Say No To Plastic Bags:
Did you know that an average
Indian consumes 1 kg of plastic
every year, while the annual The world average is only 18 kg? These
figures are quite alarming, but quite
credible.
Go to a market-place you will
find vegetable and fruit vendors
handing over things in transparent
plastic bags to their customers,
Grocers too use these bags for
packing food items like grains.
Clothes, toys, shoes, electric items,
magazines and whatnot are all pre-
packed and sold in these bags or
shoppers, as they are commonly
called!
In the home front the office-goers
and students prefer to pack their
lunch in plastic bags. Housemaids
too' use these to carry food items
from their place of work to home.
The milk-and-bread man packs and
delivers things in plastic bags. What's
more deep freezers' are flooded with
plastic bags, combining foodstuff.
Haven't these shoppers become an indispensable part of our lives?
But what happens to these plastic
bags? It is here where the hazards
associated with them come into play.
Hazards on land:
According to researchers, plastic
degenerates slowly. All plastics sooner or later break down into smaller pieces
leaving behind plastic chunks or
plastic dust as residue. These chunks
are not biodegradable as their
molecular structure is too large for
the micro-organism to swallow.
This characteristic of plastic causes
serious environmental and health
problems.
The International rice Research
Institute (IRRI) has found that plastic
bags cause harmful effects on soil,
water and air.
There is nothing wrong with the
plastic as a material. The thing is that
man has not put the plastic to the
right use or he uses it without taking
care of the related norms of the
usage.
Every day we dispose of 10 million
plastic carry bags. These bags cause
blockage of the drainage and the sewage system of the city resulting
in waterlogging, germination of
bacteria which cause water-borne
diseases.
Plastic, being non-degradable,
also reduces the rate of rainwater
percolation, resulting in lowering of
already low water levels in our
cities.The plastic bags that lie on the
soil for long stop the passage of
Oxygen, thereby deteriorating the soil
fertility.
The bags that fly and land in
agricultural land retards the growth
of the crops by wrapping themselves
around the plants.
Since the plastic bags picked up
from the garbage retain a lot of
bacteria which are difficult to destroy
the reeled bags contaminate the food
it holds, causing serious health
problems.
temperature less than 800 C in an
other poisonous gases which cause
When plastic is burned at a
open space it produces noxious
fumes such as hydrogen cyanide and
air pollution resulting in skin diseases
respiratory problems and even a kind
of cancer. Consequently, thousands
due every year.
The plastic cups discarded in the better bin is often consumed among
with the leftover foods by stray cows
and other cattle leading unfold
sufferings and even death.
Hazards In the coastal areas:
This might take your breath away but
is quite true. According to the World
Wide for Nature estimates more than
100,000 whales, seals, turtles and
birds die every year as a result or
Congestion caused by plastic bags.
Some marine animals are even
spotted with plastic residues in the
stomachs and plastic molecules in
their muscles.
Turtles, dolphins and other marines creatures often mistake small plastic
bags for jellyfish and swallow their
leading to intestinal blockage and
thereby their end.
Ban on recycled goods:
The use of recycled plastic bags for
storing, carrying. dispensing or packing of
foodstuffs are banned by the Ministry
of Environment and Forests. The
manufacture, stocking, distribution or
selling of carry bags made of
recycled plastics which are below
8x12 inches in size and 20 microns in
thickness is also banned.
Solution: Solution to the
environmental and health problems
caused by bio-degradable plastic lies
in the following:
Finding alternative suitable
material which has no adverse effect,
for making bags and other packing
items at a competitive rate. Educating users on the right
disposal methods.
Processing vegetable to higher
density s0 as to reduce the require
more of packing and carrying bags.
Encouraging the use of reusable
bags made of traditional material with
the help of advertisements.
Taking the ground realities into
consideration it is now solely up to
you to say "Yes" or "No" to plastic
bags.
