Essay on Plastic Pollution: Top 4

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Read this essay to learn about plastic pollution. After reading this essay you will
learn about: 1. Introduction to Plastic Pollution 2. Causes of Plastic
Pollution 3. Effects 4. Control.

Essay # 1. Introduction to Plastic Pollution:

In the last decade, plastic has affected the health and life of human beings
very badly. Some incidents have attracted the attention of the whole world and
put a question mark about the use of plastic in daily life.

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Plastic, the wonder material that we use for everything and which pollutes our
environment, is perhaps the most harmful of trash dumped by mariners and
sea-goers in sea because it does not readily break down in nature. In-fact, the
plastic that goes over the side today may still be around in hundreds of years
to foul up the fishing gear, boat propellers, and beaches of future generations.

Careless disposal of plastic can have dire consequences. A plastic bag looks
like a tasty jellyfish to an indiscriminate feeder like the sea turtle, but plastic is
indigestible. It can choke, block the intestines of, or cause infection in those
animals that consume it.

A plastic bag can also clog an outboard engine’s cooling system. Lost or
discarded monofilament fishing line can foul propellers, destroying oil seals
and lower units of engines, or it can become an entangling web for fish,
seabirds, and marine mammals.
According to the Centre for Marine Conservation, over 25,000 pieces of
fishing line were collected from U.S. beaches during the 1996 annual beach
clean-up and at least 40% of all animal entanglements reported during the
clean-ups involved fishing line.

Every day, more and more plastic is accumulating in our oceans. Recreational
boaters are not the only group that improperly disposes off plastic refuse at
sea. Plastics also enter the marine environment from sewage outfalls,
merchant shipping, commercial fishing operations, and beachgoers.

In the middle stage, it is very flexible and can be given any shape depending
on temperature and pressure. In practices, urea, formaldehyde, poly ethylene,
polystyrene, polycithylcholide, phenoloic compounds and other substances
are used in the preparation of plastics pollution.

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Now-a-days the most popular plastic pollution is caused is polyvinyl chloride

(P.V.C.). When any food material or blood is stored in the said plastic
containers then gradually the soluble chemical gets dissolved in them causing
death due to cancer and other skin diseases.

Polyvinyl chloride has also been found to destroy the fertility of the animals
and their respiratory systems. When mixed with water, it causes paralysis and
also damages bones and causes irritation to the skin.

Recently U.S.A. has banned the use of P.V.C. plastic in space apparatus and
in food containers (as chemicals get dissolved in the food). India should
immediately ban the use of P.V.C. in water pipes, food and medicine
containers to save the lives of millions who are already suffering from different
types of ailments.

Essay # 2. Causes of Plastic Pollution:

Plastics are used because these are easy and cheap to make and they can
last a long time. Unfortunately these very useful qualities make plastic a huge
pollution problem. Because the plastic is cheap it gets discarded easily and its
persistence in the environment can do great harm. Unbanization has added to
the plastic pollution in concentrated form in cities.

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Plastic thrown on land can enter the drainage lines and choke them resulting
into floods in local areas in cities as was experienced in Mumbai, India in
1998. It was claimed in one of the programmes on TV channel that eating
plastic bags results in death of 100 cattle per day in U.P. in India.

In stomach of one dead cow, as much as 35 kg of plastic was found. Because

plastic does not decompose, and requires high energy ultra-violet light to
break down, the amount of plastic waste in our oceans is streadily increasing.

More than 90% of the articles found on the sea beaches contained plastic.
The plastic rubbish found on beaches near urban areas tends to originate
from use on land, such as packaging material used to wrap around other
goods.

On remote rural beaches the rubbish tends to have come from ships, such as
fishing equipment used in the fishing industry. This plastic can affect marine
wildlife in two important ways: by entangling creatures, and by being eaten.

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Turtles are particularly badly affected by plastic pollution, and all seven of the
world’s turtle species are already either endangered or threatened for a
number of reasons. Turtles get entagled in fishing nets, and many sea turtles
have been found dead with plastic bags in their stomachs. Turtles mistake
floating transparent plastic bags for jellyfish and eat them.

In one dead turtle found off Hawaii in the Pacific more than 1000 pieces of
plastic were found in its stomach. A recent US report concluded that more
than 100000 marine mammals die every year in the world’s oceans by eating
or getting entangled in plastic rubbish, and the position is worsening world-
wide, 75 marine bird species are known to eat plastic articles. This includes
36 species found off South Africa.

A recent study of blue petrel chicks on South Africa’s remote Marine Island
showed that 90% of chicks examined had plastic in their stomachs apparently
fed to them accidentally by their parents. South African seabirds are among
the worst affected in the world. Plastics may remain in the stomach, blocking
digestion and possibly causing starvation.

Essay # 3. Effects of Plastic Pollution:

Since the development of plastic earlier this century, it has become a popular
material used in a wide variety of ways. Today plastic is used to make, or
wrap around, many of the items we buy or use. The problem arises when we
no longer want these items and we have to dispose off them, particularly the
throwaway plastic material used in wrapping or packaging.

Plastics are used because they are easy and cheap to make and they can last
a long time. Unfortunately these same useful qualities can make plastic a
huge pollution problem. The cheapness means plastic gets discarded easily
and its long life means it survives in the environment for long periods where it
can do great harm.

Because plastic does not decompose, and requires high energy ultraviolet
light to break down, the amount of plastic waste in our oceans is steadily
increasing.

The plastic rubbish found on beaches near urban areas tends to originate
from use on land, such as packaging material used to wrap around other
goods. On remote rural beaches the rubbish tends to have come from ships,
such as fishing equipment used in the fishing industry.

i. Effect on Ocean Wildlife:

This plastic can affect marine wildlife in two important ways; by entangling
creatures, and by being swallowed.
The bodies of almost all marine species, ranging in size from plankton to
marine mammals, and including some of the wildest and most vulnerable
species on the planet – animals that make nearly their entire living far from
human beings – now contain plastic.

Sixty per-cent of 6,136 surface plankton net tows conducted in the Western
North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea from 1986 to 2008 contained
buoyant plastic pieces, typically millimetre in size.

Plastics turn up in bird nests, are worn by hermit crabs instead of shells, and
are present in sea turtle, whale and albatross stomachs. Over 260 species,
including invertebrates, turtles, fish, seabirds and mammals, have been
reported to ingest or become entangled in plastic debris, resulting in impaired
movement and feeding, reduced reproductive output, lacerations, ulcers, and
finally death.

Ingestion of plastic items occurs much more frequently than entanglement. At

sea, plastic bags may often be mistaken for jellyfish, whilst on shorelines
seabirds have been seen to pick up plastic items the same way they pick up
cuttlefish bones. In the North Sea, almost all Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus
glacialis) contain some plastic.

Microscopic fragments, in some locations outweighing surface zooplankton,

revealed a significant increase in abundance when samples from the 1960s
and 1970s were compared with those of 1980s and 1990s. When ingested,
such small particles can also be carried from the gut into other body tissues.

Ingestion of plastic can lead to wounds (internal and external); impairment of

feeding capacity; blockage of digestive tract followed by satiation and
starvation; and general debilitation often leading to death.

Plasticizers and organic contaminants they typically sorb and concentrate on

plastics at levels far superior to the surrounding marine environment have
been shown to affect both development and reproduction in a wide range of
marine organisms.
Molluscs and crustaceans appear to be particularly sensitive to these
compounds. Being an important food item for many species, plastics ingested
by invertebrates then have the potential to transfer toxic substances up the
food chain. The mechanism by which ingestion leads to illness and death can
often only be surmised because the animals at sea are unobserved or are
found dead ashore.

Once fouled with marine life or sediment, plastic items sink to the seafloor
contaminating the sea bed. Deployment of a remotely operated vehicle
submarine in the Fram Strait (Arctic) revealed 0.2 to 0.9 pieces of plastic per
km at Hausgarten (2,500 m).

On dives between 5,500 and 6,770 m, 15 items of debris were observed, of

which 13 were plastic. The presence of plastic at shallow and greater depths
may harm sediment wildlife such as worms, sessile filter feeders, deposit
feeders and detritivores, all known to accidentally ingest plastics.

The hard surface of pelagic plastics also provides an attractive and alternate
substrate to natural floating debris (e.g., seeds, pumice, and wood) for a
number of opportunistic colonizers. The increasing availability of these
synthetic and non-biodegradable materials in marine debris may increase the
dispersal and prospects for invasion by non-indigenous species.

ii. Plastic Pollution and Turtles:

Turtles are particularly badly affected by plastic pollution, and all seven of the
world’s turtle species are already either endangered or threatened for a
number of reasons. Turtles get entangled in fishing nets, and many sea turtles
have been found dead with plastic bags in their stomachs.

It is believed that they mistake these floating semi-transparent bags for

jellyfish and eat them. The turtles die from choking or from being unable to
eat. One dead turtle found off Hawaii in the Pacific was found to have more
than 100 pieces of plastic in its stomach including part of a comb, a toy truck
wheel and nylon rope.

All sea turtle species are particularly prone and may be seriously harmed by
‘feeding on’ anthropogenic marine debris, particularly plastics. Of particular
concern is floating plastic bags that might be mistaken for jellyfish, and
discarded fishing gear in which sea turtles get entangled, or pieces of which
they ingest.

Laboratory experiments demonstrated that green and loggerhead turtles

actively target and consume plastics whether it is small pieces intermixed with
food items, or single 1 to 10 cm2 sheets. Sub lethal impacts of plastics on sea
turtles can be substantial, yet mortality resulting from interactions with plastic
debris is much more difficult to quantify.
Plastic ingestion by sea turtles is a relatively common occurrence, albeit often
in small quantities. However, even in small quantities, plastics can kill sea
turtles due to obstruction of the oesophagus or perforation of the bowel for
example.

Relief of gastrointestinal (GI) obstruction of a green turtle off Melbourne

beach, Florida, resulted in the animal defecting 74 foreign objects over a
period of a month, including four types of latex balloons, five different types of
strings, nine different types of soft plastic, four different types of hard plastic, a
piece of carpet-like material, and 2 to 4 mm tar balls.

Fishing line can be particularly dangerous, when, during normal intestinal

function, different parts of the digestive tract pull at different ends of the line.
This can result in the gut gathering along the length of the line. This can result
in the gut gathering along the length of the line preventing digesta from
passing through the tract.

Plastic ingestion may also indirectly lead to death of an animal through

nutrient dilution, i.e., plastic pieces displacing food in the gut (and reducing the
surface available for absorption).

Typical consequences include decreased growth rate, longer developmental

periods at sizes most vulnerable to predation, depleted energy reserves, and
lower reproductive output and survivorship of animals. The latter is likely to be
an important threat to smaller individuals with a lower ability to increase intake
to meet their energetic requirements than larger animals.
Young pelagic sea turtles typically associate with “floating islands” of drifting
seaweeds such as Sargassum. Floating plastics, tar from terrestrial and
oceanic (ship) sources and lost fishing gear are drawn by advection into the
same drift lines.
As young sea turtles indiscriminately feed on pelagic material, large
occurrence of plastic is common in the digestive tract of these small sea
turtles, often resulting their mortality.

As plastics can accumulate in multiple segments of the gut, stomach lavages

underestimate the incidence of ingestion.

iii. Marine Mammals:

There is great concern about the effect of plastic rubbish on marine mammals
in particular, because many of these creatures are already under threat of
extinction for a variety of other reasons e.g. whale population has been
decimated by uncontrolled hunting.

A recent US report concluded that 100000 marine mammals die every year in
the world’s oceans by eating or becoming entangled in plastic rubbish, and
the position is worsening.

When a marine mammal such as a Cape fur seal gets caught up in a large
piece of plastic, it may simply drown, or get exhausted and die of starvation
due to the greater effort needed to swim, or the plastic may kill slowly over a
period of months or years as it bites into the animal causing wounds, loss of
blood and/or severing of limbs.

iv. “Ghost Nets”:

A large number of marine creatures become trapped and killed in “ghost nets”.
These are pieces of gill nets which have been lost by fishing vessels. Other
pieces of fishing equipment such as lobster pots may also keep trapping
creatures.

v. Marine Birds:
World-wide, 75 marine bird species are known to eat plastic articles. This
includes 36 species found off South Africa. A recent study of blue petrel
chicks at South Africa’s remote Marion Island showed that 90% of chicks
examined had plastic in their stomachs apparently fed to them accidently by
their parents.

South African seabirds are among the worst affected in the world. Plastics
may remain in the stomachs, blocking digestion and possibly causing
starvation. As particular species seem to be badly affected this may be a
threat to the entire population of these birds.

vi. Plastic Pollution and Elephant Seal:

Plastic’s devastating effect on marine mammals was first observed in the late
1970s, when scientists from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory
concluded that plastic entanglement was killing up to 40,000 seals a year.
Annually, this amounted to a four to six percent drop in seal population
beginning in 1976. In 30 years, a 50% decline in Northern Fur Seals
population has been reported.

These curious, playful seals would often play with fragments of plastic netting
or packing straps, catching their necks in the webbing. The plastic harness
can constrict the seal’s movements, killing the seal through starvation,
exhaustion, or infection from deep wounds caused by the tightening material.

While diving for food, both seals and whales can get caught in translucent
nets and drown. In the fall of 1982, a humpback whale tangled in 50 to 100
feet of net washed up on a Cape Cod beach. It was starving and its ribs were
exposed. It died within a couple of hours.

Along Florida’s coasts, brown pelicans diving for fish sometimes dive for the
bait on a fisherman’s line. Cutting the bird loose only makes the problem
worse, as the pelican gets its wings and feet tangled in the line, or gets
snagged onto a tree.

vii. Effect on Sea Birds:

Royal terns (Sterna maxima) are among several species of sea birds that dive
from the air to the water to catch fish with their sharp beaks. A plastic bag
floating at the surface would become invisible to the tern, and may even have
attracted the fish in the first place.
In this photograph the tern’s bill penetrated the plastic and left the bird
wearing the bag around its sneck like shroud. It causes problem to terns to
dive in & catch fish. They die due to starvation.

viii. Plastic Bags Litter the Landscape:

Once they are used, most plastic bags go into landfill, or rubbish tips. Each
year more and more plastic bags are ending up littering the environment.
Once they become litter, plastic bags find their way into our waterways, parks,
beaches, and streets. And, if they are burnt, they infuse the air with toxic
fumes.

ix. Plastic Bags Kill Animals:

About 100,000 animals such as cows, dogs and penguins are killed every
year due to plastic bags. Many animals ingest plastic bags, mistaking them for
food, and therefore die. And worse, the ingested plastic bag remains intact
even after the death and decomposition of the animal. Thus, it lies around in
the landscape where another victim may ingest it.

x. Plastic Bags are Non-Biodegradable:

And one of the worst environmental effects of plastic bags is that they are
non-biodegradable. The decomposition of plastic bags takes about 1000
years.

xi. Petroleum is Required to Produce Plastic Bags:

As it is, petroleum products are diminishing and getting more expensive day
by day, since we have been using this non-renewable resource increasingly.
Petroleum is vital for our modern way of life. It is necessary for our energy
requirements – for our factories, transport, heating, lighting, and so on.

Without viable alternate sources of energy yet on the horizon, if the supply of
petroleum were to be turned off, it would lead to practically the whole world
grinding to a halt. Surely, this precious resource should not be wasted on
producing plastic bags, should it?

xii. Effect on Birds:

Birds like chicks are often mistakenly fed plastics by their parents, when
chicks are unable to eject the plastics, which cause death of chicks – either
due to starvation or choking. Bottle caps and other plastic objects are visible
inside the decomposed carcases of some Laysan albatoss. The bird probably
mistook the plastics for food and injested them while foraging.

xiii. Effects on Human Beings:

The quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink or bath on, and the earth
in which we grow our food has an immense effect on our health. A recent US
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Study found that about 93 percent
of the US population has bisphenol A, a chemical that can be found in canned
goods and in hard, clear plastic items (including baby bottles), in their body.

Endocrine disruptors are ubiquitous in our environment and have deep impact
on our health. Endocrine distruptor chemicals (EDC’s) are added to plastic
products to make them softer and easier to handle.

These EDCs are common in our environment and, when absorbed by human
beings and wildlife, mimic the action of hormones and have been linked to
reproductive problems in animals and human beings are known to affect fat
cells.

Bisphenol A (an endocrine disruptor) is a key monomer in production of

polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. Polycarbonate plastic, which is clear
and nearly shatter-proof, is used to make a variety of common products
including baby and water bottles, sports equipment, medical and dental
devices, dental composite (white) fillings and sealants and lenses.

The figure shows that as the plastic moves up in food chain, its concentration
increases and when these fishes with huge amount of plastic are eaten by
human cause diseases like cancer. Plastic plays the villain right from the
stage of its production.

The major chemicals that go into the making of plastic are highly toxic and
pose serious threat to living beings of all species on earth. Some of the
constituents of plastic such as benzene are known to cause cancer. Recycling
of plastic is associated with skin and respiratory problems, resulting from
exposure to and inhalation of toxic fumes, especially hydrocarbons.
Thin plastics are thrown anywhere and everywhere causing the
following environmental degradation problems:
i. It blocks the open sewage system and results in stagnation of sewage
paving way for the mosquitoes which leads to the spread of various diseases.

ii. Plastic dumped on the soil prevents water percolation into the water table.

iii. It affects the very structure of soil.

iv. Water stagnating on the plastics strewn on the land becomes a breeding
ground for mosquitoes which, in turn, produce diseases.

v. Jelly fish-eating, Fishes mistaking the plastic floating in the water for
Jellyfish eat them and then die their species is becoming extinct.

vi. Cattle eat plastic and die as a result thereof.

vii. Burning of plastics results in release of toxins in the atmosphere which, in

turn, causes dreadly Cancer.

viii. Plastic is non-biodegradable and so the problems become perennial.

Essay # 4. Control of Plastic Pollution:

Plastic bags and bottles, like all forms of plastic, create significant
environmental and economic burden. They consume growing amount of
energy and other natural resources, degrading the environment in a number
of ways.

In addition to using up fossil fuels and other resources, plastic products create
litter, hurt marine life, and threaten the basis of life on earth. Here are some
steps that we can take to reverse the tide of toxic, non-biodegradable pollution
so that it may not overtake our planet.

i. Put produce in paper, canvas, and other healthy-fiber bags.

ii. If a clerk throws your box of soap into a plastic bag, ask him or her to
replace it in one of your bags. Give the clerk a copy of “Why I Don’t Use
Plastic Bags”. Our experience has been that they appreciate this information.

iii. Use wax paper bags, cloth napkins, or re-useable sandwich boxes (e.g.,
tiffins, described below).

iv. Use only glass bottles or cans.

v. Bottled water costs over 1000 times more per liter than water from your tap.
Buying our most essential nutrient, water, from corporations represents an
abdication of community control of the commons. If you have concerns about
water safety, investigate a filter system such as Multi-Pure. Better yet, work
with your water district to develop stricter standards for water purity.

vi. Pre-bagged produce not only uses wasteful packaging, but also tends to
come from farther away, consuming more of our dwindling oil supplies in
transport.

vii. Tiffins (stainless steel food containers) are a long tradition in India. They
store food well, have longer life than Tupper Ware and its look-alikes (you’ve
probably seen the fading, corroding, and chipping that occurs to these plastic
containers), are more hygienic, and have a certain panache.

viii. Look for and reward earth-s friendly packaging choices, e.g.,

Buy greeting cards in paper boxes instead of clear plastic shells.

Ask you florist for flowers wrapped in paper, not clear film

Use pens that re-fill instead of land-fill.

ix. Conscious consumption is not only good for the earth, it’s good for you.
“Mindfulness”, says Thick Nhat Hanh, “is the miracle by which we master and
restore ourselves.”
x. Support recycling schemes and promote support for one in your local area.
xi. Fishermen throughout South Africa should not throw away waste line, net
or plastic litter – this causes huge suffering and many deaths.

xii. Practice and promote paper disposal of plastics in your home and at the
beach. Always remember that litter generates litter. Never dispose off plastics
in the sewage system.

xiii. At the beach dispose off plastics and other litter in the bins provided. If
these facilities are inadequate, contact the local authority responsible for this
and lodge a complaint. Take your litter back home with you if there are no
receptacles on the beach. Pick up any plastic litter you may see on the beach
or in rock pools in the vicinity in which you are sitting or walking. Encourage
young children to do likewise.

xiv. In the street never throw plastic or other litter out of your car and do not
drop it on the pavement or in the gutter.

xv. Set an example for others and encourage them to help. Plastics are not
themselves a problem. They are useful and popular materials which can be
produced with relatively little damage to the environment. The problem is the
excessive use of plastics in one-off applications together with careless
disposal.

by Taboola
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