Ayana Ayana 1

Mrs. Liz & Miss. Emma

8A Science

3 May 2019

Plastic is Affecting Our Society and We Need to Fix It

Plastic is affecting our society, but we aren’t looking at the detrimental effects that it has

on

us. This problem hasn’t been addressed at all and it is worldwide, plastic is in everybody’s lives

everywhere. Informing people of the detrimental effects of plastic is the first step to fixing this

problem. Plastic releases toxins that affect humans and

the environment. Non-renewable plastic is tearing our

planet apart. Plastic only creates worse conditions for

us to live in, from the numerous toxins that it produces,

to the amount of energy and nonrenewable resources

that it takes to create it. Plastic produces very unsafe

toxins to humans and the environment, the production of it overuses our natural resources of oil,

and the influence that it has on society is something that we need to change

Source:​https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/humans-are-burying-earth-under-billions-t

ons-plastic-180964125/

Plastic is a huge problem causer, it releases toxins, the production overuses crude oil, and

it creates 70% of air pollutants (Forward). The incineration of plastic produces carbon dioxide,

greenhouse gases, carcinogenic polycyclic hydrocarbons, and dioxins (North/Halden). As it

starts to degrade a process called photodegradation happens, this when the plastic starts to break

down piece by piece releasing toxic particles into the soil and water around it. Plastic when it

degrades doesn’t only create toxicity in landfills, but it also harms the plant life nearby. The

particles from plastic bags block the natural flow of oxygen and water between the roots of the

plants and the soil that provides the plants nutrients (Liggins). Plastic not only affects the

environment after it’s created it affects it while it’s being created. The creation of 100 million

plastic bags uses 430,000 gallons of crude oil, and we produce 380,000 plastic bags yearly in the

United States (Liggins). Michael Liggins states in his article that “We must move forward from

our archaic reliance on plastic bags and promote re-usable and green alternatives in our shopping

culture.” We rely to much on plastic bags, and we need to veer in the other direction, reusable

bags. Remember when you used to have to bring your tote grocery bags to the store with you,

that is the direction that we need to be moving in. We have to start somewhere and that is stop

using plastic shopping bags. Plastic bags were only created in the 1950’s to help people

transport their groceries to their homes, now we

use them for almost everything (Liggins). People

depend on plastic for everything, and we need to

start going in the opposite direction. Just start with

the simplest things, not using plastic bags in

grocery stores.

Source: ​https://www.waterdocs.ca/water-talk/2018/1/24/will-toronto-finally-ban-the-plastic-bag
 Plastic has many major impacts on society, it wastes space, produces toxins, and it

overuses our natural oil supply.​ ​The landfills that we create for plastic takeaway resources that

communities can use for things that will benefit them in a more positive way (North/Halden).

Landfills are growing, getting bigger, and the more plastic we produce the larger they get taking

away space that we can use for community uses, like a park, or a place to hike. We are losing

recreational space for people and animals. Our landfills also produce unhealthy toxins to

humans and the environment. When plastic is

incinerated the toxins that it produces like

carbon dioxide, carcinogenic polycyclic

hydrocarbons, and dioxins are filling our

atmosphere (North/Halden). Even though we

don’t think about what we are touching

everyday or what we are breathing very often,

but these toxins find their way into our

everyday lives as humans. We can’t tell

because they are in a gaseous form which

makes them invisible to the naked eye. It not

only affects the animal and marine life that come

into contact with it, it affects humans and not in a

good way. The creation of plastic is overusing

our crude oil supply. Making 100,000 plastic bags takes 430,000 gallons of oil, and when we

produce 380,000 plastic bags a year we are wasting a lot of oil on plastic bags that we may use

only once or twice (Liggins). When the production of plastic completely runs our oil supply into

the ground we will no longer be able to make plastic; crude oil is gone when we deplete it to the

point that there is no more, and it would take millions of years for the earth to recreate it

(Forward). There is no making it, there is no waiting for more.​ ​The impacts that plastic has on

society is a growing problem and we need to start to fix it.

Creating good solutions for plastic is hard, but building houses, and creating taxes for

plastic is taking us one step closer to decreasing our use of plastic. Plastic bottles aren’t good for

the environment, but we can use the ones that we have created to make houses. In third world

countries communities take plastic bottles, fill them with sand, stack them side by side inside two

pieces of chicken wire and then bind them together with mud or cement. It’s a great way of

creating shelters for the homeless and a great way to recycle plastic bottles. These homes are fire

proof, bullet proof, very sound structures, and 20 times stronger than brick (Takepart).

A German firm called Ecotec Environmental

Solution built a house made with 8,000 bottles

without using cement. The walls and foundation

could support a 30 ton green roof when wet. This is

a really good way for us to recycle plastic. In 2001

Ireland used 1.2

Source: ​http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/12/10/plastic-bottle-homes
billion plastic bags per year. Then they created a consumption tax that every plastic bag cost 37

cents. It was introduced in 2002 and their plastic bag usage went down by 90% (Liggins). This

didn’t only make their plastic bag usage go down, but they saved 18,000,000 liters of crude oil.

If we were to put a Source:

https://www.stjohntradewinds.com/plastic-bag-ban-approaches-viwma-steps-outreach/

tax on plastic bags our usage would go down a great deal, and we would be saving a huge

amount of crude oil. If China put this tax on their plastic bags they would save 37 million barrels

of crude oil per year. Lessening our usage on plastic bags helps decrease the amount of toxins

being produced and it decreases the amount of crude oil that we are using. Instead of using the

plastic bags in the grocery store bring your own cloth bags, if we did that our plastic bag usage

would go down tremendously. The first step to decreasing the thing we use the most, is starting

to not use it in places that we use it the most.

Plastic bags are taking over our planet, producing toxins that are harmful to humans and

the environment and causing overuse of our natural crude oil supply that we need for more

important things. It’s taking up space that communities could use for recreation and other more

needed things for communities. If we use the knowledge that we have to start lessening our

usage of plastic bags, we will decrease the amount of toxins

being produced, the amount of crude oil being used, and the

amount of space being wasted. Taking the first step is the most

important thing and then it gets easier from there. Taking

control and fixing this long term problem that we have had for

years is important and without taking that initiative plastic will overwhelm us and our planet.
Source: ​https://wasteadvantagemag.com/mapping-americas-mountains-of-garbage/

Works Cited

Forward, Greening. “Plastics and the Non-Renewable Component.” ​Greening Forward.

Greening Forward, September 27, 2012,

http://greeningforward.org/plastics-the-non-renewable-component/​.

Liggins, Michael. “Plastic Bags Are a Nonrenewable Resource.” ​City Times, s​ dcitytimes.com,

Monday April 9, 2019,

https://www.sdcitytimes.com/opinion/2012/12/18/plastic-bags-are-a-non-renewable-reso

urce/

North, Emily/ Halden, Rolf. “Plastics and Environmental Health: The Road Ahead.” ​PMC Us

​ HS Public Access,
National Library of Medicine National Issues of Health. H

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3791860/

“Plastic Bottle Homes Are Popping Up Around the World.” ​Takepart World.

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/12/10/plastic-bottle-homes

Richards, April. “Environmentally Benign Polymeric Packaging from Renewable Resources.”

​ nited States Environmental Protection

United States Environmental Protection Agency. U

Agency, June 14, 2003,