Your State Government has banned the use of plastic bags. You are Amarjeet, a reporter of the Times of India. Write a report on how the ban is being is ignored and what damage the use of plastic bags is causing to the environment.
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Answer:
Plastic is one of the most useful inventions of the 20th century. It is obvious that nearly every
consumer product we buy these days has some plastic content, and many would be impossible
without this technology. Plastic materials can be durable, inexpensive, and useful. Plastic is usually
made out of some kind of nonrenewable resource, either oil or natural gas.
Using a piece of plastic once, for a few minutes, then throwing it away is a short-sighted way to waste
an incredibly useful resource. Even if the bag is used again to pick up animal waste or line a trash can,
the useful life of a plastic bag is quite short, squandering a nonrenewable resource. We believe that
plastics should be reserved for uses that have a longer lifetime, preserving the nonrenewable
resources they are generally made out of for a longer time.
Single use plastic bags have several particularly objectionable environmental negatives. The poet
Harryette Mullen calls them “Urban Tumbleweeds”. Like the tumbleweed, lightweight, single use
plastic bags are carried by the wind to litter the landscape. The get entangled in bushes, trees, and
fences. They show up as litter in rivers and streams, and entangle wildlife. They end up in ocean
garbage gyres, where they are ingested by fish and birds. They are harmful when eaten by livestock
and wildlife. They don’t biodegrade, eventually photodegrading into smaller and smaller toxic bits, but
do not disappear. In addition, scientific studies have not been able to show that chemicals used in the
manufacture of plastics are safe for humans, and indicate the need to decrease the exposure to these
chemicals (Anderson, Kuriyama, Taylor, Talsness, & vom Saal, 2009). Particles derived from the
decomposition of plastic waste can enter the food chain of living organisms (Dorigo, 2011).
In addition, recycling rates for single use plastic bags is very low. According to the EPA, “only 9 percent
of the total plastic waste generated in 2012 was recovered for recycling.” The agency also states, “. . .
in 2012, the category of plastics which includes bags, sacks, and wraps was recycled at about 12
percent.” (EPA, n.d.) The City of Columbia does not accept grocery bags for recycling, because they
don’t have enough space to store enough plastic bags to recycle them in a cost-effective way. Solid
waste customers in Columbia that mistakenly place plastic bags in their “blue bags” for recycling may inadvertently cause machinery jams if the bags get caught in sorting machinery at the Material
Recovery Facility. It is better to reduce the number of bags used to begin with.
The Environment & Energy Commission believes that the impact on retailers from the proposed
legislation is small, that the mandatory bag fee compensates retailers fairly for their trouble, and will
not reduce retail sales. We do not believe the convenience that single use bags provide is worth the
associated environmental risks and costs, and unanimously recommends the adoption of an ordinance
restricting the use of plastic bags.
Explanation: