I went into a shop recently and saw a beautiful jute bag which had a tagline written on it saying, “Ban Plastic, especially smiles”. Felt good to see that people are really getting conscious about the hazard of plastics. You know plastic bags are prepared from petrochemicals which are not a renewable resource. When littered or inappropriately disposed of, they are horrid and can be a danger to wildlife. Most plastic bags do not readily decompose when littered nor in a sealed sanitary landfill.
That single line really made me reflect a lot and I finally planned of buying the bag. As I was making the payment, the guy in the counter handed over that jute bag to me in a ‘plastic carrier’. An unusual feeling came on to me and I left the place. That guy might not have even realized what he had done because he does not care and even I say that no one cares. Plastic seems to have become a very important part of our lives, you can’t even think of a world devoid of plastic.
Plastic bags can even cause unsupervised infants to suffocate. About 15 children die each year when plastic bags accidently cover their faces, leading to suffocation. About 80% of the deaths reported to the Consumer Products Safety Commission from 1990 – 1997 were of children under one year old where ash, garbage, and dry cleaning bags were most often involved.
The guy who comes to my place in the morning to pick up the garbage doesn’t like garbage being given to him in the bin. His preference is that we put the stuff in plastic bags which makes him feel comfortable to do the job. Even I agree that we cannot do without it but can’t we limit the use.
The worst danger comes from the plastic grocery bags. Many of these grocery plastic bags are reused as book and lunch bags as kids head off to school, as trash can liners, and so on. But like candy wrappers, chewing gum, cigarette butts, and thousands of other pieces of junk, millions of the plastic bags end up as litter. Once in the environment, it takes months to hundreds of years for plastic bags to breakdown. As they decompose, tiny toxic bits seep into soils, lakes, rivers, and the oceans.
According to United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2001, somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.
Many governments have prepared laws to ban the use of plastic bags like The Delhi Degradable Plastic Bag and Garbage Act, 2000 but the implementation has to come in the actual sense, not just simply on paper.
The dangers are too many to think about. As always, the charity begins at home, let us promise to ourselves to limit the use of plastic for a healthier future.
According to Mamkol, “Blast and Plast-ic have a lot in common, they just kill, only the effect is immediate or gradual”.
That single line really made me reflect a lot and I finally planned of buying the bag. As I was making the payment, the guy in the counter handed over that jute bag to me in a ‘plastic carrier’. An unusual feeling came on to me and I left the place. That guy might not have even realized what he had done because he does not care and even I say that no one cares. Plastic seems to have become a very important part of our lives, you can’t even think of a world devoid of plastic.
Plastic bags can even cause unsupervised infants to suffocate. About 15 children die each year when plastic bags accidently cover their faces, leading to suffocation. About 80% of the deaths reported to the Consumer Products Safety Commission from 1990 – 1997 were of children under one year old where ash, garbage, and dry cleaning bags were most often involved.
The guy who comes to my place in the morning to pick up the garbage doesn’t like garbage being given to him in the bin. His preference is that we put the stuff in plastic bags which makes him feel comfortable to do the job. Even I agree that we cannot do without it but can’t we limit the use.
The worst danger comes from the plastic grocery bags. Many of these grocery plastic bags are reused as book and lunch bags as kids head off to school, as trash can liners, and so on. But like candy wrappers, chewing gum, cigarette butts, and thousands of other pieces of junk, millions of the plastic bags end up as litter. Once in the environment, it takes months to hundreds of years for plastic bags to breakdown. As they decompose, tiny toxic bits seep into soils, lakes, rivers, and the oceans.
According to United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2001, somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.
Many governments have prepared laws to ban the use of plastic bags like The Delhi Degradable Plastic Bag and Garbage Act, 2000 but the implementation has to come in the actual sense, not just simply on paper.
The dangers are too many to think about. As always, the charity begins at home, let us promise to ourselves to limit the use of plastic for a healthier future.
According to Mamkol, “Blast and Plast-ic have a lot in common, they just kill, only the effect is immediate or gradual”.
1 comment:
if plastic is so bad why not ban every thing that is plastic - Starting from our day - Tooth brush, Tooth paste tube, Shaving blades in Plastic case, Shaving brush, Milk Packet delivered from diary, Our ball pens, The parts of Fridge, Oven, Electrical accessories, Automotive parts, Bottled water and other liquids, Our clothes made from synthetic fabrics, Shoes, and each and every thing we use has a some percentage of plastic in it. Why not ban all such things why only plastic bags. Only because at the time of disposal there is some problems. but there is a answer to this. Make all single use plastic bags oxo-biodegradable. I would request the readers to visit http://www.biodeg.org/briefing.pdf and understand the process of degrading petro polymers. The science keeps on developing new things for the betterment of human life. instead of talking afe old arguments why not give some thought to new developments.
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