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Essay On Plastic Bags

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Since 1985, America has used plastic bags due to them being waterproof and having handles making them easier to carry goods. Paper and plastic have always been a huge controversy in supermarkets through the preference of customers. Some customers prefer having the paper bags standing up straight in the trunks of their cars. Other customers prefer the plastic bags because of the handles making it easier to walk home and carry their goods. Although both preferences are fine, all customers know the dangers of the plastic bag. Banning plastic bags from stores and replacing them with only paper or reusable bags, will reduce corruption of organic products, reduce CO2 emissions from the creation and destruction of the plastic and prevent harm …show more content…

Although plastic bags, as well as paper bags, can be recycled in order to postpone running out of resources, the creation and destruction of the plastic releases CO2 or (Carbon Dioxide) into the air damaging the Earth’s atmosphere along with all the other horrific machinery emitting the same toxic and harmful gas. This is more popularly known as “Plastic Pollution”, one of the biggest causes of climate change. “An estimated 12 million barrels of oil are used to manufacture the 30 million plastic bags that Americans use each year.” (Durkin, 1 bag at a time) Factories creating and destroying these plastic bags have the some of the highest rates of CO2 emission. No matter how the plastic bag is disposed of, either way it will end up releasing the catastrophic chemicals that are killing our planet.

Recycling is a great attempt to preserve our natural resources, but it does not even come close to saving the living creatures of Mother Earth herself. The build up of plastic bags and other unnecessary items in our oceans is a greater cause of ecosystem disruption. An estimated 100,000 marine animals die each year due to suffocating on or ingesting plastic bags. Increased levels of man-made pollutants show up in areas like the Arctic, affecting Polar bears, other arctic mammals, melting polar ice caps and adding to the stress of all climate change and global warming. All plastic bags ever thrown away are stored in landfills, which only some of actually properly dispose

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