Millions of disposable plastic bags are used and discarded in Washington each year. A beached grey whale was found in West Seattle in 2010 with 20 plastic bags in its stomach. Small pieces of plastic can absorb toxic pollutants like DDT and PCB. Scientists have found that fish are ingesting these toxins when they ingest plastic‚ concentrating the chemicals in the food chain. There is a good chance that we also absorb these pollutants when we eat fish. The good news is‚ Washingtonians are taking
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Negative Externalities in Production An externality arises when a person engages in an activity that influences the well-being of a bystander and yet neither pays nor receives any compensation for that effect. If the impact on the bystander is adverse‚ it is called a negative externality; if it is beneficial‚ it is called a positive externality. Now let’s suppose that aluminum factories emit pollution: For each unit of aluminum produced‚ a certain amount of smoke enters the atmosphere. Because
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Nowadays‚ the matter of the effect of plastic bags on living environment is becoming more and more serious. This problem seems to be rise with the growth of population‚ development of industry and causes many damages to our environment. This essay will investigate the following problem in two aspects: the first is plastic bags can be harmful with the wildlife by killing animals and non-biodegradable‚ the second is they may turn into a prime reason for pollution because of their prerequisites to produce
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A plastic shopping bag‚ the most known used product discovered by man. Data released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency shows that somewhere between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year (National Geographic News‚ 2006). As the number of usage increases‚ the rate of plastic pollution grows eventually to be an immeasurable environmental obstacle that is difficult to control. This essay will unfold the case of plastic bags to identify the outcomes
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Plastic can be defined as: any group of synthetic or natural organic materials that may be shaped when soft‚ which will later harden. Plastic has been around for more than 150 years. In 1839 Charles Goodyear accidently discovered the process of vulcanization‚ the process of making rubber more durable‚ which evolved into the creation of plastics later on. In 1846‚ Swiss chemist Charles Schonbein discovered how to produce the plastic polymer known as celluloid. In 1909‚ chemist Leo Baekeland created
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What’s So Bad About Plastic Bags? Plastic bags are not biodegradable. They clog waterways‚ spoil the landscape‚ and end up in landfills where they may take 1‚000 years or more to break down into ever smaller particles that continue to pollute the soil and water. Plastic bags also pose a serious danger to birds and marine mammals that often mistake them for food. Thousands die each year after swallowing or choking on discarded plastic bags. Finally‚ producing plastic bags requires millions of
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“Paper or plastic?” Perhaps one of the most commonly questions in the past‚ is now rarely heard by consumers. Four out of five grocery bags in the US are now plastic (Reusablebags.com). However‚ the answer should not be merely plastic‚ the real answer is neither. Plastic bags are very harmful for the environment‚ and paper bags even more so. The best alternative is a reusable bag‚ which can save thousands of plastic bags over its lifetime. Plastic bags are everywhere. We see them anywhere
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Why are plastic bags bad for our environment? Now and days everywhere we go we have waste and a big part of it is plastic bags. Plastic bags are very bad for our environment we find them all over our oceans and on streets. The bags also end up hurting our animals mainly our sea creatures. In general plastics are bad over all they waste money and are bad to our environment. We already have a bad environment over all getting rid of plastic bags would be a good strep to take. We would be helping
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say no to plastic bags! Plastic bags should be banned from grocery stores. I often go to the store and buy 1 or 2 items and I am given so many bags. I feel that we have become an extremely wasteful society. If we could just say no to plastic bags we would be slowing down the waste in landfills. It takes a little more effort to remember to carry reusable bags in the car but it is worth saving our environment. I am proud to say that my young daughters have said no to the plastic bag when they have
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consumers use up to 1.5 trillion plastic bags every year. In the consumers possession the plastic bags stay with them for an average of fifteen minutes before they get thrown away or released to blow down into the wind‚ down our streets‚ and into our world. In Israel the average time of holding on to a single plastic bag is twenty minutes. The use of plastic bags tally’s up to $4 million per year for retailers. One company which buys half of the used plastic bags in the United States that are available
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