Whether Plastic Bags Can Be Easily Used in Everyday Life - Essay Example

Section/# Plastic Bags: An Analysis and Discussion One of the positive aspects of the increased level of environmental concern that has been displayed in recent years is the fact that individuals are beginning to pay an increasing level of attention to some of the standard activities that they perform on an everyday basis they can have long-lasting negative impacts upon the environment. Recent years have seen producers taking great strides in reducing the level of packaging and waste that many consumer products display. However, there is a great deal more work than needs to be done in order to further bring society in line with sustainable concepts that would not only serve to reduce waste but also to protect the extant environment. One of the debates that is currently raging in both consumer and producer circles is whether or not plastic bags should be banned. As a function of this debate, this particular analysis will seek to understand and differentiate several arguments with respect to why plastic bags should be banned all stop. The arguments which will be employed will be concentric upon the following areas: the level of environmental damage caused by plastic bag usage, the level of waste that this portends, the non-biodegradable nature of plastic bags, the societal impacts of litter, key wildlife concerns, and lastly the health hazard to infants and toddlers that plastic bags represent. As a function of this level of analysis it is the hope of this author that the reader will be able to understand some of the most salient points for why plastic bags should ultimately ceased to exist within the current consumer culture. The overall level of environmental damage caused by plastic bags is quite difficult to ascertain. However, when one considers the fact that literally tens of millions of plastic bags are both produced, consumed, and ultimately thrown away each and every year, the full extent of the environmental repercussions of such an action come clearly interview. If one considers the means by which almost all consumer products are packaged in plastic bags, the full impact of the environmental damage that these cause is understood within the construct of the consumer society that is currently displayed (McLaughlin 50). Ultimately, plastic bags represent a threat to the environment due to the fact that they exist for thousands, even tens of thousands, of years after their few brief moments of usage. Such a trade-off is difficult to imagine in the sense that ultimately, most plastic bags are only used momentarily in order to transport consumer products from their place of purchase to the home. This of course brings the analysis to the level of waste that such an action illustrates. However, there is a further issue that needs to be discussed with regards to the environmental impact in the ultimate wastefulness that the use of plastic bags demonstrate. Whereas almost every shareholder in society is uniquely aware of the fact that these bags are composed of plastic, either from original or from postconsumer content, you consider the fact that the original material for these plastic bags is composed of processed oil. The production of plastic bags requires an estimated 112 million barrels of oil in any given year (Green 32). Naturally, this represents ancillary environmental damage that is caused by the Roma to release source is that required to create these bags. Due to the fact that oil is of course a fossil fuel and ultimately an exhaustible resource, continuing to create hundreds even millions of plastic bags for quick consumption each and every year is a foolish use of the limited resource; not to mention the additional environmental impact that throwing these devices away entails. Although no exact figures exist, it is been estimated that upwards of 380 billion plastic bags are consumed each and every year in the United States alone. The sheer mass that this portends cannot fully be understood due to the fact that when plastic bags are created they are necessarily compact and take very little. However, once they are disposed of their overall mass necessarily increases and thereby represents a much larger footprint within landfills. Naturally, this brings the analysis to the further issue of the fact that plastic bags are non-biodegradable. Whereas many types of bags that are ultimately made from plant fibers or even paper rapidly decompose once in a landfill, plastic bags can remain for many thousands of years. This represents an unnecessary and wasteful allocation of land, materials, and resources. Furthermore, due to the fact that the world’s population continues to expand by exponential factors, it is only reasonable to assume that the level of consumption of these plastic bags will only continue to rise in the near future. Therefore, as a way to improve overall sustainability, as well is to protect the original resources and environment that have this far been discussed, plastic bags truly have no place within the current system. Studies indicated that less than 8% of plastic bags used within the United States are recycled (Nadar 6). Although there exists a great deal of information as well as nearly continuous media discussion on the topic, shareholders have not been engaged with the need to seriously consider the impacts that plastic bags have both on the environment and consumerism. With such an understanding, it becomes obvious that it is the government’s role to step in and demand that such a wasteful and definitively harmful activity must be stopped immediately. Whereas this analysis is already discussed the means whereby the original material for plastic bags derive as well as where the broad majority of the used plastic bags end up, the further issue of litter is one that demands discussion. Due to the fact that consumerism creates waste, not all of this waste will either be recycled or will end up in landfills (Williams 31). Even a nonscientific survey of the local neighborhood or environment will immediately revealed that one of the most common pollutants that can be found is the evidence of plastic bags strewn along the sides of highways, sidewalks, and other areas that are frequented by humans (Ramaswamy et al 9). This of course brings the discussion to the further issue of how plastic bags impact upon the fauna of the environment in which they are exhibited. Even though many studies have been conducted to discuss the means by which aquatic life can be harmed by plastic bags, few studies have made note of the way in which plastic bags can be harmful to land mammals. Whereas whales and other sea creatures often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and other edible forms of wildlife, some of the same concerns can be noted with regards to how certain scavengers, birds, and other wildlife can be harmed by the inadvertent consumption of plastic bags. For instance, did the fact that many plastic bags are disposed with remnants of food or other edibles still within their contents, the animals that are attracted to these potential food sources are unable to distinguish between the food and the plastic; thereby ingesting large amounts of potentially harmful levels of plastic. However, the effects of plastic bags cannot only be limited to the negative effects that they pose to the environment or the animal kingdom. The fact that matter is that far too many infants and toddlers strangle themselves and/or suffocate on a yearly basis due to plastic bags (Dowcett 38). Evidence of this can obviously be seen in many of the warnings that exist on the plastic bags indicating that they should be kept far out of reach of children. However due to the fact that plastic bags pervade the current consumer culture and are exhibited within nearly every single household within the United States, the level to which this can be ultimately protected from is greatly reduced (Adams 6117). Although one cannot and should not consider a mere safety concern as the determinant factor for banning plastic bags, from the preceding analysis, one can easily realize that this represents yet another drawback that must be considered. Ultimately, when one considers the litany of drawbacks that plastic bags exhibit within the local and regional environment, it is difficult to understand and/or imagine why this form of packaging continues to exist the level that it does. However the fact the matter is that plastic bags are an order of magnitude cheaper than their paper complements (Rich 169). Though paper itself represents a noticeable drawback to the environment and the fact that trees must be cut down in order to buy the pulp from which the papers made, it nonetheless represents a far more equitable use of resources than do plastic bags. Although this will most certainly have a negative impacts upon the degree of profitability for retailers and most certainly represent an increase in price for the end consumer, the gain in utility from such a choice will necessarily be far more important in the long run. Ultimately, is not the purpose of this analysis to promote paper bags in place of plastic bags; rather, the hope of this author is that the salient arguments that it been defined will help illuminate the issue and encourage shareholders to pursue more environmentally conscious means of packaging within society. Works Cited ADAMU, S. S. "A Control System Retrofit For A Plastic Bag Making Machine." 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"Plastic Bag Politics: Modifying Consumer Behaviour For Sustainable Development." International Journal Of Consumer Studies 33.2 (2009): 168-174. Business Source Premier. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. Williams, Caroline. "Battle Of The Bag." New Scientist 183.2464 (2004): 30-33. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. Read More