Dangerous Plastic Bags
Todays life has brought with it a lot of conveniences. When we go shopping we are provided with plastic bags to easily transport our goods back home. But what happens to those plastic bags we now do not need anymore. Some people might use them as garbage bags, some might throw them away, others, a favourable act, might recycle them.
Many plastic bags are not handled correctly. This post will show how and where many of our plastic bags have ended up and which impact this had and has on our environment.
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Plastic bags are a danger for the environment: |
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Information issued by the Agency of Environmental Protection of the United States reveals that approximately we consume every year, around the world, between 500 billions and a trillion of plastic bags.
- The news National Geographic 2 of September, 2003 |
 Less than 1% of the bags are recycled. It is more expensive to recycle a plastic bag than to produce a new one. - The Christian Science Monitoring Journal |
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There is a tough economy behind the recycling of the plastic bags. To process and to recycle one ton of plastic bags cost $ 4000: the same amount is sold in the market of raw materials at $ 32.
- Jared Blumenfeld (Director of the Department of the Environment in San Francisco) |
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Then Where go the bags? |
 A 1975 study demonstrated that transoceanic ships throw 8 million pounds of plastic into the sea every year. The reason why our garbage disposals werent flooded by plastic is because its majority finished in the ocean. - National Academy of Sciences of the United States (NAS) |
 Puis |
 towards different places of our earth |
 and towards our seas, lakes and rivers |
 The bags find their route towards the sea in the water-drainages and the gutter pipes -CNN.com/technology Nov. 16th, 2007 |
 Plastic bags have been found floating north of the Arctic Circle near Spitzbergen and even much more to the south, in the Falklands Islands region. - British Antarctica Survey |
 The plastic bags represent more than 10% of the trash that arrive at the coasts of the United States Coasts. - Program of Monitoring of Remainders of the Navy |
 The plastic bags are photodegradable: with the passing of time they are decomposed into small and toxic petrol-polymers - CNN.com/technology Nov. 16th, 2007 |
 which will finally contaminate grounds and the waterways - CNN.com/technology Nov. 16th, 2007 |
 Consequently, microscopic particles can enter the nutritional chain and comprise it. - CNN.com/technology Nov. 16th, 2007 |
 The effect on Wildlife could be catastrophic - WWF report 2005 |
 Birds get trapped without hope to free themselves - WWF report 2005 |
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 Nearly 200 different marine life species, including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die because of the plastic bags - WWF report 2005 |
 They die after ingesting the plastic bags which they accidentally identify as food - WWF report 2005 |
 So |
 If we used a fabric stock market reusable shopping bag, we could save 6 plastic bags per week |
 That means 24 plastic bags saved per month |
 Or, 288 plastic bags saved per year |
 Or, 22176 plastic bags saved during an average human live |
 If only one out of every five persons in our country would do this, we could save Spain =1.330.560.000.000 plastic bags during our lives. |
 Bangladesh prohibited plastic bags - MSNBC.com on March 8th, 2007 |
 China prohibited free plastic bags - CNN.com/asia January, 9th 2008 |
 Ireland was first in Europe to apply a tax on plastic bags in the year 2002. Doing this they have been able to reduce the consumption by 90%. - BBC News, August 20th 2002 |
 In 2005 Rwanda prohibited the use of plastic bags - Associated Press |
 Israel, Canada, East India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan and Singapore prohibited or are in the process of prohibition of the use of plastic bags - PlanetSave.com February 16th, 2008 |
 On March 27th 2007 San Francisco converted into the first United States City to prohibit the use of plastic bags - NPR.org (National Public Radio) |
 Oakland and Boston are considering the prohibition of plastic bags - The Boston Globe, May 20th, 2007 |
 Plastic bags are made of polyethylene: a thermoplastic obtained by the distillation of crude oil - CNN.com/technology, November 16th, 2007 |
 Reducing the use of plastic bags reduces our dependency of crude oil from abroad |
 China saves 37 million barrels of crude each year thanks to the prohibition of plastic bags - CNN.com/asia, January 9th, 2008 |
 It is possible |
Music Melissa Etheridge -An Inconvenient Truth-
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Tags: Animal Protection, Environment, Pollution, Presentation, Water Pollution