Harmful effects on our environment by poly bags; plastic bags and polythene bags

It seems silly that poly bags can do such harm. Believe it or not, this is the real truth about poly bags. Poly bags have become very popular among both retailers and consumers. Because they are very cheap, solid and light weighed. Do you know that we use millions of poly bags per year?

These poly bags are mostly used only once. Once they are used, most bags go into a landfill. More and more bags are littering our parks roadways, lakes, and oceans. Polybags are photodegradable, not biodegradable. It means these bags need sunlight to degrade. Therefore we burn them and they infuse the air with harmful fumes. But it is not a way that we can be completely protected from the harmful effects of poly bags. So let's see what are these harmful effects of poly bags.

We will be discussing further the following facts.

• What are poly bags?
• What are the uses of poly bags?
• Why do people use poly bags mostly?
• What are the harmful effects of poly bags?
• What we should do in order to manage the harmful effects of poly bags?

What are poly bags?

Both plastic bags and polythene bags can be considered poly bags. These all are synthetic compounds instead of being natural compounds. Poly bags are made from polymers including polypropylene and polyester. A large number of monomers are used to synthesize these polymers.

What are the uses of poly bags?

Both consumers and retailers use these poly bags in their day-to-day life. We use these to carry the goods. Those can be items from grocery stores, stationaries, dresses, or whatever. They make it easier to transport these different items from one place to another with enough protection.

Why do people use poly bags mostly?

Most people use poly bags as a way of storing matters through transportation. It's really necessary to see why these because popular among both retailers and customers. The following facts have been identified as the reasons for poly bags being popular. They are comparatively cheap and light weighted. These are solid materials. Plastic bags are highly durable. They are very adaptable since they are flexible in their nature.

Although most people know that these poly bags can be a severe threat to the environment, still they use them due to the above-mentioned reasons. This issue has gone to a certain extent where some governments such as South Arica have completely banned the usage of poly bags while some governments like Japan and several European countries have initiated asking a fee for using these poly bags. The reason behind these actions is obviously they have observed the harmful effects of polybags on our environment.

What are the harmful effects of poly bags?

After using these poly bags, they are disposed to the surrounding environment. They are with the potential of littering our surrounding nature, blocking the drainages. The smaller animals may tangled within these bags and drown inside. Most of the time these poly bags are disposed of the open dump sites or landfills. But it takes more years to decompose these matters. Some animals like elephants have eaten the polybags that are disposed to the landfills and they became dead. Because these matters block the digestive systems of these kinds of animals.

Whenever these come to the ocean with the runoff, animals such as dolphins, turtles, whales, and penguins are killed every day by poly bags since these animals mistakenly eat poly bags thinking of them as food. Therefore these poly bags have become s great threat to the survival of animals. Polythene and plastic bags in the marine is a timely consideration and those are doing the worst on the existence of most of the endangered marine fauna.

When poly bags are in landfills and decompose with exposure to sunlight, a lot of harmful substances may form. This leachate is considered to be highly toxic. The soil will mix up with all the harmful things and it won't be suitable to grow crops. With the infiltration of rainwater, these harmful matters would mix with the groundwater flow and people will consume this water. That will be the initiation of a particular disease of the human including cancers.

The burning of poly bags will create toxic substances in the atmosphere while making air polluted in our surroundings. Humans will get many diseases due to the polluted environment. The earth will be a harmful place to live in the future. So we must put a stop to this problem.

What we should do in order to manage the harmful effects of poly bags?

It is obvious that the unawareness of people about the harmful effects of using poly bags and other alternative ways for them to follow instead of going for polythene and plastic bags have worsened the harmful effects on the environment. So the public should be informed in advance. They have to adapt to new living styles by reducing the use of these poly bags.

Government has to pass an order banning poly bag customers from carrying their purchases. It will avoid littering nature. Illegal dumping of poly bags should be controlled. Then the use of plastic and polythene bags will become less attractive to the public. People have to reduce using them. Recycling is the best solution for poly bags. We will try to use fewer poly bags and do a bit to save our planet.

Prohibiting the use of these poly bags and moving towards the possible alternatives is an effective action to manage the harmful effects of poly bags. Eco-friendly materials can be used as an alternative. Since this is an already emerging issue, we need to have cleanup programs for our neighborhood. Further, let's move to voluntarily recycling our household waste that is being collected daily.

Therefore let's join hands to stop these devastating effects of polythene and plastic bags on our environment while keeping mother nature safe. Because that is the only way to assure our existence on earth while protecting the amazing diversity of both flora and fauna that we were gifted by nature.