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Plastic over-Usage

Topics: Recycling, Plastic recycling, Plastic Pages: 4 (1515 words) Published: March 4, 2013
Look around at the local surroundings. How many objects are made of or just contain a bit of plastic? There is a high amount of plastic being used for all kinds of objects for daily use. Plastic is used all the time and most people never really think twice about it. Plastic is becoming too common in the world today and is harming our environment (Manrich. 2009). People do not realize the effects plastic over-usage has on the world but if each person were to really take time to think about this over-usage maybe this use could be greatly reduced with just a few simple measures.

Human dependence on plastic and paper products is high and some measures are needed to take a step back and evaluate which plastic products are necessities and which are not in order to help save the environment. Ways to reduce the amount of plastic in society is needed to reduce the amount of harm to the environment because the plastics that are being used are taking over landfills, getting into the water supply, and causing a lot of harm to the ecosystem (Ginis. 2008). Turning away from plastic completely may not be possible, but usage can be reduced and the amount used in daily lives can be altered.

On a global scale human dependence on plastic is entirely too high which means that on average the amount of plastic each person uses and wastes is too high as well. Over one hundred million tons of plastic is produced annually and out of all that plastic over fourteen million tons end up in the oceans harming and killing marine life (Raja 2011). It is hard to imagine one hundred million tons of plastic, but cars, cell phones, and computers that are purchased are made of a large amount of plastic. It’s not likely that those large plastic objects will end up floating in the ocean; however, there are also numerous small objects that are overlooked, such as water bottles and food wrappings made of nothing but plastic. A large percent of those smaller items made of plastics end up in the...
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