Plastic Bags free essay sample

South Australias new laws are being passed to make supermarket customers to use something other than plastic bags, starting in January of 2009, and then place a permanent ban on May 4th. This ban would not take into effect of the plastic bags used for fruit and vegetables as long as they meet Australian standards. A bill was proposed in Israel by the of MKS Estherina Tartman and Dov Henin to reduce the use of plastic bags in supermarkets and restaurants for free in Jerusalem. (Parliament to Consider 2008), (Waldoks 2008), (McMahon 2008) Plastic bags are affecting everything for everybody. They are effecting our government, environment, and all the humans on this earth. As our economy is struggling with oil prices we are spending twelve billion barrels of oil per year on plastic bags when only a few out of trillions are getting thrown away or recycled to use again. Only one percent of bags worldwide and two percent in the United States get recycled. We will write a custom essay sample on Plastic Bags or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When not recycled they end up in landfills where they take five hundred to one thousand years to break down when they are not bio gradable products like they are. While rolling down the streets clogging drains, polluting the air, and killing animals they were the leading cause of the 1988 flood in Bangladesh. As for killing animals the Ocean Blue Society for Marine Conservation studied that more than one million birds and one hundred thousand mammals and sea turtles die every year from getting tangled or eating plastic. There study also discovered that there are more than forty six thousand pieces of plastic floating in every square mile of the ocean when fifty to sixty years ago there wasnt any plastic out there. Also the Ocean Conservancy in Washington found three hundred twenty five, nine hundred, and twenty one bags along the coastline. (Mieszkowski 2007), (Hennigan 2008), (Dodd 2008), (MaMahon 2008) The government issues and the environmental issues due to plastic bags both affect the people in this world. The gas prices affect us as well as the polluted water, but what about those people that have to clean or recycle all of the waste from plastic bags. A San Francisco recycling center has been shut down multiple times due to clogging of the machine from plastic bags. Workers use there shifts to clean the machine and get it back into working form. As machines are being shut down due to the clogging from plastic bags, it is costing recycling plants nearly one million dollars a year in shutdown time. As for John Jurinek a manager at Recycle Central his opinion on plastic bags when asked what was wrong with it, he said, Everything (Mieszkowski 2007 ? 10). Because of this most municipal recycling operations in southwestern public services are not allowed to accept plastic shopping bags for recycling anymore. Not only are they getting tangled in recycling equipment, but also farming equipment as well. During harvest season they get tangled up in cotton gins and they affect the machines value. They block seeding machinery and prevent proper planting of corn and soybeans Shapiro 2008 Virginian Pilot ? 8) said Thomas Wrigt a Winsor Supervisor. (Shapiro 2008), (Mieskowski 2007) After putting all this information together about the bans and regulations, price and use, and all the effects plastic bags have on the environment and people, its safe to say that we need to reduce the use of plastic bags. Many cities and states, and even countries have started banning and trying to reduce the use of them and help our environment. The government also has realized plastic bags are becoming a problem and have forced stores to place a ban, bring your own, or raise prices on plastic bags. Plastic bags are causing affects on everybody and everything. They are hurting our economy, environment, and people and the use of them needs to stop and be reduced considerably.