Human population increase and steady demand for plastics and plastic products are responsible for the continuous rise in the production of plastics, the initiation of plastic waste, and its accompanying environmental pollution. From 1950 to 2018, about 6.3 billion tonnes of plastics have been produced worldwide, 9% and 12% of which have been recycled and incinerated, respectively.
PLASTIC POLLUTION IS A HUMAN HEALTH ISSUE
Humans are surrounded by plastics everywhere. Our furniture, clothing, electronics, and food packaging are made from plastic. Over the past decades, natural materials used in fabrication such as paper, glass, and cotton, have been replaced by plastic. We know that this universal use of plastics has led to extreme plastic pollution of our environment. However, plastics are not just an environmental issue.
Plastics may affect our health via three pathways:
- *We humans eat, drink and breathe microplastics every day without knowing it. The small plastic particles may harm our health once they have come into our bodies.
- *Plastic products hold chemical extracts. Several chemical extracts have been linked with serious health problems such as hormone-related cancers, infertility, and neurodevelopment disorders like ADHD and autism.
- *When plastics and microplastics turn out in the environment, they attract micro-organisms, such as injurious bacteria (pathogens). If microplastics containing pathogens enter our bodies, they may increase the risk of poison.
Plastic bags affects many people day to day life, not only the consumers but plastic bags also affects the environment and animals. All living creatures are affected by plastic bags because we all dispose of them incorrectly and because we are naive to the consequences of using plastic bags. Research shows that “It takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to decompose” this means the plastic we use is not going to vanish from our lives easier. The amount of plastic bags we use and once we throw the plastic bags away they will just stack up and create pollution, which is harmful to the environment because, how we dispose of the plastic bags is not helpful.
The environmental effects due to plastic bags are very important because they are not only affecting the environment but also affecting humans. The plastic bags which are affecting the environment are pollution, litter, loss of resources, and the pacific trash vortex. Plastic bags are extremely hazardous to the environment and knowing that we use them in massive quantities. This is important because plastic bags are used worldwide and are mostly used once and then they are thrown out and because of this, we are just destroying ourselves by using them continuously.
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