Plastic Recycling

In "Plastic Waste Creating Ocean-Sized Crisis," (KTVU, n.d., para. 6), the author writes, "The Ocean’s in trouble, therefore we are in trouble. Whether we live in Illinois or the Bay Area here in California, we live and die by the ocean." With our economy developing fast, the plastic waste problem has become worse and worse. People have less and less responsibility for the environment. Some industries discharge plastic materials into the sea. It causes sea pollution, and the loss of many kinds of marine organisms, but today we have some solutions to dispose of the plastic. The best way is recycling plastic. We should regard this solution as an international issue, because it is our duty to protect our environment, and because using this solution can reduce the quantity of our resource waste; it won't generate toxic substance; and it is good for sustaining our ecosystem.

“Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the material into useful products” (Wikipedia, n.d., para.1). “Plastics remained in widespread use anyway, and in many cases were much more effective and environmentally benign than alternative materials. However, this led to a problem as well, since the consumption of massive amounts of plastic goods led to a massive problem with litter and waste disposal” (packagingtoday, n.d., para. 4). “By the 1990s, plastic recycling programs were common in the United states and elsewhere” (packagingtoday, n.d., para. 6). Some people think that this solution is a waste of time, we should choose a faster way to dispose the plastic, and in the economic society people are so busy that they don’t have time to recycle plastics. They doubt if this solution is useful for disposing the plastics.

First, recycling plastic can reduce the waste of our resource. Maybe some people don’t know plastic is made of oil. “According to a recent nationwide online survey, 72 percent of the American public does not know that conventional plastic is made from petroleum products, primarily oil. Moreover, 40 percent of the respondents believe that plastic will biodegrade at some point. Nearly 10 percent of U.S. oil consumption - approximately 2 million barrels a day - is used to make plastic” (Thomas, 2007, para.1). Today people don’t care how products are made; they just know how many benefits they have. The more plastics we make, the less oil resources we have. However, oil is a nonrenewable resource; it is limited. We should protect our limited resources, not waste them. If we recycle the waste plastics, and plastic manufactories produce less plastics, it can reduce the amount of oil waste.

Second, it won’t produce toxic substance by recycling plastic. This solution can reduce the quantities of CO2 and other toxins. In the past, some people burned the waste plastics to dispose of them. This method led to generating more CO2 and other pollutants. It pollutes our air. And other people used landfills to dispose of the plastics; landfills will create some environmental problems. Lot of waste plastics can’t break down by natural processes. They are stills in the soil today. It pollutes underground water, and the plastic materials kill the microorganisms in the soil. It also generates some emissions to the atmosphere and water. Recycling plastics can reduce the quantities of CO2 and toxins we put into the air, and we can use this method to dispose of plastic waste inside of landfills and incinerators. It can protect our air and water environment.

Third, recycling plastic is good for earth’s ecosystem. If we use this solution to dispose of plastic wastes, it is good for the organisms including humans on the earth. As we know, plastic waste is a serious problem. In 2003, approximately, 57% of the wastes found on the beaches were plastic (wasteonline, 2006). The plastic chemicals get into the food chain and kill lots of fish and birds because the pellets of plastics look like fish eggs and it appears to be different kinds of food to them. They accumulate the toxins in their bodies. It threatens their lives. “Turtles are particularly badly affected by plastic pollution, turtles get entangled in fishing nets, and many sea turtles have been found dead with plastic bags in their stomachs. It is believed they mistake these floating semi-transparent bags for jellyfish and eat them. One dead turtle found off Hawaii in the Pacific was found to have more than 1000 pieces of plastic in its stomach including part of a comb, a toy truck wheel and nylon rope” (Collins, 2001, para. 6). If we don’t use some policies to stop this scenario, it will lead to a worse consequence. The best way to change this situation is recycling plastics. Using this method to dispose of plastic waste is a solution, which we can use to protect many kinds of species that live in the marine world.

Some people think that it will take a long time to get the effect, and it isn’t worthwhile to spend a lot of time on recycling plastics; they think we can use a faster way to solve the problem. Recycling plastic is the best way to dispose the plastic wastes so far. Human’s lives depend on nature. The environment and the natural resources are really important to us. It is our duty to protect the environment and the limited resources. We should think about the future of our offspring. If we still waste plastics and don’t use some solutions to dispose of them, it will be a big problem for our offspring in the future. Therefore, we should try our best to contribute to protecting our environment. Recycling plastic is the best way to reduce the pollution. We should regard this solution as an international issue and try our best to help this program to recycle, even though it will be a long time to get the effect, because it is a global thing, not an individual thing. The better the environment is, the better the future we will have.

In conclusion, nowadays our consumption levels have increased and our lives have become better. The plastic waste problem has become worse. We should use a solution to solve this problem. Recycling plastic is our best choice because it can reduce the waste of our resources such as nonrenewable resource oil; it won’t generate any toxic substances and it can reduce the amounts in landfills. In addition, it is good for the earth’s ecosystem; we can sustain the balance of nature. It is a really good solution to dispose of the plastic waste. Due to the fact that our life depends on the environment, we should regard this solution as an international issue; everyone has the responsibility to join this plastic recycling program.

References:

Collins J. (2001, February 01). Prevent plastic pollution. Botany. Retrieved June 20, 2007, from http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/Envfacts/plastic/index.htm

Plastic waste creating ocean-sized crisis. (n.d.). KTVU.com. Retrieved June 20, 2007, from http://www.ktvu.com/news/10312783/detail.html

Plastic recycling and environment. (n.d.). Packagingtoday.com. Retrieved June 20, 2007, from http://www.packagingtoday.com/introenvironment.htm

Thomas J. (2007, April 28). 70% of Americans don't know plastic is made with oil. Treehugger.com. Retrieved June 20, 2007, from http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/70_of_americans.php

Plastic recycling information sheet. (2006, February). Wasteonline.org.uk. Retrieved June 20, 2007, from http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Plastics.htm

Plastic recycling. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 20, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_recycling