Essay – Plastic bags are convenient and should not be banned by the government
Plastic bags are convenient and should not be banned by the government Essay: Plastic, one of the important and mostly needed commodities made by the humans is seen almost in all places where our eyes go in the recent world. Be it in any sector: space, defence, commercial, domestic, travel and even clothing; you name it, we have plastic everywhere. It is one of those necessary evils made by human beings for the convenient uses of our own species: whether or not it is harmful for our co-existing species and the nature as a whole.
As we are progressing in the 21st century as the most advanced creature on Earth, it becomes imperative on our end to secure the world for the upcoming generations of not only Homo sapiensbut also other creatures. Other forms of living beings have an equal right to live on our mother earth, in a safe and secured environment. Does that mean plastic, which has become a quintessential item in various sectors of our life, should be banned completely? Does that justify our ethical duty to secure the nature?
Plastic, as we see, has various forms for varied uses. The plastic used for space research is not the same as the see-through bags we get in markets. The plastic bags we mostly know about are made for single use and not recyclable. At the same time, some companies issue bags that are made from recyclable plastic and can mostly be further recycled. The plastic wraps we use for food covering are also single use plastics. So while one can outright say that plastic bags should be banned or otherwise, one should try to understand that not all of its forms can be totally banned.
As stated by environmentalists, plastics cause a lot of pollution: be it air, water or soil. While the manufacturing process pollutes the air with loads of particulate matter, the dumping process totally affects soil and water ecosystems. Plastic bags become one of the major reasons of blockage in urban drainage systems: thereby often resulting into urban flooding and pollution of agricultural lands that lie in the vicinities of major cities. Dumping of plastics in open landmasses also alter the natural biome that often destroy important decomposer species and give rise to toxic leaching and harmful new strains of germs. Plastics that eventually get washed away by streams or get drained into oceans cause havoc to the marine ecosystems. There have been cases where plastics were seen blocking the aerial roots of mangroves, resulting into their death and thereby reducing the lifespans of dependent species. Moreover, plastics were found in stomachs of dolphins and whales, while there were huge amounts of micro plastics in the bodies of small fishes and amphibians. Most marine organisms consume plastics as they mistake these for jelly fishes or planktons. This in turn erodes the entire food chains and food webs linking these polluted organisms.
Plastic bags are also seen as breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other disease causing microbes as these bags not being biodegradable often collects water in them which become areas of breeding for these pathogens. This also gets intensified in places near tropics like India and equatorial countries because the temperature of these places already becomes suitable for propagation of disease causing microbes and pathogens. Plastic bags are seen as mere catalysts.
In developing nations where awareness takes a hind spot behind other necessary sectors, common people are not given much information regarding the negatives posed by plastics. Moreover, due to its negligible cost, plastics are the most consumed packaging for middle and lower class households. Furthermore, people do not adhere to the dumping protocols given by the government and promoted by news media and mostly litter these nuisances beside roads and in drains. Hence, the cycle continues. Thus, it becomes imperative from the side of governments to form restrictive laws since people seem bound to adhere to the protocols when fines and punishments are imposed for negligence.
While banning may seem to be harsh step, banning of single use plastic bags is justified to control the extreme usage and the pollution posed by them. This also allows the promotion of reusable bags made of natural materials that are from the nature and for the nature.
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