2020 has actively been that year when people are bringing about changes in the way business is handled. Stores have been switching over to recyclable and reusable bags, and the government bodies in many places across the planet have banned the use of plastic. Sure, this aims toward a better tomorrow, but here’s the reason banning plastic can be a bigger issue than using plastic retail shopping bags.
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1. The Improper Plastic Disposal Contaminates Food Sources
If you look at the consensus of those in favor of plastic banning, they argue that the most effective disposal of plastic waste is by dumping it into our oceans. However, they fail to see that doing so will be detrimental to both sea life and human life. Many metric tons of plastic washed out to sea every day. Once they get into the ocean, they further break down to smaller pieces that are consumed by sea life, which further contaminates the entire food chain, back up to us humans.
2. The Improper Plastic Disposal Takes At Least 1000 years to Decompose.
Unlike the many fabric bags that have now come into retail stores, the already existing plastic bags are not biodegradable. The most effective way of disposing of these existing plastic bags is by dumping them in landfills. Even after being buried deep down in the environment, these plastic bags become incredibly dangerous to the entire ecosystem causing environmental havoc. No matter where all the plastic ends up, it takes years for it to biodegrade – almost 1000 years per piece of plastic.
3. The Improper Plastic Disposal Are Hard to Recycle
As discussed above, plastic bags are extremely difficult items to dispose of. It poses an ecological burden for humans as long as their entire lifetime. Sorting out the plastic waste from the entire waste production is quite hard, and the sorting system can easily experience a delay as a result of plastic getting stuck in the string conveyor belt or jamming up the equipment. The delay can cause working hours an issue and be quite impractical. Even if shops decide to provide collection bins for properly recycling bags, not many shoppers remember to bring old shopping bags in order to dispose of them. They just throw it in their trash as reusable alternatives have become a major focus in the current times, looking at how eco-friendly the production of these alternatives is equally important. In order to produce one fabric bag, there’s a need to use up many non-renewable sources of energy, such as water. The number of metric tons of water wastage only to cut off trees in order to make fabric bags is a bad idea. A fabric must at least be used around 40 times to match the environmental footprint that plastic creates. Given that companies are making cheap material fabric bags to do business out of buying more fabric bags, it increases the waste one creates.
4. The Improper Plastic Disposal & Ban Costs Employment Dearth
In America alone, nearly a million Americans are employed in the plastic production industry. Many thousands of people are employed in plastic plants and factories across the world. The ban in plastic bags has brought the risk of widespread layoffs in the plastic industry. In fact, in the US alone, the plastic industry is the 8th largest industry. Some stores have even curbed the use of plastic bags by decreasing their sales. Shoppers are asked to limit themselves to purchase only as much as they can fit in their reusable bags and not buy any more than that. This has also dipped sales in other areas of the non-plastic industry.
5. The Ban of Plastic Causes Food Safety Risks
The usage of fabric bags has been advertised to show that it is environment friendly or even give your shopping aids a luxurious feel, but they discount the reality of the risks that fabric bags entail. Fabric bags work well with dry food materials. However, not so well with wet foods. They are quick to absorb the messes of wet food materials, which leads to undesirable odors and potential for the growth of various bacteria.
So, even though the plastic ban had a noble intention, its ban can be even more dangerous than using plastic retail shopping bags. So, go for eco-friendly plastic retail shopping bags with high quality rather than opting for supposedly eco-friendly fabric bags!
Description –
Does Plastic Ban make the alternative options a better one? Maybe not! Find out why here in this post for you.
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