Environmental and health impacts plastic waste
The plastic pollution crisis that is occurring in the world today. As stated in the article plastic pollution has become one of the worlds greatest issues today. Not only is it affecting the air we breathe, the water we drink from, and even the food we consume plastic has become the hardest thing to get rid of. Not only is it the problem that we cant get rid of plastics the problem is that bigger more advanced infrastructure countries are sending there plastics to the countries that have no infrastructure or any way of solving the plastic crisis other than attempting to burn the plastics which is causing major health defects and issues. The reason why plastics are a problem is the convenience that they provide as stated in the article "The conveniences plastics offer, however, led to a throw-away culture that reveals the material’s dark side: today, single-use plastics account for 40 percent of the plastic produced every year. Many of these products, such as plastic bags and food wrappers, have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years." what are the solutions to this plastic crisis, currently getting rid of plastics in our biggest problem even though the solutions are minimal to removing plastics there has been small efforts in the hope to repair of our environment. so this is the main concern and issue is that plastic more commonly single use plastic is harming our environment and bigger developed countries are sending them to non developed countries so we don't have to deal with it.
Now the discussion comes up about the comparison from plastic pollution and oil pollution. These two being very different things still have a massive negative and positive impact. They both have a negative impact on the environment from plastic waste and oil waste destroying the lands that people use for farming and surviving. But without oil we would not be as developed in the world as we are now. Oil spilling in the amazon has become a massive issue as well as plastic being a massive issue, but one common thing that both of these terrible topics have in common is that infrastructural and developed countries act as if it is not there issue. Even though we use the plastics that third world countries have to deal with causing them death and more issues, and we use and depend on the oil that is killing land and destroying life for people who use the amazon river as a main source of living. So the main comparison is that they both have the same effects negatively they affect the world and not much is being done to prevent that from occurring.
The final discussion there is to be made is how do keene state college students impact on the topic previously discussed, i would say that Keene students do not have a major negative impact but i would be lying. keene students have a major negative impact with single use plastics. entering my personal favorite spot on campus Loyds there is a bunch of options to eat from, the main issue is that most things to eat from in Loyds are covered with single use plastics. from the snacks even to the plastic bottles that are in every fridge in there. Not only is it the issue of plastics being everywhere its the issue that we previously spoke about in our environmental change class. we offer recycling services for plastic bottles but most of the plastics that are recycled do not stay in the us they are sent to third world countries that do not have enough resources or money to take care of it.
single use plastic that is used at keene state college.this picture was taken by Meanwell Packaging. link to image
I was surprised to read that 40% of all plastic items made are single-use items. I'd imagine that number will only go up over time as well. You brought up a very good point about how many of these single-use plastic items have a lifespan ranging from only minutes to hours, but they stick around as trash for hundreds of years. Your writing is easy to read, and nicely split up into topics. You bring up lots of good points without diluting them. I also get food from Lloyd's a lot, so I wonder what happens with all the plastics and trash from there. I don't grab any plastic forks or knives that they put out for the students, but the amount of those they go through alone must be terrible. Thankfully they switched from styrofoam packaging to paper bags which are better for the environment. People who eat there a lot should buy their own set of reusable silverware. It's cheap and good for the environment.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this blog post as your points really stuck out to me and made me think about how I use single use plastics daily, and how my lifestyle can contribute to the negative impact on the environment. What really resonated with me while reading this blog post was when you said "I would say that Keene students do not have a major negative impact but i would be lying. keene students have a major negative impact with single use plastics." You then when on to talk about your favorite place, lloyds, in which is covered from head to toe in single use plastics from the drink bottles, to snack packs, to food packages. This caused a new link to form in my mind because I am so blind to the impact of single use plastics and how they are present all over campus. I really liked the photo you chose to use because it shows the true impact of single use plastic around the world and can show up anywhere, even at the beach where it should be serene and untouched.
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