Ban Plastic Bags

In this modern day and age, us humans are using more and more plastic bags due to their convenience and disposability. Hence, fun fact, single-use plastic bags, as they are frequently called, have become more popular due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Today, I want to present to you several powerful reasons why plastic bags should be banned. I am talking about the traditional plastic bags, as well those which claim to be biodegradable.

Since this may come as a shock to you, please let me explain. The term biodegradable has the definition whereby an object must decompose into other chemicals when it is left in nature. The loophole is that manufacturers have such "biodegradable" bags which decompose into toxic microplastics when left in nature. I would love to talk on microplastics more but it is not the centre of the debate today.

1.

I will obviously start with the 8th continent, found in the Pacific ocean. Due to sea currents, most of the waste dumped in the sea ends up contributing to this 8th continent.

Let me give you the size of France as reference. You imagine that? Now multiply that area by 3. That is the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, consisting of 1.8 billion pieces of floating plastic spanned across 1.6 million square kilometres and weighing 80,000 tonnes. The person who discovered this 8th continent took 7 days to cross it, back in 1997. It has obviously grown since. What constituents are there in this floating dump? Well, who guessed it? Plastic bags, alongside other plastic-related waste.

So, this garbage rubs against each other, releasing minute fragments called microplastics. They are invisible to the naked eye and are hence easily ingested by fish and everything up the food chain. And, yes, that does include us.

In fact, I have a few pictures of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which I will show whoever is interested after class. I want you to keep in mind that what you're seeing is only 6% of all the plastic.

Not only do these microplastics harm and kill organisms all the way up the food chain, but they have a direct link to cancer and other illnesses in humans. People have been found with these microplastics 1 cm under the skin. It is worth mentioning that 90% of all salt(sodium chloride) brands in the world have microplastic traces.

If this has not swayed your opinion towards the fact that plastic bags should be banned, don't worry, I have more up my sleeve.

2.

Most plastic is made of polypropylene, manufactured from fossil fuels. So, of course, by persisting with the use of plastic bags, we will keep on extracting these fossil fuels which are non-renewable.

3.

Did you know that most plastics decompose to produce not only microplastics but also methane which is far more potent that CO2 in the sense that it contributes way more to global warming and climate change. Y'all have done biology till Form 3. I don't need to tell you the rest.

4.

Plastics are a waste of energy. Yes, energy is also needed to process the hydrocarbons to give you those wonderful plastic bags. Take a car. You can drive 1 kilometre in that car with the amount of energy which is used to make 9 plastic bags.

5.

These plastic bags cannot be recycled since most recycling facilities do not have the technology to do so. Consumers show no interest in recycling plastic bags anyways with only 12% of all bags being sent to recycling. Of this 12%, only 5% can be recycled.

6.

I know nobody cares about the turtles or any animals on Earth but I have to add this as formality. I'll let the stats speak for themselves.

35% of turtle deaths are due to plastic.

90% of seabirds have eaten at least one piece of plastic. This is typically a bag which is much easier to ingest than a bottle or something.

A crocodile died in 2008, having eaten 25 plastic bags.

If we continue like this, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish.

But, how do these animals die like this? Most mistake plastic bags for their natural prey, or simply as food. Turtles eat plastic bags because they ressemble jellyfish, their preferred prey.

The plastic bags enter the digestive tract, basically the stomach and intestines and end up blocking the passage of normal food. Hence, no matter how much the animal eats, no nutrients will be absorbed and the animal ends up dying.

Having already given 6 strong reasons why plastic bags should be banned, I ask everyone in this class if they side with me or my adversary concerning the topic of whether plastic bags should be banned or not.