7 Serious Effects of Plastic Bags Causing Environmental Pollution

When you purchase something, like food or clothes, the shopkeeper will normally pack them for you in a plastic bag. Once you get home, you’ll throw the plastic bag in the litter outside. This is the most common way that plastic bags end up creating a threat to the environment.

While plastic bags are very useful in our daily lives, and we apparently can’t do without them, they have a significant contribution to wildlife deaths, environmental pollution, human health hazards, and other harmful impacts.

1. Plastic bags are non-biodegradable

Plastic can take up to 1000 years to completely decompose in landfill. In fact, all the plastic bags that have ever been manufactured still linger in the environment. That means we will never live to see the decomposition of the plastic.

2. Death of animals

As per recent servey  plastic kills 1 million sea birds annually, and that plastic entanglement alone kills an estimated 100,000 marine animals(including birds, fish, sharks, sea turtles, and more) every year.

For example, sea turtles mistake floating plastic shopping bags for jellyfish. These sea turtles risk destruction partly because of consuming extreme amounts of plastics. Plastic can’t be digested properly and hence will build up in the stomach leading to the animal’s death.

3. Plastic bags are made from petroleum products

Production of plastic takes 50-100 million barrels of oil from the world’s petroleum reserves. Therefore, plastic contributes significantly to the reduction of this valuable resource, making the prices of petroleum products to rise every passing day.

4. Toxic chemicals are released during plastic manufacturing

Ingredients of plastic bags include a plethora of carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and hormone-disruptive chemicals. Some of these chemicals are also released as by-products of plastic making. When released, they eventually end up in our ecosystem through the water, land, and air pollution.

5. Massive accumulations of plastic bags block drainage systems

Plastic bag accumulations are one of the most frequent causes of drainage system clogging. Developing countries are the most precious with this problem.

Best example of this impact is the floods that hit Bangladesh about two decades ago. There was a wide blockage of drainage systems, which was partly attributed to plastic shopping bags.

6. Plastic bag chemicals can affect reproduction in women

Certain chemicals are used in the manufacturing of plastic bags, especially BPA, act in the same way as oestrogen. In the long run, these chemicals may obstruct with hormonal balance in women and affect reproduction.

Furthermore, studies have linked BPA to breast cancer in animals. This chemical has also been allied with thyroid issues and neurologic disorders in humans.

7. Plastic bags result in the pollution of groundwater

The plastic bags in the dumpsite will normally release chemicals that leak into the ground, ending into the groundwater reservoirs. Then, the harmful effects of plastics would be passed through the ground to our bodies through the plants we consume and the water we drink.

While many of people believe that groundwater is safe for drinking, the truth is far from that. Therefore, evade drinking groundwater unless it has been treated for human consumption. Otherwise, you will be ingesting a lot of poisonous substances.

Conclusion:                   

Although plastic is becoming a danger for all of us, still this problem has often been unnoticed and underestimated. This is because people do not look at the enduring effect of these small, easy to carry bags they use in their everyday life. But now everyone has to fully stop using the plastic bag and start using Jute or Cotton Bags to save our environment and earth. We are one of the top jute bag manufacturers and exporters in India. In our online store, you can find an end number of new designs as providing custom Jute bags according to your needs is our passion.