Plastic bags are a true menace to our ecosystems and our waste diversion goals. Barely recyclable, almost all of the 400 plastic bags used per second in the state are discarded. In san francisco alone, city officials estimate that they spend $8.5 million annually to deal with plastic bag litter.â that equates to around 17 cents for every bag distributed in the city. Additionally: it costs the state $25 million annually to manage plastic bag pollution. Public agencies in california spend in excess of $303 million annually in litter abatement. Southern california cities have spent in excess of $1.7 billion in meeting total maximum daily loads for trashed in impaired waterways.

Cities and recyclers spend incalculable amounts removing plastic bags from their recyclables stream, where they jam machinery and add to the manual labor costs of recycling. Our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Essay writing service essay marking service place an order at least 267 species have been scientifically documented to be adversely affected by plastic marine debris and it is estimated to kill over 100,0 marine mammals and turtles each year.

Plastic bags are considered especially dangerous to sea turtles, who may mistake them for jellyfish, a main food source.â 86% of all known species of sea turtles have had reported problems of entanglement or ingestion of marine debris.â plastic bags that enter our marine environment eventually break down into small fragments. Plastic bags, which areâ made from natural gas or oil, consume an energy equivalent of thousands of barrels of oil a day just to meet california's consumption. Numerous recent international, national, state and local reports have called for the banning or drastic reduction of plastic bags due to their environmental damage. Achim steiner, head of the un environmental program, recently said there is simply zero justification for manufacturing plastic bags any more, anywhere.

Home / plastic bags / why plastic bags are a problem plastic bags are popular with consumers and retailers as they are a functional, lightweight, strong, cheap, and hygienic way to transport food and other products. Approximately 6.9 billion plastic bags are consumed annually in australia: 6 billion of these are high density polyethylene hdpe , such as supermarket singlet bags or supermarket checkout bags. 67% of hdpe amp 25% of ldpe bags are imported with the remainder locally produced. There are two major environmental problems associated with our use of plastic bags. At least 80 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches, streets and parks each year while they are estimated to only be 2% of the litter stream, they have a significant environmental impact because they can take up to 1,0 years to break down. Their persistence in the environment means that they can entangle and harm marine life and other animals.

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In fact, the world wide fund for nature estimates that more than 100,0 whales, seals, turtles, and birds die every year as a result of plastic bags. For example, on 24 august 20, a bryde's whale died in trinity bay, 2 km from central cairns. An autopsy found that the whale's stomach was tightly packed with plastic, including supermarket bags, food packages, bait bags, three large sheets of plastic, and fragments of garbage bags. When the dead animal decays, the plastic bags are freed to be re ingested by other animals in years to come.â on land, plastic bag litter can block drains and trap birds. One farmer near mudgee nsw, carried out an autopsy on a dead calf and found 8 plastic bags in its stomach.

Australian local and state governments spend over $200 million a year picking up litter all forms. Source: federal department of environment hyperlink secondly, the plastic shopping bag, a single use item, is a symbol of a wasteful society:â 20 million australians used 6.7 billion plastic checkout bags this year down from 6.9 billion the previous year. A person's use of a plastic checkout bag can be counted in minutes however long it takes to get from the shops to their homes. The amount of petroleum used to make one plastic bag would drive a car about 115 metres. The 6.9 billion plastic checkout bags we use every year is enough to drive a car 800 million kilometres or nearly 20,0 times around the world i.e.