Nowadays, plastic bags are causing environmental issues due to overusing and disposal of plastic bags while they are still widely used by people. The earth is being polluted by the plastic bag every day including lands, rivers, ocean, and the whole ecosystem as well, but some people still argue that the plastic bag only contributes a small percentage of landfills. However, some parties argue that plastic bags only contribute a little to the overall pollution problem but if they take a closer look, they will recognize that the plastic bags should be banned because they negatively impact the environment, bring harm to wildlife by destroying their digestive system, and affected the lives of the marine creatures.
Firstly, plastic bags should be banned because the disposal of plastic bags are causing pollution to the environment. Most people nowadays throw away their plastic bags after only a single use. This is one of the factors why our mother nature is badly polluted. Due to the rapid increasing rate of plastic bag disposal, more and more land is occupied with trash. One of the most serious problem is water pollution. According to Clean Up Australia, n.d. (as cited in White, 2017), the world consumes 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags every year. That is a really massive amount of plastic bags, but only very few plastic bags were recycled. Clean Up Australia, n.d. (as cited in White, 2017) added that the “disposable culture” also contributes to the pollution issue. Black (2017) states that plastics do not degrade. Plastics can then be broken down to microplastic that will attract range of toxin.
Furthermore, plastic bags should be banned because the disposal of plastic bag will endanger the animal species by hurting their digestive system. Large marine animals mistaken plastic bags as the food source. According to Australian Government’s Department of Environment, this will cause blockage in their digestive tract and painful internal injuries. For example, all the food trapped will release gases that render their buoyant. Moreover, turtles, whales and dolphins will choke through swallowing the plastic bags. For example, in August 2000, a whale was found dead as a result of swallowing a large piece of plastic. This will cause extinction of marine animals if this problem is not solved. In addition, according to Suzuki (2012), 93% beached northern fulmars have their stomach full of plastics. In 1998, 17 plastic bags were found in a dead pelican in Kiama. Therefore, it is undoubtedly clear that the disposal of plastic bag will endanger the animal species.
Some parties hold the belief that plastic bags contribute only a little to the overall pollution problem. Facility Management Magazine (2017, as cited in Smith, 2017) proposed that lightweight plastic bags only occupies a small fraction of landfill which they only contribute up to 0.1% to the dumpsite. However, this argument is not altogether convincing as although plastic bags contribute only a little to the total pollution in landfill, disposal of plastic bags into the ocean gives a large impact to the marine ecosystem. Based on Black (2017), plastic bags are unable to be degraded but they can be broken down into microplastics that are less than 5mm in length. The microplastics consumed by tiny sea creatures indirectly affects other species of animal. The fragments are passed from an organism to another through food chain. Watts (n.d., as cited in Black, 2017) affirmed that microplastics causes creatures that consumed them to store less protein, carbohydrates and fats. Moreover, it attracts poisonous substances to be stored in the marine animals. Not only microplastics is indigestible and non-nutritive, it also centralizes waste pollutants in the seawater that surrounds the marine animals and deliver the pollutants to them. Thus, it is apparent that plastic bags usage impacts the marine ecosystem negatively even if it does not contribute much to the overall waste pollution.
As we can see, plastic bags have become a major reason for pollution of the environment. They are giving a negative impact on the mother nature which they had damaged the ecosystem and environment as well as increase the rate of pollution. Therefore, the government can impose taxes on the plastic bag and educate the public to reuse or recycle. In summary, people should use alternatives of plastic bags in order to reduce the rate of pollution to have a better homeland.