Benefits/Drawbacks of Reducing Single Use Plastics

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Benefits/Drawbacks of Reducing Single Use Plastics

Single-use of plastics is often described as the one-time use and disposal or recycling of plastics such as straws, bottles, bags and other common types of packaging. As much of these plastics are designed to be thrown away or disposed of after use. Banning and reducing single-use of plastics is made possible by the adoption of bans and levies by governments policies on the production of the plastics with the aim of replacing them with more environmentally friendly alternatives The advantages of the single-use of plastics recorded are undeniable thus the reducing and banning of single-use plastics is set to weigh on drawbacks. The effects of single plastics usage impact both the environment and the living creatures. Through their impact on society, the benefits and drawbacks of single-use of plastic papers are evaluated. As much as it is easily disposable, majority of the single-use plastic takes years to decompose, they are easily available and cheap a factors that make their usage more common in various places

Assessments conducted shows plastic to have a miracle product as it has enhanced in development of health sector, facilitating the development of clean energy through the use of turbines and solar panels and has helped the revolution of the food industry as the packaging helps preserve food keeping them fresh for longer periods of time thus reducing wastage. The effects assessments of the single-use of plastic bags have shown how the disposal of plastics after a single use has impacted mostly the environment as these wastes find their way to being dumped mostly in the waterbodies choking marine animals (Ross, 2013). The disposable plastics take up to a thousand years to decompose thus globally the plastic wastes has led to a disruption of drainages clogging the drains causing floods and allow for disease breeding. They can also find their way to the food chain as some animals could consume them causing severe effects. Banning of single-use of plastics has emerged to be government initiatives in the efforts to mitigate their global environmental effects. More than 60 countries across the world have introduced bans and levies on curbing of the single-use of plastics and with a review of countries such as Rwanda that banned the use of plastics being regarded as the cleanest nation on earth. Basing on the countries that have introduced and enacted the banning of single-use plastics this evaluation analyses what has been able to be successful and what is not in terms of expected outcomes. Thus it intends to guide on the users (mostly governments) on measures to involved in a reduction or banning of single-use of plastics whether beneficial or not (Astrup, 2009). Although their due to lack of enough monitoring there are no conclusive information to ascertain the impacts of banning and levies measures of the assessment and evaluation analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of the banning of single-use of plastics in controlling the rate of environment pollutions shows a huge benefit for people and the environment that seeks to avert pollution crisis with the reduction or banning being a painless but profitable initiative.

The evaluation of the essay may, however, be out of balance as the plastics under study are not the problem but rather the focus should be on how the people choose to use the plastics and what they do with it. Which illustrates that it is should be left for the people to decide in smarter ways what they ought to do with the plastics. The evaluation should also help to enhance or focus on other actions to be pursued in efforts to reduce single-use of plastics rather than banning. Other methods can include the development of waste management systems through enhancing technology.

References

Astrup, T., Fruergaard, T., & Christensen, T. H. (2009). Recycling of plastic: accounting of greenhouse gases and global warming contributions. Waste management & research, 27(8), 763-772.

Ross, S., & Evans, D. (2003). The environmental effect of reusing and recycling a plastic-based packaging system. Journal of Cleaner Production, 11(5), 561-571.