essay on plastic is boon or curse
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Plastic is an invention of man. It is a material created and extensively used by him. It is a synthetic or semi synthetic material. It is available in various shapes and thickness. Unique property of it is that it can be molded. Plastic is useful in many ways as well as a material of disadvantage to mankind. It is of great use in day to day life, but it cannot be destroyed no matter what efforts are made. Thus, this is a matter of serious issue.
PLASTIC AS A BOON:-
Plastic is a boon to mankind. It has proved to be very useful in all walks of life. Plastic is used as carry bag helpful to carry things. It is used by all the people, it is easily available as well as cheap. We cannot imagine our lives without it. It has become necessity of our lives. Earlier bags made out of cotton or jute were used. But, with the invent of plastic, these bags are replaced by plastic bags as aesthetically they look good and have become much commercialized. We are surrounded by plastic everywhere. Plastic bottles, plastic chairs, plastic toys are used by all. Even plastic containers has taken its place in our kitchen as they are easy to handle and quick to wash. Good quality plastics are unbreakable and are used in the manufacture of various articles like television, tape recorder, computers etc....In our day to day lives we use pens, boxes and many electrical appliances which are all made by plastics.
PLASTIC AS A CURSE:-
Plastic is very harmful to our health. It cannot be destroyed easily. Soil loses its fertility, if plastic is buried in the land. Water will become polluted and disease prone if plastic is dumped into it. It can be destroyed to some extent, only if it is burnt. Even after burning, it's physical form gets destroyed but it still exists in the gaseous form. It takes the form of some dangerous gas when it is burnt and there by pollute the environment. Also, due to it global warming has been increasing. Plastics can take thousands of years to decay. On consumption innumerable animals, birds and fishes die every year. Thus, it is not only harmful to human beings, in fact causing harm to other living beings too.
We are using plastics deliberately even in the places, where it's use is no way required. If we have to protect our environment we need to check its production. Plastics cannot be destroyed. Already tons of plastic is produced on daily basis, which after use, lingers over here and there. This has to be checked. Recycling is the best method. Instead of producing new , the older can be recycled as it is a non biodegradable object. Wherever not required, it's usage has to be stopped. We should cultivate the habit of using cloth bags or paper bags instead of plastic bags. Instead of using plastic containers, China clay containers can be used which look authentic and more beautiful. Instead of dumping water bottles here and there, should be sent to recycling.
Usage of plastic cannot be stopped completely. But, it's use can be decreased gradually. It is boon as well as curse to mankind. It is very beneficial and to rule out disadvantages and protect our environment it should be used cautiously and wherever required and not carelessly, as safeguarding our environment is our prime duty.
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Deep in the Pacific Ocean, about 800 kms off the coast of California and 300 kms off the coast of Japan, is a stretch that could be one of the symbols of modern civilization. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as it has been named, estimated to be more than four times the size of India, is filled with trash consisting mostly of plastic debris. This enormous amount of plastic has been discarded on the land and then carried by wind, rainwater, through the drains to the rivers and streams and into the ocean. The ocean current has carried them at its whim to this patch in the Pacific Ocean.

Plastic, which had been hailed as a wonder material in the early 20th century, is increasingly becoming the face of all things going wrong with our civilization. This versatile material is unlike anything that is available in nature. It is durable, can be easily shaped, lightweight, waterproof and very cheap. New properties are getting added to it with every passing day resulting in new applications of plastic. But the same benefits of plastic have been the cause for its adverse impact on health and environment. Plastic does not decompose, hence almost every molecule of plastic produced so far is still somewhere in the environment and will continue to be so for hundreds of years. So one can still find almost every used and discarded plastic items somewhere on this earth. Let us try to understand the evolution of plastic starting from the need for such a material, what made it so popular, the problems, how to address the problems and steps that we can take up immediately.
What is plastic after all?
The term ‘plastic’, first used in the trade journal Plastics in 1925, comes from the Greek word plastikos, which means “capable of being shaped or moulded” and plastos meaning “moulded”. Plastics are polymers made of long chains of atoms or small molecules, bonded in a repeating pattern. All plastics are polymers but not all polymers are plastics. Plastic is mainly composed of carbon and hydrogen bonded with other elements like oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine and fluorine. The amount and the arrangement of the elements produce the different varieties of plastics. The human quest for materials that can be easily moulded or shaped and hardened into a final manufactured form has led to the use of natural plastics like horns, ivory, rubber, and shellac. But these natural resources could not keep pace with the rising demand and gave way to synthetically produced plastic from crude oil, coal or natural gas. Most of the plastics used today are synthetic plastics.
History of plastic
The first synthetic plastic, called Parkesine, was made by Alexander Parkes in 1862 from organic cellulose. The effort to mass produce this plastic failed because of poor quality. An early plastic that succeeded on a large scale is Celluloid, meaning “like cellulose”. John Wesley Hyatt synthesized celluloid from cotton fibre and camphor in 1869, apparently to make a cheaper substitute for ivory billiard balls. Celluloid went on to have a much bigger impact by replacing scarce and expensive natural materials and gave access to a host of goods. Perhaps the greatest impact of Celluloid was serving as the base for photographic films. But extensive use of Celluloid was limited due to its tendency to catch fire easily during production and the need for a labour intensive process.
The first completely synthetic plastic, which did not use cellulose from plant sources, was invented by Leo Baekeland in 1907. Baekeland was looking for a material to replace shellac as an electrical insulator. It was named Bakelite and was made from an extract of coal tar. Bakelite was used for making clocks, radios, phones, etc., that were uniquely styled. Each subsequent decade saw the introduction of new and more versatile plastics like Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Polyethylene, Nylon, Polystyrene, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and so on. The production of plastic increased rapidly to meet the huge demand during World War II. After the war, this huge capacity was suddenly available for the general public in the form of cheap consumer goods and textiles.
Types of plastics
Plastic is the generic name given to a wide variety of polymers. Plastics can be broadly classified into Thermoset plastics and Thermoplastics. Thermoset plastics like Bakelite are the ones that can be melted and moulded only once. Once it solidifies it cannot be re-melted. Thermoplastics, on the other hand, can be re-melted and remoulded. This quality makes Thermoplastics recyclable. Most of the plastics used today are Thermoplastics.