Should Americans Be Allowed To Throw Away Plastic Item's?

One of the plastics that are used everyday are plastic bottles. Approximately 185 pounds of plastic are thrown away each year by the average american. Some of these plastics are plastic water bottles. Each year americans throw away 35 billion plastic water bottles. These plastic bottles end up in landfills or the ocean. When they reach

It makes me feel guilty when I have my bottle of water with me, even though I put it in the recycle bin at the end of the day, I now wonder about where it will end up. Does it go to another plastic product to be tossed aside, this indestructible piece of plastic? I am concerned as I watch the people of “convenience” walk by and I look at the products that we all carry to help us make our lives easier. I note the woman next to me has two of the “better water bottles”, one with a small round spring in it to help stir the liquid “meal on the go” that she has in that particular bottle. Another person walks by with a liquid breakfast in a Styrofoam cup, another non-biodegradable product. A couple of construction workers sit down across the room with their

I recently viewed a video on “The economic injustice of plastic” by Van Jones. The film started off by talking about the fact that the petrochemical corporations use oil and concentrate it into plastic; which in turn kills individuals. Van Jones discusses the demise of people who are underprivileged because they can only manage to pay for the products that are hazardous to them. Additionally, poverty-stricken people also assume the burden to dispose of plastic bottles and containers.

Overall, recycling plastic benefits the environment, the economy and the future of America. Although there are flaws to recycling plastic such as the sorting step overlooking additives and the washing step leaving some impurities, technological advances and more labor will be needed to fix those drawbacks in order to conserve the environment. Therefore, the U. S government should mandate recycling so that the recycling rate increase. Through this action, America will gain the benefits of recycling plastic. In addition, Americans should recycle specific types of plastic such as PET and HDPE as those two are the most commonly accepted by recycling programs. This will be strenuous upon Americans because they will have to do more work however,

According to United Nations Environment Programme, there are approximately 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in every square mile of the ocean! I strongly think that plastic bags should be banned in the whole entire United States. Not only would it encourage people to use reusable bags, it will save many animals, and will prevent toxins from entering into the air.

Earth is drowning in plastic and it is time that we really dig deep on this issue as it’s already affecting the oceans ecosystem. Laws should be passed to make it illegal to dump trash in the ocean and alternative methods of trash disposal need to be sought. Used water bottles, plastic bags, coffee cups, and fish nets make up a huge portion of the Great Pacific garbage patch, this can be avoided by simply passing legislation to make it illegal to dump trash in the ocean. Raising awareness starts with informing your family and friends of what they can do to help reduce their plastic usage and explain to them why it is harmful to the environment. Reduce your everyday plastic usage such as sandwich bags, water bottles, and plastic utensils. These efforts may not sound like much to combat such a huge global issue, but in this instance educating others and developing good habits is our most powerful weapon if we to live in a cleaner, safer

You can’t walk across a college campus, past an office building, or through a park without seeing one, two, or ten empty bottles. Many are plastic water bottles. Trash bins overflow them. Those water bottles are a problem. Why? Because only one out of five bottles actually makes it to a recycling bin. Plastic bottles take centuries to decompose and if they are incinerated, toxic byproducts, such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals, are releasing into the atmosphere. The rest are littered on our streets or over filing our landfills. They degrade our landscape and damage our environment. In addition the plastic water bottles are not biodegradable that is, they don’t decay. They remain as trash a hundreds of years.

Plastic, whether it is for a container, a wrapper or the product itself, has become an everyday part of our lives. The plastic itself is not a waste. We use it to contain food, construction workers wear it to protect their heads, and arthritic patients have it for their replaced hips. However, “Only 9 percent of the total plastic waste generated in 2012 was recovered for recycling”(“Plastics, Common Wastes & Materials”). If we just throw it away instead of recycle it, it will become a plastic waste and pollute the environment. When it reaches the ocean, it will turn into floating debris, which is even harder to

The trash barge in the ocean lets stuff fall off sometimes. That’s how fish get plastic in there stomach. So we should do something about it. We need to use thicker plastic bottles and cloth bags. That you don’t throw away.

Is a fee on plastic bags necessary? Plastic bag fees are not going to help achieve what we want for the environment. People in the U.S. are going to have trouble paying groceries if they have to pay for the bags too. Plastic bags are a problem but there is more plastic out there that should not be made anymore. If people want a change in the environment then we should recycle the plastic bags because if we put on fee on plastic bags people are not going to want to buy them but then reusable bags produce more waste and use up more resources. There should not be a fee on plastic bags because bag fees hurt low-income Americans who are already struggling, bag fees are not going to help achieve our goals, and plastic bags are not a litter issue.

There are so many reasons why and how plastic bottles can be bad for the environment. I couldn’t find a statistic about water bottle litter but I mean if you go outside your house you’d probably see a water bottles everywhere. Especially in our bodies of water. There’s a “Great Pacific Garbage patch” that is bits and pieces of plastic from all sorts of products that just floats in the Ocean’s because of people not disposing of these plastics

What do you see when you drive on the highway, scenery, funny road-signs and garbage, plastic bags being the most common. Plastic bags are a serious problem for our country and is a problem that is getting worse. This is why states must ban the plastic bag, and instead use paper or reusable bags. Plastic bags are timely and costly, bad for the environment and wildlife, and costs states, cities, counties and taxpayers thousands of dollars.

Plastic bottle waste effects on animals Have you ever even thought twice before throwing your plastic bottle, which to you, looks like nothing more than 6 inches of a water container. Just a piece of plastic that is taking up a little room in your house, or vehicle. A piece of plastic that could do YOU no harm, right? Well that may, or may not be the case, and it may not hurt you. Although think about the effects that it may have on the already depleting sea life. Well if you haven’t had the audacity to look up the affects yourself , I’ll do it for you. So first off let me hit you with a shocking, but true, nonetheless. Nearly 100,000 sea mammals are killed per year just due to plastic. Now let that sink in, that's, JUST mammals. Just imagine

On average, an American can produce 4.4 pounds of trash a day. That’s a lot of trash, especially for one person. We are all guilty of making unnecessary trash. Maybe you used ten paper towels when you could have used one or you chose to eat a snack out of those convenient plastic baggies. Yes, plastic can be helpful and convenient but, reusable containers can also be extremely helpful.Think about it. To buy some toothpaste you have to get in your car, go to the store, pay five dollars, and then drive home. That takes up a lot of time! You could have just stayed home and made your toothpaste much cheaper and faster without the plastic. There are many stores that are also trying to enact this movement by providing waste- free products that will last a long time at relatively cheap costs. Some example of these stores includes, ZERO Market and a site called Litterless that finds waste-free stores in areas near you.

As the United States deals with the overwhelming amounts of waste building up, Nitin et al explain that “plastics take anywhere from 15 to 1000 years to biodegrade” once they are discarded (Nitin). Changes in recycling methods can no longer keep up with the exorbitant amount of waste produced in the United States. This is why some states choose to take their initiative one step further by placing either fees or a ban on the use of plastic bags. Due to the enormous waste the United States produces on a daily basis and the negative outcomes of this trash including adverse health effects, harmful impacts on nature, and the exponential piling of trash in landfills, the US government should ban plastic bags.