". New research shows their prolific dam building benefits river water quality so much, it outweighs the damaging influence of climate-driven droughts. This measure should encourage people to switch to reusable alternatives. While we may not pay for plastic bags directly when we go shopping, they are anything but free.. Even human footprints left in the sand represent mountain-like obstacles in their path and waves washing up on the beach are another challenge, as they thrust them back on the dry land to try once again before finally being picked up by a return current and start swimming for their life. Criddle has evaluated use of microorganisms to biodegrade plastic materials and to synthesize biodegradable bioplastics from waste feedstocks. That's a whole 900 tons of plastic waste produced every day, and that's just for plastic straws! Disney is eliminating single-use plastic straws and stirrers at all its theme parks, resorts and properties. Plastic bag litter has even caused great problems in some areas.