The Damaging Effects of Plastic

Plastic bags are an important part of our everyday lives. They play an important role in or day to day activities. We fail to understand that what we use so casually has devastating effects on our environment. Every year over a trillion plastic bags are used all over the world. Unfortunately, we recycle only one in every 200 plastic bags that we throw away! Lack of education towards plastic bags has led to an increase in pollution and prove to be a threat to wildlife. Let’s look at the hazards of plastic bags in detail.

Plastic bags cause the death of over 100, 000 animals every year. Most of these animals include marine life such as whales, dolphins, penguins and turtles. These deaths occur due to animals ingesting plastic bags and mistaking them for food. Sea turtles usually consume pieces of plastic that are floating around and end up dying or starving due to blockage of their food pipe. In worst case scenarios, the pieces of plastic do not decompose and are consumed by other wildlife.

We all need to understand that it takes almost 200 years for plastic to decompose. The discarded plastic bags find their way into the sewage system and clog the drains. These will ultimately form clumps along with other debris and cause damage to the drainage system. A clogged drainage causes harm to the entire sewage system and ultimately inconvenience for the people around.

Plastic bags lying around cause damage to the environment. They are an unappealing sight for all the people walking past them. Plastic bags are a major cause of pollution and affect all forms of life. Moreover, the production of plastic bags uses almost 8 % of oil resources and the entire process of even producing them is harmful to the environment. The disastrous effects afterwards are a whole new story!

A number of countries in the world have banned the use of plastic bags entirely. Even if your country has not banned the use of plastic bags, you can switch to reusable bags for carrying your belongings. There is also a need to educate the people of the harmful effects that plastic bags could cause to the environment. Not using plastic bags is one way through which we can conserve our environment.