There are several reasons why plastics should definitely be replaced with something that is more environmentally friendly. However, before exploring these reasons, I think it it important to see exactly how common plastic is in our world. In our homes, majority of objects are made out of plastic or have some plastic components. These include entertainment systems, and computers, as well as things found in the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. In our transport systems, plastics can be found in our cars, buses, trains, and planes. In our workplace, whether we work in offices, hospitals, outdoors, or other places, plastics are evident everywhere. In our food industry, where plastic packaging is used as well as disposable items such as plates and cutlery. In fact, there is not one aspect of our lives that plastics do not touch.

However, recent awareness of the environment and all the damage being done to it has brought with it the realization that plastics, although extremely useful and convenient, are very harmful for this Earth and all its inhabitants. There are a few reasons for this, and by replacing plastics with something more environmentally friendly, these reasons can be negated.

Firstly, plastics can take up to 1000 years to degrade in a landfill, depending on the type of plastic. If we think of all the waste that we create every day and notice what percentage of that is plastic, it is of no surprise that we are running out of landfill space very quickly, because a lot of that plastic will not be totally degraded for a long, long time.

Furthermore, if plastics are incinerated instead of tossed into a landfill, they release dioxins and furans, toxic gases that cause a variety of illnesses in human beings, such as immunological issues, liver problems and some types of cancers. Also, these gasses contribute to air pollution, which in turn contributes to global warming.

Moreover, a lot of plastics, such as plastic bags and soda-can rings, evade the landfills and end up as litter in the environment. If it ends up in our seas and oceans, it causes death by drowning, trapping, choking, and starving marine animals such as seabirds, fish, and seals. If it ends up in farms and fields, where it can be ingested by cows and other farm animals, it causes them to have bloated stomachs, which lead to starvation and a slow, painful death.

These are just the large problems associate with the usage of plastics, and there are others which I have not mentioned here. However, I believe that these problems are huge enough to encourage us to find or invent something environmentally friendly that can replace plastics, because these problems affect not just animals' health, but ours as well.

Learn more about this author, Chinmayee Jog.
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