Plastic Bags and Their Harms to Environment
One trillion single used plastic bags are consumed every year, equating to two million per minute. This stunning statistical figure might shock you but it’s true. Plastic bags have been used for a long time because of their conveniences. They are seen everywhere from a huge supermarket to some small vendor stores on the street. The problem is that not all of them are collected and recycled entirely. As a result, plastic bags which are thrown at wrong places causing harms to the ecosystem in different ways: polluting the soil, killing wildlife, and even affecting our health.
Plastic bags are poisoning the soil. Their toxic chemicals pollute the soil and plants. A piece of paper towel or a piece of plywood degrades in an approximately a month, but it takes decades or even centuries for plastic bags to decompose. In this degradation process, plastics bags obstruct the flow of minerals and nutrients which plants and trees take from the soil. As a result, the growth of the plants and trees will be affected. Subsequently, the stability of the soil is broken, and the soil is easy to erode, and that phenomenon is called soil erosion. The erosion is the key factor causing a landslide which is one of the deadly calamities in the world. Generally, plastic bags are dangerous to the environment. The longer they remain the more harmful they cause to our ecosystem.
Wild lives are probably the most directive victims that are affected terribly by plastic bags. Many animals have suffered a great deal with plastic bags and their remains. Fishes die from accidentally eating those toxic remains and choking to death. Cows are sick when they pasture on the land in which those small plastic particles lay. Out in the ocean, the creatures are suffering like terrestrial animals too. According to greenerideal.com, 100.000 marine animals are killed each year as a result of plastic bags pollution, which cause by 46.000 plastic pieces found in every square mile of ocean.
Human lives can’t be departed with the nature and the environment. Therefore, when our environment is hurt, so are we. As the animals are directly killed by plastic bags, we are affected by eating those animals from our food chain indirectly. Those toxic debris and remains are eaten by animals, such as fishes or cows, will not be digested in their bodies completely. Then, when we eat those fishes or cows by chances, the toxic substances continues to get in our bodies, and we get sick. Moreover, this poison eating is keeping occurring again and again without our notices.
Many protecting environment activists say that one of the easy and convenient ways to destroy our planet is keep using plastic bags. They are polluting our environments and are destroying the ecosystem around us. I agree with them partially. Although many developed countries are banning or reducing the using of plastic bags, that is not enough. We have got to do more to protect our planet.
