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After people use them, people throw them away, which is plastic pollution. According to Wattenberg (2009), “today between 500 billion to one trillion are used annually. Over one billion plastic bags are distributed free to consumers each day. ” This essay will discuss the Ocean pollution problem, landfill problem and economical problem and then introduce how can individual, governments and school to solve the problems. Firstly, ocean pollution problem by plastic is becoming more and more serious. So much plastic is flowing into the sea, which pollutes the ocean.
The UN Environment Programmer (2006) estimated that “every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic”. Besides, some marine animals mistake plastic as food. It is harmful to them. Wattenberg (2009) state that because of plastic, more than one million marine animals and bird die. Many sea turtles mistake plastic as jellyfish. So plastic are lodged in their digestive tract, contributing to slow and painful death. This information indicates that how serious the plastic pollute the ocean and does harm to animals.
If human eat the marine animals whose digestive tract contain plastic, the plastic will then be harmful to humane themselves. Secondly, landfill is another problem. The rubbish that humans throw away every day contains a lot of plastic. Because plastic has harmful chemicals, Humans need to bury them deeply. In addition, plastic need a long time to decompose. Wattenberg (2009) points out that plastic bag contain BPCS and Deeds chemicals. It takes 1000 years to decompose. So the land humans can use is becoming limited. According to
Clean up Australia Ltd (2009), “Australians dispose of an estimated 4 billion plastic bags, or 20,700 tons of plastic, that can be recycled. Even plastic bags that are reused as bin bags end up in municipal waste streams and will never be recycled, filling our already limited landfill space. From the evidence, plastic not only occupy the land but also pollute the land, which is detrimental to society. The final problem is that plastic pollution result in an economical problem. Every year, government spends a lot of money to produce and dispose plastic. It becomes an economic burden to government.
Clean Up Australia Ltd (2009) indicates that governments, businesses and community groups spent more than $4,000,000 in cleaning up plastic shopping bag. Wattenberg (2009) observes that shopping bags cost retailers 54 billion in the SACS. Besides, plastic are made with petroleum, which is a no renewable natural resource. It also leads to short supply of petroleum. According to the Nolan TIT (2002), 8. 7 plastic of petroleum energy can make car drive 1 kilometer. This information shows that plastic are not only cheap but also ensure the no renewable resource.
It is harmful to humans sustainable development. In order to solve those problems, there are many things that human can do. As for citizen, they can reduce the plastic. If they can do it, the less plastic will be protected. But it is hard to do because plastics are linked to our life. The better way is to recycle the plastic. According disconnected Inc. (n. D), “less than 10% plastics produced are recycled. ” It means that recycling is no enough. If human can improve it better, the better human can solve the problem.
Another way citizen can do is using green bag when they go shopping, which can reduce dependence on plastic bag. As for government, government can formulate some policies to make plastic bag in charge in supermarket and institutes green chemistry plastic. Wattenberg (2009) claim that Ireland has devised a ‘Plans Tax’, which reduces 90% use of plastic bag. And Taiwanese formulate law to charge plastic bag and utensils. “Plastic product use has dropped by 69%. ” From the information, the effect of government is obvious and both of them are good ways to solve the plastic robber.
In conclusion, although the plastic problem is very serious, which is not only harmful to human and animals but also cause an economic burden. There are still some valid ways to solve it. If everyone can do their part, the plastic problem may will be solved one day.