Question

essay on plastic should be banned in india

Answer 1

Five hundred billion used globally and one hundred billion of them end up in U.S. landfills, taking about one thousand years to decompose, but only 5.2 percent were recycled (Borrud, 2007, p.75).-These are the figures plastic bags have produced every year. Human beings invented plastic bags for the convenience of carriers and packers. However, just as other great inventions, say, nuclear energy and biotechnology, plastic bags are causing serious issues like global warming, environment pollution and energy consumption. They are gradually becoming sword towards ourselves. In responding to this problem, the city of San Francisco has become the trail blazer to prohibit non-biodegradable plastic bags in its large supermarkets and pharmacies. …show more content… 

In other words, in this era of high oil prices and energy scarcity, petroleum-based bags are costing considerable natural resources, and ultimately turn them into a huge pile of useless garbage. Actually, significant energies like fuel, from which ethylene gas is obtained and plastic bags are made, are nonrenewable, while human beings are still consuming these precious treasures recklessly. What's more, the plastic bags easily catch wind and blow, causing the difficulty of confining it to where disposed of (Borrud, 2007, p.75). This leads to the difficulty in recycling, which hinders the circulation and reuse of the material to a large extent. Moreover, Ross Mirkarimi, the author of the ban, also notes that the only 1% of the plastic bags in San Francisco is recycled, in spite of the city's perfect local recycling system ("100 Billion Reasons," 2007, p.77). People's poor awareness on energy-saving has brought the oil-shortage crisis one step further. A prohibitory edict on petroleum-based bags might be a right way out before we ultimately realize that the last calorie on the earth comes from our body temperature.

Answer 2

Plastic bags pose a grave danger to the environment. The use of harmful chemicals in the production of plastic gives rise to environmental problems such as obstruction of drains, groundwater contamination etc. However, if plastic is recycled according to approved procedures and guidelines, then this hazard may not become a threat to environment and health. The problem with the use of plastic bags aggravates due to the shortcomings in the waste management system in the country.

At present, the production of plastic in the world is about 100 million tonnes per annum and it is growing at 4 per cent per annum. In India too, the production and use of plastic is growing rapidly. On an average, every Indian generates around half a kilo of plastic wastes every year. Much of it is scattered on and around the litter stack, which, in turn, spreads environmental pollution.