Effect of Plastic on Environment: Essay

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Introduction

Plastic can be valuable in so many ways; worldwide, people can purchase about one million plastic drinking bottles per minute and use about five trillion disposable plastic bags per year; mostly, people use plastic only once and then throw it away. People dispose of plastic anywhere in the environment; this makes plastic ubiquitous thus becoming a threat to the natural environment. Production of plastic products began after World War 11; plastics made it possible for people to travel into space by lightning jets thus saving fuel, and led to the production of helmets, bottles for clean drinking water, and creation of incubators (Andrés Hugo Arias, 2018, pp. 1-327).

From 1950 to 1970, plastic production was in small numbers thus easy to manage plastic waste. In 1990, plastic production had tripled in number so was plastic waste. In 2000, the number of plastic produced increased at a high rate leading to a rise in plastic waste disposal. Now human beings produce approximately three hundred million tons of plastic per year; this means that in 1950, production of plastic rose from 2.3 million to 450 million tons by 2016. Yearly, approximately 8 million tons of plastic get into oceans through coastal nations. Researchers claim that human beings have made about 9 billion tons of plastic since 1950 and 70% of plastic ends up in the natural environment.

Therefore, the rate of plastic production has grown at a high rate compared to other materials. Furthermore, people have changed from producing durable plastics to single-use plastic waste. About 99% of plastics are made from dirty nonrenewable resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas; if this continues, the plastic industry will have used about 20% total of oil consumption in the world by 2050.

The paper’s main objective is to show the problem of plastic waste as a pollutant to the environment, its effect on climate change, and the possible solutions. The paper will encourage minimum usage of plastic, discourage waste recycling, and advocate for different packaging of goods and services that leads to less emission of carbon dioxide and energy to the atmosphere. Reducing plastic package waste and producing sustainable packaging waste facilitate a clean environment. in addition, it will create awareness of the fact that the impact of plastic on humans, oceans, and climates revolves around a common story; this shows that the problems have the same problem, a common cause and most importantly, a similar solution, which is a complete shift away from fossil economy and plastic generated economy that alters with the normal functioning of the environment and the people at large (Andrady, 2003, pp. 20-792).

Climate change and causes

Climate change is also referred to as global warming; it is a shift in global weather phenomena due to an increase in worldwide increasing average temperatures thus altering weather balance and ecosystems. Today, the world is 100 degrees Celsius hotter than in 1850 when people began to record temperatures worldwide. Therefore the average temperature on earth rose by 0.8º Celsius in comparison to the end of the 19th century; the change is evident now compared to average temperatures in the 19th century.

Researchers believe that human activities are the major cause of climate change due to deforestation, burning fossil fuels, agriculture and farming, mining, and waste disposal. Deforestation is the act of clearing a large number of trees; trees are very significant in regulating average temperatures since they release oxygen into the atmosphere and absorb carbon dioxide; trees and bushes tend to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, people clear forests and bushes for purposes of settlement, farming, and building infrastructures such as roads; this increases the chances of releasing carbon dioxide into the air when people burn or clear forests. Burning fossil fuel releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; this is because fuels such as charcoal, gas, and oil for cars and electricity, contain a large content of carbon dioxide leading to climate change. Moreover, intensive farming includes livestock rearing such as cattle and sheep; livestock contributes to the production of methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas that leads to global warming. Farming also contributes to climate change in that, farmers use fertilizers that contain nitrous oxide which increases the chance of global warming. Furthermore, coal mining contributes to the emission of carbon dioxide gas that causes global warming. People burn carbon which reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere to produce carbon dioxide; carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping gas. Finally, waste disposal such as plastic lead to global warming because, once people dump landfills in the environment, little or no air remains on the surface below, therefore, organisms produce landfill gas as a byproduct of digestion (Hester & Harrison, 2011, pp. 56-72).

Plastic pollution

According to researchers, plastic pollution is a collection of plastic particles and objects on the earth that widely affects humans, wildlife, and wildlife habitat. Plastics are cheap and durable; they are also slow to degrade leading to high levels of plastic pollution in the environment. Plastic emits a lot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; when plastic decomposes, it releases chemicals such as bisphenol A which are toxic to the environment. Human beings use plastic to pack food; this is because it is cheap in terms of cost, comfortable, and readily available. Therefore people produce large numbers of plastic waste and dump them into the environment leading to environmental pollution. Sources that produce plastic chemicals consist of, leakage from landfills, worldwide transportation of chemicals from plastic wastes, incineration fumes, and water waste. Landfills and various waste dumps emit methane gas; if people burn waste in the open or use an incinerator, there will be an emission of carbon gas.

Plastic pollution can affect land oceans, and waterways; plastic can affect living organisms specifically marine animals by exposing animals to chemicals within the plastic thus interfering with their physiology. Today, people come into contact with a variety of plastic materials that are made to last for ages; plastics such as synthetic plastics are mainly non-biodegradable and thus remain in the environment for a long when people dump them. Human beings tend to drop most single-use plastic products to the ground, throwing them out of the car, and heaping them on a full rubbish bin; this results in wind carrying them off thus causing pollution in the environment. The recovery rate for plastics is very low; it’s quite impossible to reuse due to low melting point which prohibits the elimination of contaminants during reprocessing and heating. In instances where government regulations mandate plastic recycling, it does not solve the problem of plastic pollution because plastic recycling means proper plastic waste disposal while plastic pollution begins when people dispose of plastic waste improperly (Parker, 2018, pp. 1-44).

Effects of plastic on climate change

Human beings dispose of a large number of plastic wastes in landfills, which eventually decomposes; this results in the release of both carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. In 2008, the disposal of solid waste led to the emission of approximately twenty million tons of carbon dioxide. Energy consumption adds carbon-based molecules in excess to the atmosphere leading to climate change. Burning petroleum products generates carbon dioxide; carbon dioxide traps radiant heat thus prohibiting it from getting out of the earth’s atmosphere. The continuing warm in the air results in a change of climate. Consumption of materials indirectly contributes to the change of climate since it needs energy for mining, extraction, harvesting, processing, and transportation of raw materials; also people need additional energy to manufacture, transport, and get rid of waste products. Research shows that using plastics can lead to less consumption of energy and greenhouse gas emissions compared to other materials. Therefore, in 2009, plastic production was about 230 million tons and the European Union used a quarter of it (Derraik, 2002, pp. 842-852).

Solid waste disposal leads to greenhouse gas emissions through the incineration of plastic waste that people can recycle, thus producing carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Moreover, poorly regulated incinerations pose a huge threat to both human health and the environment. Moreover, the decomposition of anaerobic in landfills generates methane; landfills are the major producer of methane on the land surface. Both carbon and methane tend to interfere with average temperature change, resulting in global warming. In oceans plastic wastes affect water animals by choking and smothering them; thus plastic kills the animals thus increasing the chances of carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere. Small particles called microplastics break down and are easily ingested by marine animals such as plankton and other fish that people eat; planktons play a very big role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the water and air. Heat and sunlight make plastics emit strong greenhouse gasses that affect climate negatively; the hotter the planet gets, the more plastic breaks down into ethylene and methane resulting in climate change and the cycle continues (DeVries, 2005, pp. 79-96).

Solution

Recycling

In the United States, recycling, burning waste in energy facilities, and landfilling are the main methods of management of plastic waste by Municipal Solid Waste. In 2015, MSW managed about 35 million tons of plastic waste; this was approximately 13 % of the total MSW produced in that year. Landfilling was mainly used as a handling method for plastic waste; this accounted for 75.4 percent of plastic generated in MSW; the rest underwent recycling or incineration.

Plastic recycling is a physical process meant to recover materials without necessarily interfering with the molecular form of the polymers; it has greenhouse benefits over other methods of waste disposal. Producing new products using recycled plastic packaging substances is really efficient in terms of emission of greenhouse gas compared to manufacturing plastic products using new raw materials; this is because recycling plastic materials saves energy than manufacturing plastic materials using new raw products. Therefore, recycling reduces the emission of greenhouse gas by reducing the extraction of raw materials and preventing gas emissions from manufacturing raw materials.

The main plastic-consuming countries such as North America and Europe depend on international trade for recycling plastics and not processing plastics at their own environmental cost and labor; this is because low-grade plastic waste that consists of multi-layered and post-consumer plastic packaging is specifically hard to separate and process. However, recycling cannot decrease emissions of greenhouse gas alone; but researchers continue to depend on plastic recycling as a major solution to the plastic crisis (Tsz Yan Cheung, 2018, pp. 1038-1052).

Landfilling.

Landfilling is to bury waste disposal materials, particularly as a method of reclaiming and filling in excavated pits. Fossil landfill wastes do not emit greenhouse gases nor contribute to the carbon sink. Landfilling plastic waste reduces climate change more than incineration; it is most suitable where a collection system is not available. However, landfills are not a long-term solution since they generate acids through the decomposition of organics that drain heavy metals from plastic into the ground.

Use less plastic

The most effective way to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from plastic waste is to facilitate the reduction of plastic production and encourage waste prevention methods. Source reduction is the process of producing and consuming fewer plastics, and plays a significant role in decreasing the emission of greenhouse gas from raw materials during manufacturing; it prevents greenhouse gas emissions all through the life cycle. Research shows that waste prevention is the best method for preventing climate change; it can lead to the reduction of 18 million tons of carbon dioxide if waste generation goes down to 1990 levels. Source reduction includes replacing plastic with other materials to serve a similar role; it continues to depend on disposal items, bioplastic, and lightweight plastic. Therefore, strategies that are most efficient are those that allow the use of reusable and refill-friendly methods in order to prevent waste production, to begin with (Andrady, 2003, p. 778).

In conclusion, plastic waste plays a very big role in changing the average temperature. However, people can use various ways to prevent an increase in climate change due to plastic waste; this includes stopping the use and production of single-use disposable plastic materials; this is the most effective and direct way of dealing with the plastic crisis. Moreover, stopping the construction of new gas, new oil, and petrochemical infrastructure, until the implementation of new ideas is put in place. Moreover, already existing plastic infrastructure and fossil fuel mandate that pipelines, gas from fossil fuel, and facilities should be captured and not vented or flared; this can reduce the rate of global warming worldwide (DeVries, 2005, pp. 55-60).

In addition, zero -a waste system is another strategy for reducing direct plastic-related emissions; this reduces the burning of plastic materials; it includes technologies such as pyrolysis, plastic-to-fuel, and gasification. Zero-waste decreases greenhouse gas indirectly by improving source separation, collection, and upstream approaches such as banning of bottled water. Furthermore, an increase in recycling and a combination with zero-waste systems and bans on new infrastructures can reduce the rate of unnecessary production of plastic, and encourage investment in systematic changes that are necessary for making a circular economy excel. Nations can also enforce and adopt targets for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources and fossils energy including the plastic lifecycle as a whole; implementing these targets will both address and reduce the impact of plastic on climate change; it also changes the bigger fossil economy in that human beings embed plastic thus assist in protecting communities, human rights, human health from threats of climate change. Therefore, when people use the above strategies, by the year 2050, the rate of global warming will have reduced to about 55 percent (Sabine Pahl, 2017, pp. 697-699).

References

Andrady, A. L. (2003). Plastics and the Environment. Environmental Health, 20-792.
Andrés Hugo Arias, J. E. (2018). Marine Pollution and Climate Change. Climate Change, 1-327.
Derraik, J. G. (2002). ‘The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review’. Marine Pollution Bulletin.
DeVries, J. (2005). The impact of plastics on the environment. Reference Services Review, 79-96.
Hester, R. E., & Harrison, R. M. (2011). Marine Pollution and Human Health. Human health, 56-75.
Parker, L. (2018). ‘We Depend on Plastic. Now We’re Drowning in It. NationalGeographic.com.
Sabine Pahl, K. J. (2017). Channeling passion for the ocean towards plastic pollution. Nature Human Behaviour, 697-699.
Tsz Yan Cheung, L. F.-M.-F. (2018 ). University halls plastics recycling: a blended intervention study. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 1038-1052.

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