There’s no denying that durable and lightweight plastic bags offer great convenience to us, which is a good choice for grocery shopping and other everyday tasks. However, great convenience follows many problems, including:
- Environmental harm
As we all know, plastic bags can take hundreds of years to decompose and contribute to ocean pollution and a great number of landfills, which will cause harm to wildlife and ecosystems. Every year, there are thousands of animals die because of plastic waste. For example, sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, which is one of their main food resources. When turtles ingest plastic bags, it can contribute to serious health problems, such as intestinal blockages and starvation. What’s more, the chemicals contained in plastic bags can be harmful to turtles.
- Resource depletion
Plastic bags are produced from non-renewable resources, such as petroleum. The high demand for plastic bags leads to increased extraction of oil, potentially contributing to resource depletion.
- Economic loss
Plastic bags are often disposed of improperly and we can discover plastic bags everywhere, such as on roadsides, in parks, and in other public areas, which may not only harm the appearance of the city badly but may hurt wildlife because they can easily be entangled in the bags or mistake them for food. Because of tons of plastic waste, many coastal cities, such as Mumbai and Manila, are significantly impacted. For instance, plastic bag pollution leads to decreased tourism and more flooding, contributing to serious economic loss.
So we highly recommend everyone to use compostable bags, an ideal alternative to plastic bags.
