Plastic bags are seen everywhere especially with grocery stores, local vegetable or fruit vendors and many other stores and are widely used for commercial as well as domestic purposes.
These are convenient to carry, pack or store anything. These plastic bags are very easy and convenient to carry but these cause tremendous amount of pollution in land, water and air.
Plastic bags are very difficult to dispose off. If you throw plastic bags anywhere, you can observe that it stays there for a long time. They produce different harmful gasses and smell when you burn them.
If they are thrown into water they affect the marine life, and they do not decompose when buried into soil. Due to this they effect the fertility of soil, pollute water and damage the quality of air.
While there are different reasons for pollution, but plastic bags can be considered as one of the main reasons for pollution in environment.
Plastic is light in weight and cheaper than compared to other items such as wood or metal. Therefore demand for plastic is quite high.
Although it cannot be ruled out that many modern inventions in consumer goods or electronics are impossible without the plastic. But it is also a fact that the more is the plastic used, more pollution it causes, as it is non-biodegradable.
It slowly tears up into pieces and goes inside the soil, but does not mix with soil or decompose. Disposing plastic is the biggest challenge.
Plastic has become one of the major reasons for global warming, environmental pollution and energy consumption. These plastic bags are even cause of death for many animals on land and water. Animals consume it unknowingly and then cannot digest it.
This plastic when dumped into ocean either causes choking of sea life or harm them when they swallow it. This has also led to many water-borne diseases for both human and sea lives.
Plastic bags are very dangerous for living life. From the time they are manufactured till they are disposed they cause nothing but danger. The amount of gasses and chemicals used to produce them is not at all safe for people working there.
It creates more plastic waste and industrial waste, which is also non degradable.
According to some researchers, is also been proved that, when food is packed in plastic for long time, the toxic elements from plastic enter into other food items packed in them, especially when hot food comes into contact with plastic.
Consuming such food can cause food poisoning, intestinal and other digestion problems. Therefore, many fast food places and restaurants are encouraging paper containers for food.
Plastic bags are light in weight and are easily carried away by wind. These are often run down by water and get trapped in sewage or drains. The drains get blocked due to this and cause many other problems for human health and animal life due to clogging.
This can also cause overflowing or drains and sewage by flooding bad water.
While many countries have banned usage of plastic bags at commercial stores and shops, there is no strict rule followed.
In India, plastic ban was implemented few years back, but still we see many people and shop keepers using plastic bags. This cannot be stopped until government takes strict measures and stops the production of plastic bags for commercial as well as domestic use.
We must seek alternatives for plastic bags, as it is hard to stop using it at once. Using cloth or jute bags or paper bags is a better solution.
These are reusable and need not be disposed off every time. We should try to recycle plastic as much as possible instead of throwing it away.
Government and other agencies should spread awareness among public especially in colleges and schools about harmful effects of using too much plastic in our daily lives.
The problems caused due to plastic is irreparable. We need to understand the threats caused by using plastic and try to avoid it as much as possible, for our better health and for the betterment of our environment.
The use of plastic must be lowered in order to have clean environment.