Waves of Plastic
http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/programs/keep-plastic-out-pacific
California has been expiriencing a issue with how much plastic enters the ocean each day. "Californians throw away 123,000 tons of plastic bags each year, and too many of them end up as litter in our ocean. Today, there are 100 million tons of trash in the North Pacific Gyres..." says environmentalist. Tons of animals have been dying each day, some of these animals are, seabirds, fish, and turtles. More and more animals have been rescued from plastic bag entanglement. I believe that if we start to cut plastic production, then more animals will be saved.
I agree that we should cut plastic bags and use reusable bags instead, but even if we try we couldn't reduce the use of plastic bags by a lot because people are used to using them and it is hard to adapt to changes. It is not only the plastic bags, the amount of trash that is dumped into the water is also very high. I wonder how long it will take for the water to be polluted to a degree that we couldn't use them anymore?
ReplyDeleteI also agree that cutting the amount of production on plastic bags is a good idea to save more animals, but what abundant resource would we use to make these bags? There is of course is paper bags, but the problem with that is we are already losing a lot of our tree supply at the moment, and they often rip more easily than plastic bags as I have had many occurrences with the old "drop the groceries in the parking lot outside of Trader Joes" scenario . If we used a more fiber like material like nylon, it might make it more durable, giving it a better chance to be reusable, but the expenses to make the bag itself will increase and not as many people will be willing to pay that type of money. I as a teenager who has to carry a lot of groceries actually ends up reusing the left over plastic bags for later uses, so I don't think specifically you should focus on a reusable bag, but more on a bag that is made out of a abundant, environment friendly material.
ReplyDeleteThe plastic bag ban should be in place. I am surprised that by now the whole state does not have to follow this law. I also think the plastic bag ban would be a beneficial ban for the whole country. I wonder what the decrease of plastic bags in percentage is since the ban has been in forced.
ReplyDelete