Plastic Bags Problem

The problems caused by the plastic bags still ongoing for several decades. Kevin Wehr (2010) observes that “Environment groups estimate that between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year.” (p. 352). Therefore, many countries have tried to solve this problem by making an effort to campaign to reduce the use of plastic bags. Each country has a different approach to it, for example, promoting the use of cloth bags in Thailand, collecting taxes on plastic bags in Ireland and banning the use of plastic bags categorically in Bangladesh. Geof Knight’s point is that “Larger economies have joined the cause. In 2003, Australia started a voluntary ban. Amazingly, consumption of the bags has dropped: 90 per cent of the county’s

First, the ecosystems are degenerated because of plastic bags. Rinkesh (2012) observed that the plastic bags “upset the food chain because it comes in sizes large and small, polluting plastics affect the world’s tiniest organisms such as plankton. When these organisms become poisoned due to plastic ingestion, this causes problems for the larger animals that depend on them for food. This can cause a whole slew of problems, each step further along the food chain.” Besides, Plastic bags lead to land pollution and water pollution. When hazardous chemicals which are from dumped plastic litters in landfills seep underground, they degrade the water quality and prevent soil fertility and nutrients. Without the balance of the ecosystem, the world is run out of food sources and starvation occurs. Moreover, the water contamination is another result from plastic bags. The world’s water is in great danger because of leaking plastics and waste. “One of the greatest problems is that an estimated 300 million plastic bags end up in the Atlantic Ocean alone”, as demonstrated by Jamey Wagner’s 2012 study. Many animals, especially aquatic animals, die every year from mistaken discarded plastic bags for food. The Pacific Ocean is the biggest garbage dump in the world. Most of these garbage may generally come from land, including from the ships at sea. To many sea animals, the debris looks like food. When swallowed, the plastic bags

Most plastic bags are made from polyethylene, also known as PE bags. This type of plastic bags has a nice feature to bring up new shapes, including it can also be resized depend on demands and has highly durable property. Therefore the plastic bags are widely used, in particularly containing heavy materials such as appliances, car parts, and water bottles etc. And because of plastic bags’ low price, supermarkets are willing to give them out to the customers for free. However, the most common type of plastic bag is made of non-biodegradable that cannot be decomposed and it is the cheap plastic bag that people generally use. Due to its price, biodegradable plastic bags are higher in cost than general type of plastic bags, so many people neglect them and turn to use the cheaper non-biodegradable things for their convenient. Maya and Sabu (2012) maintained that “The performance limitations and high cost of biopolymers are major barriers for their widespread acceptance as substitutes for traditional non-biodegradable synthetic polymers.” (p. 260). Moreover, plastic bags might not be enduring. When containing hot things or heavy things, its quality deteriorates. When people use plastic bags to contain overweight items, such as canned foods or bottles, the handles are tend to break easily. Therefore, they use double-bagging to fix the weak handles problem. However, this practice uses more plastic bags and creates more