Why does this matter?
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Strong, lightweight, durable. These are some of the advantages plastic possesses. It is used in thousands of products that add comfort and convenience to our daily lives.
Plastic comes in many forms, according to the needs of the consumers. It can be rigid to keep fragile items secure and safe. It can be flexible to make easy-to-carry bags. It can be used in packaging to allow food to stay fresh longer and reduce the amount of food waste in a world where food wastage is an imminent issue in developed countries.
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If plastic is that amazing, why are there people against it?
While plastic does offer a range of advantages, it has a slew of disadvantages that does not
seem to offer credit to its advantages. Here are some of the points we will be looking at in the following page:
– Plastic is made from oil.
– Plastic is usually not recycled properly.
– Plastic is one of the main pollutant of the oceans.
– Plastic in water bodies afffects marine and land creatures.
– Plastic affects human through marine life
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Plastic is not biodegradeable. It cannot be broken down; Instead it breaks down into smaller pieces that eventually becomes microplastic. With most plastic waste ending up in the ocean
or the landfill, our Earth is slowly being polluted. It is estimated that plastic would outweigh
fishes in the ocean by 20150. There have also been studies showing that plastic has indeed
been found in our drinking water and seafood.
What are the effects of plastic?
Plastic made from oil
Plastic are made from polymers, large molecules made of repeating units of smaller molecules known as monomers. Some plastics are made from monomers that require the hydrocarbons from crude oil. It is also important to note that not all polymers are plastic. Oil-based plastics do not degrade hence the move to look into bioplastic as an important industry.
Fertility of wildlife
Bisphenol-A, most commonly known as BPA, is a chemical that could be found in plastics. According to a major study released by the American Society for Reproductive Health in 2008, BPA can, and does, inhibit an embryos ability to attach to the uterine lining which show risk to male and female fertility. It can also keep cells from dividing properly which might cause birth defects and even developmental problems in children.
Garbage Patch
The oceans are home to five garbage patches – North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Indian Ocean – that have a significant impact. Gyres are large systems of circulating ocean currents, like slow-moving whirlpools. The plastic present in these gyres are mostly made up of microbeads and plastic fibres that get washed out to sea through daily activities such as showering or doing the laundry.
Microplastics and Microfibres
An article released by The Guardian revealed that micro-
plastics are found in tap waters around the world. More than 80% of the samples collected on five continents were shown to contain microplastics- tiny plastic fibres from us through abrasion of clothing, paints, tire dusts, microbeads in facital cleansers,
and secondary microplastics. Microplastics have been to absorb toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other illnesses and these are released when they are consumed by fishes and mammals.
Ingestion of plastic
Some of the most shocking
images of animals ingesting plastic features birds with plastic bits in their stomach. The birds have been shown to contain plastic such as bags, bottle caps, and tiny rice-sized plastiscs. Some birds and mammals eat so much plastic, that are non-biodegradable, that there is little room left in their gut for food. With the increasing amount of plastic produced is the result of a higher number of animals ingesting plastic. Other mammals most affected are sea turtles, sea lions, fishes, whales, and dolphins.
Danger to wildlife
While plastic can be as tiny as microplastic and microfibres, it also exists in large sizes such as fishing nets that contributes to the phenomenon of “ghost fishing” where marine animals are trapped in lost, abandoned, or discarded fishing gear. This creates problems where the animals are unable to escape from the nets and die. Scavengers will then be attracted by the bodies and in turn, be caught in the similar net thus creating a vicious cycle in which animals get trapped.