1. FLAMMABLE – This is definitely an advantage in that they can be melted down, however soldering plastics can release toxic fumes into the environment. 2. COST OF RECYCLING – While recycling is a plus, recycling is a very costly endeavour. 3. VOLUME – In the United States 20% of our landfill is made up of plastics. As more products are being made of plastics, where will this lead us in the future? 4. DURABILITY – This is an advantage as well as a disadvantage. Plastics are extremely durable, which means that they last a long time. Those plastics in the landfill will be there for years. Plastics make our lives easier, however is their cost on the environment worth it? We can only hope that soon someone will invent a way to safely and cheaply melt and reuse plastics.
The word plastic is derived from the Greek πλαστικός (plastikos) meaning capable of being shaped or molded, from πλαστός (plastos) meaning molded.[1][2] It refers to their malleability, or plasticity during manufacture, that allows them to be cast, pressed, or extruded into a variety of shapes—such as films, fibers, plates, tubes, bottles, boxes, and much more.
OVERVIEW Plastics can be classified by chemical structure, namely the molecular units that make up the polymer’s backbone and side chains. Some important groups in these classifications are the acrylics, polyesters, silicones, polyurethanes, and halogenated plastics. Plastics can also be classified by the chemical process used in their synthesis, such as condensation, polyaddition, and cross-linking.
The Essay on Plastic Recycling 2
... plastic recycling practices in our daily lives. What is plastic recycling? Plastic recycling is the process of reprocessing used scrap and waste plastic into new plastic material. Recycling old plastic ... What are the benefits of plastic recycling? Here are some benefits of recycling plastic: Recycled plastic can be made into plastic lumber, which is more durable ...
CHEMICAL STRUCTURE Common thermoplastics range from 20,000 to 500,000 amu, while thermosets are assumed to have infinite molecular weight. These chains are made up of many repeating molecular units, known as repeat units, derived from monomers; each polymer chain will have several thousand repeating units. The vast majority of plastics are composed of polymers of carbon and hydrogen alone or with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine or sulfur in the backbone. (Some of commercial interests are silicon based.) The backbone is that part of the chain on the main “path” linking a large number of repeat units together.
Almost every market that you go today, you will see people carrying their shopping items in plastic bags. Right from food items to clothes to shoes, there is hardly any item that we do not use a plastic bag to carry. However, before stuffing your home with different styles, colors and shapes of plastic bags, have you every considered the dangers that are inherent in using them? No? Then, reading through this article is a must for you. Go through the following lines and explore the disadvantages of plastic bags. After reading them, we are sure that you will prefer sticking to paper bags and the like.
DANGERS OF USING PLASTIC BAGS ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE Plastic bags have been known to cause a lot of environmental damage. A single plastic bag can take up to 1000 years, to decay completely. This makes the bags stay in environments longer, in turn leading to great build-up on the natural landscape (much more than degradable materials like paper).
In other words, the more plastic bags you use, the greater the chances of environmental damage. THREAT TO ANIMAL LIFE
As per Marrickville Council of Australia, as many as 100,000 whales, turtles and birds die have been reported to die every year, mainly because of plastic in their environment. Plastic bags not only have adverse effects on our natural habitats, but have also been found to be responsible for the death of many animals, mainly on account of the suffocation encountered on eating them. SUFFOCATION
The Term Paper on Hazards Of Plastic Bags
... health hazard. What are Plastics? Plastics are polymers i.e. large molecules consisting of repeating units called monomers. In the case of plastic bags, the repeating units are ethylene. When ... use reusable cloth bags that are made from renewable materials to replace plastic and paper bags. We should ban the use of plastic bags entirely, since ...
Not only animals, infants and young children have also been reported to have lost their life, on account of plastic bags. Since plastic bags are thin and airtight as well, children often end up blocking their mouths and nostrils with them. In case they are not being monitored by an adult, this leads to suffocation and, in some cases, even death. POLLUTION
Plastic bags are extremely durable. In case you are thinking of this as an advantage, just bring to mind an image of the huge landfill that you visited on the city outskirts, the other day. In most probability, majority of the rubbish present there will comprise of plastic bags only. In other words, plastic bags have led to a great increase in the pollution levels. FUMES
Since plastic bags are not bio-degradable, the only way to get rid of them is to burn them up. Though lighting a match to them is easy, it has more than its fair share of disadvantages. The biggest of them is that smoldering plastics can release toxic fumes into the environment, in turn taking the air pollution to much higher levels.
NON-RENEWABLE One of the main disadvantages of plastic bags is that they are not renewable. The reason behind this is that they are made of petrochemicals, a non-renewable source of energy. They can be recycled, but not as easily as paper bags. Plastic bags can last for as much as hundreds of years. In other words, long after you are no more, the plastic bag used by you will be in existence. The final plastic product is often a chemical entity that in and of itself has had insufficient toxicological and ecotoxicological testing. An example would be PVC, forms of which are banned in Europe but exist widely in children’s toys in America. Recent controversies over plastic bottles (many toxicologists recommending not re-using plastic water bottles and not storing food in Tupperware) have highlighted the potential risks. Exacerbating the problem is that science is only now advancing to where it can detect plastic components in human blood and then trace concentrations and link them to human ailments and diseases.
The plastics industry itself often spins plastic and related plastic chemicals into a variety of products, some of which are hazardous and controversial (Teflon, PVC, Polyethylene, polystyrene, various silicones in body and hair care).
The Essay on Advocacy For Animals Plastic Bags
From grocery bags and containers, to medical devices, plastics are now used in almost every aspect of everyday life, creating a much simpler and safer world. Although plastics carry hundreds of benefits, these do not completely counter the harmful effects that they have on the environment and on the health of humans. The amount of plastic that has been created since 2000 is nearing the total ...
Plastic-producing companies are often chemical companies or subsidiaries of chemical companies, both with poor track records when it comes to their adherence to regulatory compliance and their willingness to perform toxicological analysis on the products they make.
