.

They use up natural resources--"Every time we use a new plastic bag they go and get more petroleum from the Middle East and bring it over in tankers," said Stephanie Barger, executive director of Earth Resource Foundation in Costa Mesa, California. "We are extracting and destroying the Earth to use a plastic bag for 10 minutes." - ---2. They harm wildlife and marine life-plastic bags are now in all places in our environment, and animals, on land and water, are getting choked, strangled and killed by them. - ---3. They create litter-Aside from polluting beaches and waterways, plastic bags blowing around streets in China are so common they've earned the name "white pollution." And in South Africa, the bags littering the countryside are called "national flowers." In some African areas, people are even "harvesting" the plastic bags to make bags, hats and other crafts. - ---4. They take a long time to biodegrade-Most plastic bags used either end up as litter or in landfills (less than 1 percent are recycled). In a landfill, it's estimated that one plastic bag takes about 1,000 years to biodegrade. A plastic bag floating around as litter takes about 20 years. - ---6. They can be hazardous to humans -- Plastic bags pose a suffocation hazard to people, particularly children, and pets. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (C.P.S.C.) receives an average of 25 reports each year in which a child has suffocated from a plastic bag. Plastic bags are made out of non-biodegradable substance.(not organic)Because they are durable they do not rot. Scientist believe that it would take up to 1,000 years to break down. In that time plastic bags separate into smaller toxic particles that contaminates the soil and even waterways. Even if we try to burn them, it pollutes the atmosphere Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are made worldwide. That means that 1 million plastic bags are made each minute, but then billions end up as litter each year. Making plastic bags can lead to exhaustion of oil, because to make a lot of plastic bags, we need a lot of oil. If we reduce oil we could save much more oil. You can actually drive about 460 meters with the oil which is used for only one plastic bag. Plastic bags even kill a lot of marine animals. Plastic bags gets blown into the ocean and floats around like a jelly-fish. A lot of sea-creatures choke and die for mistaking them as their food. Each year, thousands of sea turtles choke on plastic bags after mistaking them for jellyfish, their favourite food. Even other sea critters like sea lions and dolphins have also been found with their stomachs filled with plastic bags!

environmental damage No, because...

Plastic bags for use by consumers in supermarkets and other stores should be made illegal. In the UK alone, over 13 billion plastic bags are handed to consumers each year, representing a substantial proportion of all floating marine litter[1]. More than this, plastic bags are responsible for the deaths of huge numbers of marine species, who mistake the bags for food. Consumers must accept that it is hugely wasteful, massively unethical, and potentially deadly to continue using plastic bags. Supermarkets must be told by the government that continued supply of plastic bags will result in large fines, whilst those supermarkets who remove all their bags can be rewarded.

Repairing the Damage

Charging consumers for using plastic bags should not result in profit for the supermarkets. Instead, any supermarkets who refuse to totally ban plastic bags, and charge their customers for using the bags (eg. 10p for bag), should be made to pay a fine to local governments. This revenue should then be used to repeal some of the damage supermarkets reap on the local economy, environment, and society.

The Great Waste

Plastic bag production uses almost 10 percent of the world's annual oil supply. Only 3.5 percent of this number are recycled. This means that much of the planet's precious natural resources are being used to produce plastic bags that many of us maintain are unneccessary. The chemicals and compounds that go into making plastic bags could also be utilised in a far more effective manner. These two factors show that plastic bag production is a waste of resources, which could be being used in a far more effective way.

Non-biodegradable

An estimated 17 billion plastic bags are given to British consumers. We do not need this many plastic bags in the world. The pollution caused by their creation alone is enough to warrant a ban on their manufacture and their use. In addition, they do not degrade well in our rubbish dumps, so they will remain on this planet forever more. We cannot have this accumulation of plastic bags and the only way forward is to ban their distribution and use.

They litter our streets

Not only do plastic bags fill up our landfill sites where they will remain forever more, but people throw them into the streets. They accept plastic bags when they do not need to and once out of the shops take their items and litter the streets with the unwanted plastic bags. Animals can caught in them, motor accidents are caused, and many end up in trees. As a society, this shows that we do not need plastic bags if we are willing to just throw them away. Plastic bags should be banned and replaced with bags that we would not so readily disregard.

Plastic bags suffocate and kill

Plastic bags can and have killed/(have been used to kill) many an animal (including human beings) and they only have one singular use(carry things) for which, they can easily be substituted (with other bags) for.[1] A baby was deliberately suffocated with plastic bags in this particular case:[2

Wildlife concerns

Plastic bags often end up floating in the seas- the home to many mammals, fish and invertebrates. One species that is at great risk from plastic bags is the already endangered Leatherback turtle (amongst

others including the Green turtle, see the article below). Turtles often mistake floating plastic bags for jellyfish- their only food source. The tragedy is that once they eat the plastic bags, they can get caught up and wrapped round the gut or in the throat, causing suffocation and starvation.

Environment destroyement

Yes, plastics use must be banned .Throwing poly bags plastics could make the soil unfertile (soil pollution). this is very bad. we need fertile soil caue it helps plants to grow, which is our food. Animals also need soil cause it make plants to grow and animals eat plants.we can say they indirectly depend on soil. burning plstics cause very polluted gases which could make our lungs weak on breathing them, also can cause many lungs diseases like asthama. daily more than 5 crores poly bags are thrown. so, we can do a little work to avoid plastic like we can use paper bags instead of poly bags. try a lot to avoid plastic

As you walk along a beach, admiring the landscape, you come across a baby sea turtle. Its dead, with a plastic bag around

Photo credit: Todd C., Wilmington, MA

its neck. You quickly look away from the awful scene. It makes you never want to use a plastic bag again...

I think plastic bags should be banned in the US. Although they are very handy and used at many grocery stores, they use a lot of oil to produce them. If we ban plastic bags we can save tons of oil. When China banned plastic bags, they saw their oil use decrease.

Another reason why we should ban plastic bags is that they never decompose. They build up in landfills and stay there for thousands of years! Just think, if we keep using plastic bags excessively, well have no more room for other garbage because plastic bags will take up all the space.

Finally, plastic bags kill animals and trash their environment. Plastic bags on beaches, floating in water, or stuck in trees can easily tangle up and choke an animal. Accidents with bags happen everyday!

In conclusion, plastic bags are bad for the environment, kill animals, and use up lots of oil. So

say no to plastic bags. There are ways to avoid them; if everyone used paper or canvas bags for shopping we would save millions of bags (and many animals) per week! Do the right thing and dont use plastic bags.

Plastic bags effect our environment because when they are thrown out they can get washed into our water ways. When the plastic bags reach the rivers and oceans animals can get caught up in the plastic bag and suffocate. Environmental groups such as the greens have protested the fact that the world uses to many plastic+

Current plastic bag use and disposal, both by consumers and through waste management activities, not only create environmental problems, but also reinforce the perception of a wasteful society. Plastic bags as litter create a visual pollution problem, and affect our aquatic wildlife, while the heavy reliance on disposable plastic bags by the Malaysian consumer raises questions of resource consumption and resource efficiency. Many of the grocery store use the plastic bags as a tool to keep the things easy to carrying. Plastic bags arent just at the grocery store, there every where, landfills, the oceans and lakes, hanging on trees around our neighborhoods and suffocating wildlife. As a human being, Im agree that plastic bags should be banned permanently. This is because plastic bags are not biodegradable, so where ever people leave them, they will stay, forever. Firstly, they use up natural resources to make the plastic bags. The most common plastic bags you see today are made from polyethylene. This material is made from crude oil and natural gas. "Every time we use a new plastic bag they go and get more petroleum from the Middle East and bring it over in tankers," said Stephanie Barger, executive director of Earth Resource Foundation in Costa Mesa, California. "We are extracting and destroying the Earth to use a plastic bag for 10 minutes." It shows that the plastic bags didnt bring any benefits to environmental but we use the natural resources not to a right ways. Moreover, they harm wildlife and marine life. Plastic bags are now ubiquitous in our environment, and animals both on land and in water are being strangled, choked and killed by them. Plastic bags are now the fifth most common debris item found on beaches.