Impact of Plastic on Environment

Plastic pollution is a global threat to the environment, wildlife, and human health. This essay explores the impact of plastic products on wildlife, human life, and the environment, and suggests ways to reduce plastic waste.

Running Head: IMPACT OF PLASTIC ON ENVIRONMRNT
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IMPACT OF PLASTIC ON ENVIRONMENT
System04121
6/7/2019

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Plastic pollution is the gathering of plastic products, such as the bottle and bags.
These plastic products affect the environment adversely such as the wildlife, humans, and
home Plastics that act as contaminants are characterized into micro-, meson-, or macro debris,
based on size, Plastic debris is a worldwide threat to marine environments as well.(Martins,
& Sobral, 2011). According to a study done in 2018 it was seen that 380 million tons of
plastic is produced worldwide each year (Andrady, 2011). From the 1950s up to 2018, around
6.3 billion tons of plastic has been created worldwide, out of which estimated 9% is reused
and another 12% has been burned. The scope of this essay is to know the impact of plastic
products on wildlife, human life and environment and how to save the environment from
plastic products.
Plastic waste is very harmful; it harms the environment, wildlife and people. Plastic
waste is one of the main environmental concerns and large amount of waste is inevitable in
the world we live in (Resetar, Am, Marinescu, Daescu, 2015). The amount of garbage
increase with the amount of population and the disposable plastic products like the bottles of
water, cans of soda and other plastic products. All of these things effect the normal
environment and harms the plants and animals (Meeker, 2018) Plastic has toxic contaminants
that can root water land, and air pollution. It can proceed around thousands of years to break
down or damage plastic from the atmosphere (Harrison & Hester, 2019).
Plastic products also lead to groundwater pollution. Water conservation is one of the
biggest concerns in places like California and India but one of the biggest dangers to the
water of the world is due to plastic waste as the groundwater is susceptible to the leaking
toxins of the environment. Most of the pollution and litter that affects the world contains
plastic and as a result it affects the marine species and can also be a problem to those who eat
marine life for nutrients.

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Another way through which plastic effects the environment is that it pollutes the
lands, when the plastic is dumped in landfills and as a result it interrelates with the water
from hazardous chemicals, when these chemicals dribble underground they destroy the water
and its quality. Another main issue is that Plastic is a material that does not decompose, it
releases unbelievable quantity of toxins in the air, the consistent and everyday trash is also
one of the main reasons behind plastic pollution., disposable water bottles, Milk cartons with
plastic linings, soaps with small plastic beads, and other products end up in the environment
or in dumps where they can distress the nearby wildlife and groundwater (Li, Tse, & Fok,
2016).
The cost-effective fishing nets is one more main issue, fishing is essential for the
economy and the supply of food in various areas and the nets are mainly made through
plastics and thus when the nets are dumped in marine they leak a lot of toxins, they
sometimes ever break and get los which add various more pollutants to the water. (Possatto,
Barletta, Costa, do Sul, & Dantas, 2011). There are various impacts of plastic products or
plastic pollution. One of the main impacts is on the water or marine species and as a result it
can also indignant the economy and the supply of food groups that depend on fishing. Plastic
can indignant various creatures like plankton, on which the bigger animals depend on for the
food (Verma Vinoda, Papireddy, & Gowda, 2016).
Australia is one such country which is affected highly by plastic pollution. 85% of the
marine life is affected by plastic (Williams, & Wikström, 2011). Marine animals choke on
plastic bags and also get entangled because of plastic and sometime marine animals also
consume plastic which leads to their death (Wilcox, Van Sebille, & Hardesty, 2015). Apart
from this 95% of the plastic packaging is discarded after the single use in Australia. These
entire thing Impact the environment.

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Air pollution is another issue that can cause harm to the human and animals. When a
plastic is charred in open air it can release various huge amounts of toxins which contaminate
the air. If the toxins are breathing in for a long period of time then it can cause various
respiratory problems and issues. Harming the plants, animals and people can cost a lot of
million dollars every year to clean the areas that are exposed to the toxins of plastic as many
areas have also seen a reduction in tourism for the reason of heavy amount of toxic waste in
the atmosphere and this cause impact on the local economy of the country.
In order to solve this issue there can be a lot of step that can be taken. Consumers can
fix this issue by taking initiative and reducing the usage of plastic bags. One of the best ways
is to the usage cloth bags for grocery shopping. People most of times use plastic bags for
shopping and then throw them away (Geyer, Jam beck, & Law, 2017). Another thing is
refuse, which simply means that people should refuse using plastic products weather it is
plastic bags or straws. People should take initiative by refusing to use plastic as this will help
in reducing the use of plastic. Next thing that can be done is recycle; People should recycle
the plastic that they do not need instead of decomposing and the last thing is rally. It is
important for people of every city or state to send a letter or call to the elected leaders in
order to ban plastic products to save the environment (Earth Day Network, 2018).
Pollution of plastic takes a very big influence on the environment and plastic unused
is unavoidable. It is important for the society to avoid the use of plastic products in order to
lower the risk of damage of environment (Hammer, Kraak, & Parsons, 2012).
Through this essay it can be concluded that plastic is really harmful for the society
and the environment Plastic can damage the ocean and also the ground water sources,
various regions, it can cause harm to human beings as when a plastic is charred in open air it

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can release various huge quantities of pollutants which pollute the mid-air. If the toxins are
breathe in for a longer time period then it can cause various respiratory difficulties and issues.
Thus various steps to decrease the usage of plastic can be reduce, reuse, refuse, recycle and
rally.

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318567844_Production_use_and_fate_of_al
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