Plastics

Todays environment

Millions of plastic bags are currently sitting in landfills and in the garbage cans around the globe. It takes years to decompose.

How to Reduce Plastic Bag Use?

Step1
Buy a reusable fabric bag. Bags made from different kinds of fabrics, such as canvas or cotton, can be used repeatedly and are usually washable. Most grocery stores and retailers are happy to have customers using nonplastic bags.

Step2
Ask for paper at the grocery when the check-out clerk asks you that age old question, "Paper or plastic?" Although it's best to use a fabric bag, paper is recyclable and most plastics are not. Plastics take much longer to decompose.

Step3 Reuse plastic bags in creative ways. Search the Internet for helpful
ideas. For example, plastic bags can be used to stuff a giant pet pillow, to line paint trays or the baseboards when painting a room, or they can be stored in the car for wet clothes and shoes. There's really very little need to get more bags because the opportunities to reuse it; you have are endless.

Step4 Encourage your local stores to charge for plastic bags. Some retailers have started customers to pay for a plastic bag just as they would pay for any other item in the store. Step5 Fill a bag until it's ready to burst. Place as many items as possible in one plastic bag and you'll find it easy to reduce waste. Check-out clerks are notorious for putting only a couple of items in each bag. Help them out by bagging items yourself. Even if you are unable to stop using plastic bags completely, the reduction is a significant step forward. Step6 Obtain biodegradable plastic bags. Pet stores, pet shelters, environmental protection agencies and chambers of commerce often provide biodegradable plastic for everyday use. Some bags decompose in around 15 days. Do a little research to find out if there are places in your city that provide this option.

How to Recycle Domestic Waste Effectively ?

Think about composting (allowing plant materials to decompose) your yard trimmings and kitchen waste instead of throwing them out. Compost is a great for the soil of your garden or for houseplants.

PROCESS OF RECYCLING PLASTIC

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Keep a small trash can or plastic bag; which is handy in your kitchen. Call 1 (800) CLEANUP for more information about recycling in area. Use trash cans, plastic bins or cardboard boxes to hold your recyclables.

Label your recycling bins with each of the following: plastic, mixed-color paper, newspaper, cardboard, and aluminum and tin.

RECYCLING PLASTICS

Plastics have different formulations and should be sorted before they are recycled to make new products. Mixed plastics can be recycled, but they are not as valuable as sorted plastics. Plastics physical properties, such as strength, may vary from each other. Once you know what kinds of plastics your recycler wants, you should follow the wash and squash rulerinse the container and squash it. You may leave the paper labels on the container

Hazards of plastics

Plastic is one of the major toxic pollutants. Being a non-biodegradable substance, composed of toxic chemicals, plastic pollutes earth, air and water.

There is no way whatsoever you can safely dispose of plastic waste.

Plastic causes serious damage to environment both during its production and disposal. So the only way to reduce the hazards of plastic is to reduce the use of plastic and thereby force a reduction in its production.

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.

Environmentally, plastic is a growing disaster. Most plastics are made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource extracted and processed using energy-intensive techniques that destroy fragile ecosystems. Plastic packaging especially the ubiquitous plastic bag is an enormous source of landfill waste and is regularly eaten by numerous marine and land animals, to fatal consequences. plastics used in food/drink storage are harmful to human health. In terms of health risks, the evidence is growing that chemicals leached from plastics used in food/drink storage are harmful to human health. It stimulates the growth of cancer cells. The health risks of plastic are significantly amplified in children. The manufacture of plastic, as well as its destruction by incineration, pollutes air, land and water and exposes children, workers to toxic chemicals. Risks at home Some of the constitution of plastics are known as cause cancer. Some of the constituents of plastic such as benzene and vinyl chloride are known to cause cancer, while many others are gases and liquid hydrocarbons that vitiate earth and air.

Some ways to eliminate plastics in your life

Buy products that use less plastic packaging. Fresh food is preferred over packaged frozen foods.
"Green Bags" are available at nearly all grocery stores today.

Use them instead of plastic bags.

Learn the proper way to recycle plastics. Find out what the rules are in your

community.
Leave an area cleaner than when you arrived. If you go to the beach, dispose of

plastics in approved containers, or bring your trash home. If you see plastics on the beach, pick it up and dispose of it properly.
Reusable cups for coffee and beverages should be used as much as possible. Avoid the use of plastic coated disposable paper plates and avoid plastic

silverware.

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These are only a few ways to reduce your consumption of plastic. If everyone reduced their plastic consumption by half, the savings of oil needed to produce that plastic would be significantly reduced. That is good for the environment. Use plastic wraps with caution, especially in the microwave, and try to keep the plastic from touching the food.

Alternatives include wax paper or paper towels. Try and use alternatives to plastic packaging and storage containers. Cloth, paper or cardboard are possibilities for transporting groceries. Stainless steel and glass food storage containers are available.
Avoid plastic dishes and utensils for meals. Alternatives include glass, ceramic, wood, stainless steel.

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Offer your child or grandchild a non-plastic dish set made of either stainless steel Try to avoid heating foods in plastic containers, especially in the microwave oven, which can cause the plastic to degrade and leach chemicals faster. As well, leaching increases when plastic comes into contact with oily or fatty foods, or when the plastic is scratched, worn, cracked, or sticky. If an item does not have a plastic code on it, or if the type of plastic is unclear from the code, your best bet is to contact the manufacturer and ask them directly what type of plastic was used to make the product.

******Health Risks******

In terms of health risks, the evidence is growing that chemicals leached from plastics used in cooking and food/drink storage are harmful to human health. The most disturbing of these are hormone disrupters, such as Bisphenol A (BPA), which can stimulate the growth of cancer cells. Exposure to BPA at a young age can cause genetic damage, and BPA has been linked to recurrent miscarriage in women. The health risks of plastic are significantly amplified in children, whose immune and organ systems are developing . The manufacture of plastic, as well as its destruction by incineration, pollutes air, land and water and exposes workers to toxic chemicals. The evidence of health risks from certain plastics is increasingly appearing in established, peer-reviewed scientific journals.

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When you recycle a hazard, you create a hazard. Recycling of a toxic waste merely puts the hazardous material back into the marketplace and, eventually, into the environment thereby making no reduction in toxic use.

Since plastic does not undergo bacterial decomposition, landfilling using plastic would mean preserving the poison forever.

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When burned, plastic releases a host of poisonous chemicals into the air, including dioxin, the most toxic substance known to science.

Plastic wastes clog the drains and thus hit especially urban sewage systems. The plastic wastes being dumped into rivers, streams and seas contaminate the water, soil, marine life and also the very air we breathe. Choked drains provide excellent breeding grounds for disease-causing mosquitoes besides causing flooding during the monsoons.

Some facts about plastic bags

Plastic bags cause over 1,00,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistaken them for food. The manufacture of plastic bags add tonnes of carbon emissions into the air annually. In the UK, banning plastic bags would be the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the roads each year. Between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year. Approximately 60 - 100 million barrels of oil are required to make the worlds plastic bags each year. Most plastic bags take over 400 years to biodegrade. Some figures indicate that plastic bags could take over 1000 years to break down. This means not one plastic bag has ever naturally biodegraded.

China uses around 3 billion plastic bags each day!

Around 500,000 plastic bags are collected during Clean Up. Clean Up India Day is a nationwide initiative to get as many members of the public to get out and pick up litter from their local areas.

Fortunately Some governments around the world are taking the initiative to deal with the environmental impact of plastic bags by either banning plastic bags or discouraging their usage.

Plastics have made visible and dramatic changes in the field of consumer products such as packaging, agriculture, construction, furniture, medicare, and telecom and information technology.

Plastics as exceptionally versatile, cost effective and convenient material have become an integral part of our daily lives. It is in fact difficult to imagine a world without plastics. Indians are talking about clean technologies. We are aiming for biodegradable and ecofriendly products and processes. Bioplastics is only a part of the large efforts that we are determined to make. Bioplastics is a reality and is a practical truth. Our willingness and improvement in technologies will give it a wider success.

The only way out of the deadly and lasting danger of plastic is to cut down the use of plastic, if not avoid it altogether.

So Please, Stop using PLASTIC bags and come Forward to save our Earth..