plastic water bottle essay

Should Bottled Water Be Banned? Essay

Plastics is one of the products that are leading in polluting the environment. Some of the goods made of plastic include plastic water bottles. Bottled water is the most consumed drink and beverage across the world. This is since the product is easily accessible and cheap. They are bought in large numbers and end up being irregularly disposed of, thus polluting the environment. Plastics are detrimental to the environment; they affect the soil, water, air and eventually lead to climate change and global warming. Although plastic bottled water is a better alternative to sugary drinks, plastic bottles are a threat to the environment, hence they should be banned.

Banning bottled water would be the right decision that would help reduce waste and protect the environment. The main component in water bottles is plastic. Plastics are a product of fossil fuels; when they are burned, they produce persistent organic pollutants (POP) (“Should Bottled Water Be Banned” 1). This is the polluting component of plastics. Although they are burnt, they still remain persistent in the air for a long time. When this happens, it forms its own clouds or merges with the existing ones forming polluted air. They are rich in toxic chemicals. Air pollution, one of the factors contributing to climate change, is caused by harmful emissions as a result of human activities. Factories and industrial facilities manufacturing plastic products are the major contributors to air pollution.

Banning bottled water is a correct decision since plastics are harmful to our health when ingested or inhaled. Plastics are made of petroleum products that also contribute to air pollution. Regulating emissions from these agents will therefore ensure that air pollution is reduced not only in the community but globally (“Should Bottled Water Be Banned” 2). Most communities lack proper waste disposal mechanisms; one of the harmful ways of disposing of wastes is burning – this often leads to air pollution.

Plastics are a threat to aquatic life. Aquatics such as fish are at a danger of being extinct because of plastics being disposed of in lakes, oceans, and seas. When consumed by fish and other aquatic creatures, the plastics block the breathing system of the animals and they end up suffocating. On the other hand, since ocean currents and air affect the climate, when they are polluted, they cannot form enough precipitation to form clouds that would eventually lead to rains. Unfortunately, some of the aquatic life such as fish find themselves on our tables as food; hence, we are jeopardizing our health when we use bottled water. Besides, they are a threat to aquatic life as when they are consumed by aquatics, they cause complications and may lead to death. When plastics are burnt, they pollute the air. When this occurs, they cause the greenhouse effect which is associated with climate change and global warming. Plastics adversely affect the soil since they cannot be decomposed and utilized as nutrients in the soil.

A ban on bottled water would protect the local water supplies from exploitation. Bottling plants are the cause of dried-up wells and wetlands or a depletion of the streamflow in the areas they are set up (“Should Bottled Water Be Banned” 2). Deposits of plastics in oceans interrupt the flow of oceanic currents. Due to destructive human activities such as the use of plastics, global climate has been fluctuating, and climate patterns have been difficult to predict. Recent research indicates that the conveyor belt has been affected as well. The oceanic conveyor belt is a system that facilitates the movement of oceanic currents. Unfortunately, climate change is threatening to change the pattern of how the circulation of oceanic currents occurs. One of the consequences of its interference in the flow of ocean currents is that it could either slow or stop the conveyor belt entirely. One of the effects of climate change on the oceanic conveyor belt is that it leads to a rise in global temperatures.

Although the use of bottled water may be cheap to purchase, it is costly to maintain and dispose of. One of the consequences of the use of plastic bottles is climate change. Due to harsh climatic conditions, such as droughts, governments have been forced to initiate food distribution programs that are costly (“Should Bottled Water Be Banned” 3). Climate change and global warming also have detrimental impacts on agriculture, which is one of the leading income-generating sectors in most countries. There has been a change in climate all over the world with some parts of it experiencing extreme climatic conditions such as high temperatures or lack of rainfall. These environmental issues affect the quality of life. Recently, it has become hard to predict the climate in most parts of the world, as weather patterns have changed.

In summary, it is evident that bottled water does more harm than good to both humans and the environment, and hence they should be banned. They are harmful in the following ways: First, plastics do not decompose easily. This means that when they are burnt, they stay in the air longer, and since they contain pollutants, they contaminate the air. Due to plastics’ inability to be decomposed, they pose a threat to both the vegetation and insects, animals, and microorganisms in the soil. It has also been scientifically proven that it interferes with the flow of oceanic currents which leads to a rise in global temperatures. Some of the impacts of climate change on a diverse population include food shortages, aridity, acid rain, high temperatures, lack of rainfall.

“Should Bottled Water Be Banned? – Top 4 Pros and Cons.” ProCon , 2018. Web.

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• Microplastic Soil Contamination in the Context of Environmental Safety
• The Skepticism of Consumers Towards Green Products
• Forests Are the Earth's Lungs
• Coral Reefs Protection: Academic Sources Analysis

Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Plastic Bags — Debate on Plastic water bottles

Debate on Plastic Water Bottles

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Published: Dec 12, 2018

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• ENVIRONMENT
• THE STORY OF PLASTIC

How the plastic bottle went from miracle container to hated garbage

The evolution of the plastic bottle from amazing to scourge of land and sea has played out inside of a generation.

A million plastic beverage bottles were purchased each minute as of 2017. The plastic bottle's journey from convenience to curse has played out quickly—in a single generation.

The moment the modern plastic beverage bottle changed the world’s drinking habits is difficult to pinpoint. The day New York supermodels began carrying tall bottles of Evian water as an accessory on fashion show catwalks in the late 1980s surely signaled the future ahead. Billions of bottles were sold on the promise that bottled water is good for hair and skin, healthier than soft drinks and safer than tap water. And it didn’t take consumers long to buy into the notion that they needed water within reach virtually everywhere they went .

Plastic bottles and bottle caps are the third and fourth most collected plastic trash in the Ocean Conservancy’s annual beach cleanups.

What sets bottles apart from other plastic products born in the post-World War II rise of consumerism is the sheer speed with which the beverage bottle, now ubiquitous around the world, has shifted from convenience to curse. The transition played out in a single generation.

“The plastic bottle transformed the beverage industry and it changed our habits in many ways,” says Peter Gleick, co-founder and president emeritus of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, and author of Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water .

“We’ve become a society that seems to think if we don’t have water at hand, terrible things will happen. It’s kind of silly. It’s not as though anybody died from thirst in the old days,” he says.

By 2016, the year sales of bottled water in the United States officially surpassed soft drinks, the world had awakened to the burgeoning crisis of plastic waste. The backlash against the glut of discarded bottles clogging waterways, polluting the oceans and littering the interior has been swift. Suddenly, carrying plastic bottles of water around is uncool.

What is cool is wearing them: Hip fashion translates into designer clothes made of recycled water bottles. There’s even a growing market of luxury, stainless steel refillables, including a limited-edition bottle covered with thousands of Swarovski crystals that sells for almost $2,000.

For Hungry Minds

Plastic bottles and bottle caps rank as the third and fourth most collected plastic trash items in the Ocean Conservancy’s annual September beach cleanups in more than 100 countries. Activists are zeroing in on the bottle as next in line for banning , after plastic shopping bags. The tiny towns of Concord, Massachusetts and Bundanoon, Australia already have banned bottles, as have numerous public parks, museums, universities, and zoos in Europe and the United States.

The developing world—where 2.2 billion people still do not have access to clean drinking water, according to the United Nations , and bottled water is often the only safe option—is getting out ahead of the problem. In June, Kenya announced a ban on single-use plastics at beaches and in national parks, forests, and conservation areas, effective in June 2020, and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation banned disposable water bottles in all city offices.

A brief history

Consumers have been drinking bottled beverages for more than a century, first in glass bottles, then in steel and, later, aluminum cans. Early plastic bottles showed promise as a lightweight alternative, but they leached chemicals and failed to contain carbonated drinks. If the bottle didn’t explode, the carbonation fizzled. It wasn’t until the 1970s when a miracle plastic known as PET came along and changed the game.

Polyethylene terephthalate has been around since 1941. Du Pont chemists developed it while experimenting with polymers to make textiles. In 1973 Nathaniel Wyeth , another Du Pont scientist, patented the first PET bottle. It was lightweight, safe, cheap—and recyclable. In other words, it was the perfect container to set the stage for the bottle binge that followed.

Perrier and Evian crossed the Atlantic at around that time, launching the bottled water craze. PepsiCo finally joined the water business and introduced Aquafina in 1994. Coke followed with Dansani in 1999. Both brands use refiltered tap water . Between 1994 and 2017, water sales in the United States had grown by 284 percent, according to Beverage Marketing Corp. data published by the Wall Street Journal .

Between 1960 and 1970, the average person bought between 200 and 250 packaged drinks ever year, Elizabeth Royte reported in her book Bottlemania, citing data from the Container Recycling Institute . Most of those purchases, she added, involved refillable bottles. As of 2017, on a global scale a million plastic beverage bottles were purchased every minute, according to data from Euromonitor International’s global packaging trends report, published in 2017 by The Guardian. Today, plastic bottles and jars represent about 75 percent of all plastic containers, by weight, in the United States, according to the Plastics Industry Association.

Ramani Narayan, a chemical engineering professor at Michigan State University, cautions that to focus entirely on the numbers and overuse of plastic bottles is to miss the essence of the problem.

“There is an overuse of plastic bottles that needs to be curtailed,” he says. “But the problem is misuse of bottles at the end of their life. The issue is recovery of the product and incentives to recycle, and the commitment on the part of regulators, as well as brand owners, to only use bottles that contain at least 50 percent recycled plastic. Or 60 percent. They are not making that commitment.”

New life for bottles

As the public’s focus on the plastic waste crisis narrows, the world is awash with solutions for bottles. Generally, they fall into two categories: efforts to reduce the use of plastic bottles and efforts to find new ways to deal with bottles once they’re thrown away.

Just in London, efforts to reduce plastic bottles abound. Mayor Sadiq Khan announced plans to build 100 new fountains for refillable bottles. Last spring, runners in the London Marathon were handed edible seaweed pouches at mile 23 containing a sports drink to slake their thirst. And Selfridges, London’s century-old department store, has vanquished plastic beverage bottles from its food court in favor of glass bottles, aluminum cans, and refilling stations.

Once bottles have become trash, entrepreneurs around the world are turning them into printer ink cartridges, fence posts, roofing tiles, carpets, flooring, and boats, to name only a few items. Even houses have been constructed from bottles. The latest is a three-story modern on the banks of the Meteghan River in Nova Scotia, promoted as able to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. It only took 612,000 bottles.

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In laboratories, new versions of bottles claiming to be biodegradable or compostable appear regularly, and plastic industry chemists are experimenting with “chemical recycling” that returns the polymers to their constituent monomers, enabling them to be remade multiple times into new plastic bottles.

Many of the solutions are not scalable to a level that would make a noticeable difference, and most of them—including biodegradables—still require that the most elemental and least functional part of the bottle’s lifespan be performed: Someone needs to pick them all up.

Recycling rates remain low. In 2016 fewer than half the bottles bought worldwide were collected. In the United States, new PET bottles contain only 7 percent recycled content, said Susan Collins, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute. Although consumers of soft drinks dutifully returned glass bottles and collected the refund in the decades before PET was invented, beverage companies have long strongly promoted recycling, and vigorously opposed bottle deposit legislation, arguing bottle bills cost them too much money.

Beverage companies have pledged to use more recycled bottles in manufacturing, a goal that aims to reduce the production of new resin and boosts recycling numbers by adding value to bottle recovery.

PepsiCo pledged to increase recycled content in all its plastic packaging 25 percent by 2025. Nestle Waters vowed to make all of its packaging recyclable by 2025 and increase recycled content in bottles to 35 percent by 2025 globally and to 50 percent in the United States, focusing on Poland Spring. Additionally, recycled content for European brands will increase to 50 percent by 2025.

Coca-Cola pledged to recycle a used bottle or can for every one the company sells by 2030 and increase recycled material in plastic bottles to 50 percent by 2030.

planet or plastic?

Three things you can do to be part of the solution :

1. Carry a reusable bottle.

2. Choose aluminum cans over plastic when possible.

3. Recycle all plastic bottles.

Make consumers pay?

Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, says recovery of plastic waste won’t improve much until it is given greater value, achieved through additional cost of the product.

“If a company chooses to sell me water in a single-serving container, I should have to pay the full cost of delivering that water in a single-serving container, which includes recovering that container as waste. These voluntary efforts are nice. But the key is getting the pricing right.”

Ben Jordan, Coke’s senior director of environmental policy, said Coke was reevaluating bottle deposit programs around the world, as well as five major types of recycling systems globally to determine at the local level how to maximize recovery of plastic waste. He noted that Coke’s Mexico City operations recycle virtually 100 percent of PET.

“We all agree on the issue,” he says. “Are there ways that don’t require packaging at all? Are there places where you can bring your own packaging? For all the packages out there, whether a PET bottle or aluminum can, how can we make it more sustainable than it was yesterday?”

Bart Elmore, a professor at Ohio State University and author of Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism, says beverage companies would be wise to take a lesson from their own history. Put a price on a bottle and you’ll get it back.

MORE ARTICLES FROM THE STORY OF PLASTIC SERIES

How your toothbrush became a part of the plastic crisis

Why carrying your own fork and spoon helps solve the plastic crisis

The sticky problem of plastic wrap

This common plastic packaging is a recycling nightmare

Cigarette butts are toxic plastic pollution. Should they be banned?

How tampons and pads became so unsustainable

Tires: The plastic polluter you never thought about

Can medical care exist without plastic?

Your shoes are made of plastic. Here’s why.

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Bottled Water: The Human Health Consequences of Drinking from Plastic

As we continue to advocate for the reduction of plastic use beyond Plastic Free July, the issue of bottled water remains a significant problem to not only the well-being of our environment, but the quality of our health as well.

In the U.S. alone, Americans buy an estimated 50 billion water bottles a year from a growing industry projected to reach $334 billion by 2023. Many consumers purchasing bottled water are presented with the facade of a high quality product. In reality, countless companies are simply filtering municipal water and bottling it ! Next time you reach for the bottle of "pure" water, think twice as popular brands may be selling you water contaminated with microplastics and toxic chemicals from their plastic packaging.

Plastic is everywhere. Most of us correlate plastic contamination to the destruction of our environment. According to the EPA , only 8.4% of plastic in the United States was recycled in 2017, but the problem continues to expand into the realm of human health. Recent studies show bottled water containing excessive levels of microplastics - small pieces of plastic debris less than five millimeters in size. According to research conducted by Orb Media, 93% of the 11 bottled water brands sampled , all showed traces of microplastics. The study included companies such as Aquafina and Evian, with Nestle Pure Life having one of the highest levels of contamination. Their research also showed bottled water contained about 50% more microplastics than tap water.

Most bottled water is sold in plastic #1, also known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Research shows that PET may be an endocrine disruptor, altering our hormonal systems. Although this type of plastic is BPA free, phthalates in bottles can still seep into your water, especially when exposed to high temperatures or stored for an extended period of time. Some companies, such as Poland Spring, use plastic #7 for their 3-gallon water bottles. This type of plastic contains BPA, which has been banned in countries around the world, including the European Union and China, due to its toxicity. BPA exposure is linked to multiple health effects including fertility issues, altered brain development, cancer, and heart complications. 

It is not mandatory for bottled water corporations to conduct lab tests or inform consumers where their water originates . In contrast to bottled water, tap water suppliers must undergo testing to show contaminant levels, offer quality reports to consumers, meet EPA standards, and disclose their water sources. This means bottled water isn't always the safest option. Additionally, bottled water can be on average 1,000 times more expensive than tap water. So why are we still purchasing bottled water that pollutes our environment and impairs our health? As the obsession with bottled water brainwashes society, I felt compelled to ask people why they felt the need to make this purchase. Countless conversations later, I noticed a recurring theme: a desire to have safe and healthy drinking water.

Improving the quality of our municipal water is critical in order to switch to a safe and more sustainable alternative. The Clean Water for All Act acknowledges the importance and basic human right for everyone to have access to clean water. Reach out to your member of Congress to take action and express your support for this bill .  

If you're not sure if your tap water is safe, check your Consumer Confidence Report , which outlines the contaminant levels of your tap water. We also urge you to reach out to your local water supplier to find out where your water comes from.

We can all do our part to reduce plastic pollution. Check out Clean Water Action's award-winning  ReThink Disposable program which works with businesses, restaurants, schools, communities, and individuals to help them make the switch from single-use disposables to reusables. Not only will this save you money, it will help improve your health and keep our planet clean.

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What Is the Environmental Impact of Plastic Water Bottles?

Around the world over 1 million plastic water bottles are purchased per minute and close to 400 billion plastic water bottles are produced per year. This number has been exponential increasing and is set to be close to 600 billion by 2021 [1] .

Plastic bottles are seen as a disposable means of buying drinks and are discarded without thought after use. This obsession with disposable plastic bottles is a serious issue that is already causing major human health and environmental problems.

How are plastic water bottles made?

The environmental problems associated with plastic bottles begins in the production process. The process is broken up into 3 steps as follows:

#1 Preparing the raw material

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most commonly used material in the production of plastic bottles. PET and recycled plastic (up to 10% of the total material) is ground into small pellets.

Plastic pellets are heated in an oven to between 300 – 500 degrees Celsius and injected into a tubular shaped mold.

The plastic tubes are placed inside another mold to be formed into the bottle shape. A needle pushes pressurized air into the center of each mold to create the hollow interior and final shape of the bottle.

#3 Cooling and trimming

The plastic bottle is quickly cooled with cold water or liquid nitrogen before it loses its shape, excess plastic is trimmed off, and a bottle cap is placed on top.

After production is finished sample bottles are typically tested to determine their strength and quality [2,3] . This process is very energy intensive and usually powered by fossil fuel energy sources.

How do plastic water bottles affect the environment?

Plastic bottles have become so common in our lives that we rarely associate any value with them. In reality they create immeasurable impacts on the environment and cost millions of dollars per year.

Because such little value is attached to plastic bottles people often discard them on the ground where they become trapped in terrestrial ecosystems or float into our oceans.

Plastic bottles take around 400 years to fully degrade in landfills and even longer in natural ecosystems. In our oceans plastic bottles build up over time and create huge areas of floating plastic, like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

This is a floating area of plastic in the Pacific Ocean that is estimated to contain 2 million tonnes of plastic waste [8] .

Aquatic animals are some of the most affected species from plastic contamination . Nearly 100 million aquatic animals die per year directly from plastic. Animals often confuse plastic bottles, and specifically bottle caps, for food and eat them. This leads to serious health problems for the animals, often damaging their digestive system.

Additionally, many smaller animals get trapped inside plastic bottles, preventing them from getting food, and leading to their death [9] .

On land and oceans plastic bottles break down into small fragments over time. These pieces contain harmful chemicals like Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) .

When plastic fragments finally disintegrate the toxins are released in high concentrations that can kill microorganisms in soil and water.

These impacts damage the natural ecosystems that we rely on.

Plastic bottle waste creates direct negative consequences for us. Not only do plastic bottles look unsightly, but they pose a serious health risk . Just like for plants and microorganisms, PCBs released from plastic are harmful for our health.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the most studied PCBs and is commonly released by plastic water bottles as they degrade. Studies have found that BPA mimics estrogen in the human body. This has been linked to an increased risk of getting some chronic diseases like asthma, diabetes, and cancer.

The full effects of PCBs on the human body is not yet known, but it is already clear that they have the potential to be extremely harmful.

The importance of recycling plastic water bottles

It is challenging to completely stop using disposable bottles because they are so commonly found in our lives. One way to help reduce their harm is by recycling them . 

Recycling plastic bottles reduces the amount of new oil that must be extracted from earth for plastic production. By reducing our oil requirement we also decrease the amount of energy needed to produce plastic bottles, lower the amount of greenhouse gases being produced, and reduce the amount of plastic waste in our landfills [6] .

These are all positive steps in the right direction.

Products made from recycled plastic bottles

When plastic bottles are recycled they are shredded into tiny plastic pellets that can be melted into new objects.

Recycled plastic products have become more and more popular over the last decade. These products cover a huge variety of purposes from shoes to children’s toys to even football jerseys.

The increase in recycled plastic products is a positive sign for the future.

Environmentally-friendly alternatives to plastic bottles

Recycling plastic and buying recycled plastic products are good ways to help reduce the negative impacts of plastic bottles, but the absolute best way is to stop using them .

Reusable bottles made out of stainless steel, aluminum, or glass are some of the best alternatives. There is a huge market for reusable water bottles. 

Reusable bottles can be found with a plethora of features to meet the needs of almost anyone. Additionally, metal pitchers with built in water filters are an excellent way to safely drink tap water.

Plastic is one of the most widely used materials in the world and is used for countless different purposes. Plastic bottles are just one of the many different types of plastic waste we find in our environments.

To help reduce the amount of plastic our society produces, we must move away from using plastic products.

Using reusable and environmentally friendly bottles is an easy lifestyle change that can have significant positive impacts for the environment.

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Plastic Pollution Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on plastic pollution.

Plastic is everywhere nowadays. People are using it endlessly just for their comfort. However, no one realizes how it is harming our planet. We need to become aware of the consequences so that we can stop plastic pollution . Kids should be taught from their childhood to avoid using plastic. Similarly, adults must check each other on the same. In addition, the government must take stringent measures to stop plastic pollution before it gets too late.

Uprise of Plastic Pollution

Plastic has become one of the most used substances. It is seen everywhere these days, from supermarkets to common households. Why is that? Why is the use of plastic on the rise instead of diminishing? The main reason is that plastic is very cheap. It costs lesser than other alternatives like paper and cloth. This is why it is so common.

Secondly, it is very easy to use. Plastic can be used for almost anything either liquid or solid. Moreover, it comes in different forms which we can easily mold.

Furthermore, we see that plastic is a non-biodegradable material. It does not leave the face of the Earth . We cannot dissolve plastic in land or water, it remains forever. Thus, more and more use of plastic means more plastic which won’t get dissolved. Thus, the uprise of plastic pollution is happening at a very rapid rate.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Impact of Plastic Pollution

Plastic Pollution is affecting the whole earth, including mankind, wildlife, and aquatic life. It is spreading like a disease which has no cure. We all must realize the harmful impact it has on our lives so as to avert it as soon as possible.

Plastic pollutes our water. Each year, tonnes of plastic are dumped into the ocean. As plastic does not dissolve, it remains in the water thereby hampering its purity. This means we won’t be left with clean water in the coming years.

Furthermore, plastic pollutes our land as well. When humans dump Plastic waste into landfills, the soil gets damaged. It ruins the fertility of the soil. In addition to this, various disease-carrying insects collect in that area, causing deadly illnesses.

Should Plastic Be Banned? Read the Essay here

Most importantly, plastic pollution harms the Marine life . The plastic litter in the water is mistaken for food by the aquatic animals. They eat it and die eventually. For instance, a dolphin died due to a plastic ring stuck in its mouth. It couldn’t open its mouth due to that and died of starvation. Thus, we see how innocent animals are dying because of plastic pollution.

In short, we see how plastic pollution is ruining everyone’s life on earth. We must take major steps to prevent it. We must use alternatives like cloth bags and paper bags instead of plastic bags. If we are purchasing plastic, we must reuse it. We must avoid drinking bottled water which contributes largely to plastic pollution. The government must put a plastic ban on the use of plastic. All this can prevent plastic pollution to a large extent.

FAQs on Plastic Pollution Essay

Q.1 Why is plastic pollution on the rise?

A.1 Plastic Pollution is on the rise because nowadays people are using plastic endlessly. It is very economical and easily available. Moreover, plastic does not dissolve in the land or water, it stays for more than hundred years contributing to uprise of plastic pollution.

Q.2 How is plastic pollution impacting the earth?

A.2 Plastic pollution is impacting the earth in various ways. Firstly, it is polluting our water. This causes a shortage of clean water and thus we cannot have enough supply for all. Moreover, it is also ruining our soils and lands. The soil fertility is depleting and disease-carrying insects are collecting in landfills of plastic.

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Would Banning Plastic Bottles Help or Hurt the Planet?

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Plastic bottles are EVERYWHERE and are a big source of pollution. But banning them might create another problem for the environment. Here’s why.

TEACHERS: Guide your students to practice civil discourse about current topics and get practice writing CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) responses.  Explore lesson supports.

How did plastic bottles become such a problem

Early forms of plastic have existed since the mid-1800s. But when WWII came along, scientists diverted all their plastic technology to help with the war effort. So after the war, all this plastic needed to go somewhere, so why not the American consumer? What we got was a plastic explosion, and it’s never really stopped. That’s why today, it’s estimated that humans have created over 8 BILLION tons of plastic, most of which still exist. See, plastic doesn’t ever really break down completely or biodegrade — it just breaks apart into smaller and smaller pieces over time. These tiny bits of plastic make their way into oceans, creating a plastic soup of pollution that can get into the bellies of all kinds of marine animals like fish, pelicans, and turtles. Some research studies predict that by 2050, pound for pound, plastics in the oceans will outweigh all the fish.

What are the pros and cons around banning plastic bottles?

About 70% of plastic water bottles bought in the U.S. are not recycled, and so end up in the oceans. On top of that, plastic bottles are made from fossil fuels. In fact, the Pacific Institute found that it took about 17 million barrels of oil to produce enough plastic for the bottles of water consumed by Americans in 2006. And since then, consumption has increased by 65%, meaning Americans need over 28 million barrels of oil to fuel their plastic water bottle needs for one year.

But banning plastic bottles altogether can have unintended consequences. After the University of Vermont instituted their ban on selling single-use plastic water bottles on campus, total shipments of all plastic bottles actually INCREASED 20 percent as people bought OTHER plastic bottle beverages like soda and juice instead. And switching to alternatives like glass or metal containers can require more energy to transport because they weigh more. That means burning more fossil fuels and creating more pollution.

Fast Facts About Plastic Pollution (National Geographic)

What’s the real price of getting rid of plastic packaging? (BBC)

A million bottles a minute (The Guardian)

2017 United States National Postconsumer Plastic Bottle Recycling Report

The environmental impact of corn-based plastic (Scientific American)

Key moments in lead in water crisis in Flint, Michigan (US News)

State Plastic and Paper Bag Legislation

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Plastic Pollution Essay

500+ words essay on plastic pollution.

Plastic has become an integral part of our daily lives. We begin our day using mugs and buckets made of plastic for bathing. Further, as we trace back our activities throughout the day, we use plastic in the form of water bottles, combs, food packaging, milk pouches, straws, disposable cutlery, carry bags, gift wrappers, toys etc. The wide use of plastic has resulted in a large amount of waste generated. Plastic has been so much used that plastic pollution has become one of the environmental problems that the world is facing today. It has impacted the environment, our health and well-being. We have all contributed to this problem, and now it’s our responsibility to work towards it to reduce and ultimately End Plastic Pollution. This essay on plastic pollution will help students to understand the harmful effects of using plastic and how it is affecting our environment. So, students must go through it and then try to write their own essays on this topic. They can also practise CBSE essays on different topics as well.

Plastic Pollution

The accumulation of plastic products in huge amounts in the Earth’s environment is called plastic pollution. It adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitat, and humans, which has become a major concern. In 2008, our global plastic consumption worldwide was estimated at 260 million tons. Plastic is versatile, lightweight, flexible, moisture-resistant, strong, and relatively inexpensive, because of which it is excessively used by everyone. It has replaced and displaced many other materials, such as wood, paper, stone, leather, metal, glass and ceramic. Plastics have come to clutter almost every landscape. In the modern world, plastics can be found in components ranging from stationery items to spaceships. Therefore, the over-consumption of plastic goods, discarding, littering, use and throwing culture has resulted in plastic waste generation and thus creating plastic pollution.

Every day, thousands of tons of pollutants are discarded into the air by natural events and human actions. Far more damaging are the substances discharged into the atmosphere by human actions. Most plastics are highly resistant to the natural processes of degradation. As a result, it takes a longer period of time to degrade the plastic. It has resulted in the enormous presence of plastic pollution in the environment and, at the same time, adversely affected human health. It is estimated that plastic waste constitutes approximately 10% of the total municipal waste worldwide and that 80% of all plastic found in the world’s oceans originates from land-based sources.

How to Manage Plastic Pollution?

To save the environment from plastic waste, we should minimise and ultimately end the use of plastic. Each one of us has to learn the following 4 R’s:

• Refuse – Say no to plastic, particularly single-use plastic, as much as possible.
• Reduce – Limit or reduce the use of plastic in daily life.
• Reuse – Reuse plastic products as much as possible before disposing of them.
• Recycle – Plastic products should be recycled into other usable products. This reduces the demand for manufacturing raw plastic required to make various plastic products.

Apart from that, we should educate other people around us. We should create awareness campaigns in public places and help people know about plastic pollution and its harmful effects. We should stop this culture of using and throwing and start reusing things. When everyone takes a pledge to minimise the use of plastic, then we will be able to manage plastic pollution.

Students must have found this Essay on Plastic Pollution helpful for improving their writing section. They can also access more study material related to CBSE/ICSE/State Board/Competitive exams, by visiting the BYJU’S website.

Frequently asked Questions on Plastic pollution Essay

How does plastic pollution affect the environment.

Excessive usage of plastic products has caused the accumulation of this plastic on Earth. Plastic is non-biodegradable and does not naturally degrade or break down thus these plastics are flooded over the Earth.

How to reduce plastic usage?

Replacement of plastic items with jute, cotton and other biodegradable items needs to come into practice more.

What are the simple steps to avoid plastic overuse?

The simple 3 R method can be followed: “Reduce, reuse and recycle”.

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Counselling

One Bottle at a Time

The pollution of the ocean is a massive environmental crisis. It may seem overwhelming, but the problem can be broken down into small tasks to which every individual can contribute.

Biology, Ecology, Earth Science, Oceanography

Ocean Bottle

A gray triggerfish studies (Balistes capriscus) a plastic bottle that has drifted out into the ocean. Plastic bottles such as this one do not decompose and will remain in the ocean for hundreds of years.

Michael Patrick O'Neill/ Science Source

We have all seen the photos: birds nesting in piles of garbage along the shore, fish fatally caught in discarded netting, and huge mosaics of debris floating in the ocean. Even more alarmingly, what we see in these poignant images is only a portion of the problem. Approximately half of all plastic pollution is submerged below the ocean surface, much of it in the form of microplastics so small that we may never be able to clean them up completely.

To cut through the enormity of the ocean pollution crisis , one approach is to focus on something recognizable within these images of debris . Identify something you personally have used that may have ended up in the ocean—a water bottle perhaps. Find one in an image and ask yourself, how did it get there?

Plastic is a human-made, synthetic material that was first discovered more than one hundred years ago but did not broadly enter the public sphere until the 1950s. While currently a major culprit in ocean pollution, plastics are not inherently bad for humans or the environment. In fact, in a United Nations (UN) report on combatting the negative effects of plastics, the head of the UN Environment Programme Erik Solheim made a point to acknowledge that plastic is in fact a “miracle material.”

“Thanks to plastics , countless lives have been saved in the health sector, the growth of clean energy from wind turbines and solar panels has been greatly facilitated, and safe food storage has been revolutionized,” Solheim wrote in his introduction. Yet plastic bottles are one of the most common items within marine debris . So how did such a promising material become a symbol of human environmental desecration?

Plastic bottles are a single-use plastic, a product designed to be used only once and then discarded. Single-use plastics also include plastic packaging, for example of meats and fresh produce, which accounts for almost half of all plastic pollution. This type of plastic product is distinct from multi-use plastics, which can also pollute the ocean, but tend to amass less frequently due to their multi-use nature.

For example, refillable bottles can store water in a way that does not produce the repeated waste of a single-use plastic water bottle. Refillable bottles can be made of many materials, including plastic , but last much longer than a single-use bottle and can be recycled when they become old or damaged. For both types of bottles, how they are discarded determines their ultimate resting place and whether they become pollutants of the ocean.

A single-use plastic water bottle was manufactured, filled with water, and likely transported to a store, where it sat on a shelf waiting for a thirsty purchaser. Many of us drink out of plastic bottles several times during an average day, week, or month. Once we are finished with it, we have a choice where we leave that bottle:

• Recycling bin: Bottles destined for recycling are unlikely to end up in the ocean, in their current form, unless they are mismanaged or lost in transit to a processing facility. However, due to recent limitations in how recyclables are internationally transferred and accepted for processing, many of these bottles will unfortunately end up in landfills rather than recycling facilities.
• Trash can: These bottles also will not likely end up, in their current form, in the ocean. However, in areas across the globe with poor waste management or a lack of properly sealed landfills, as a bottle breaks down into microplastic particles over time, some particles may seep into the soil and eventually make their way into our waterways, ultimately entering and polluting the ocean.
• Litter: These bottles may very well be carried by wind, storm water, or other processes to sewers, rivers, lakes, and other waterways that may ultimately deposit the bottle in the ocean.

Multi-use plastic bottles face these same pathways at end of their life—but of course this happens much less frequently since they can be used many times.

National Geographic Explorer Heather J. Koldewey works to empower communities around the world to participate in solving the ocean pollution crisis from single-use plastics via incremental individual actions—including a campaign called One Less, which encourages people to stop using single-use plastic water bottles altogether. One Less is currently based in and focused on London, England and its inhabitants, but anyone can make the choice to use one less single-use bottle.

Once in the ocean, a single- or multi-use bottle moves with the wind and ocean currents as it faces the elements. Plastics can take hundreds of years to break down into microplastic, which gives them plenty of time to sail the seas. After a certain amount of time, much of the debris from the coast will have met an oceanic gyre—a large system of rotating currents. The Pacific Garbage Patch, a widely known icon of ocean pollution, is within one of these gyres.

National Geographic Explorer Jenna Romness Jambeck has described the movement of plastics into such ocean gyres . Her work has influenced testimony to U.S. Congress and inspired discussion in the UN regarding policies that may help mitigate the marine debris crisis . She also co-developed an app to encourage public participation in identifying and cleaning up marine debris , including plastics , enabling citizen-science solutions at the grassroots level.

Specifically, Jambeck published research findings in the journal Science that provide details about the amount of plastic that makes its way into the ocean. Jambeck noted in this publication that the quality of waste management within a country substantially influences its contribution to marine pollution. As an immediate action to combat marine pollution, Jambeck and her colleagues suggest that industrialized countries address the growing use of single-use plastics. According to a 2018 UN report, sixty countries have passed such regulations to curb the use of plastic bags and polystyrene foam (commonly called Styrofoam) products.

Hopefully, future government and community solutions to ocean pollution will move toward an end to the crisis. In the meantime, individuals can get involved in citizen-science initiatives like Jambeck’s Marine Debris Tracker app and make smart choices about how to use and dispose of plastics, particularly the single-use items that dominate marine debris.

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Related Resources

The World's Plastic Pollution Crisis Explained

Much of the planet is swimming in discarded plastic, which is harming animal and possibly human health. Can it be cleaned up?

Conservation

Children Play among Plastic

While plastic pollution is a worldwide problem it is most obvious in less-wealthy African and Asian nations, like the Philippines. Here, children play among plastic waste on the shore of Manila Bay.

Photograph by Randy Olson

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. Plastic pollution is most visible in less-wealthy Asian and African nations, where garbage collection systems are often inefficient or nonexistent. But wealthy nations, especially those with low recycling rates, also have trouble properly collecting discarded plastics. Plastic trash has become so ubiquitous it has prompted efforts to write a global treaty negotiated by the United Nations. How Did this Happen? Plastics made from fossil fuels are just over a century old. Production and development of thousands of new plastic products accelerated after World War II to the extent that life without plastics would be unimaginable today. Plastics revolutionized medicine with life-saving devices, made space travel possible, lightened cars and jets—saving fuel and lessening pollution —and saved lives with helmets, incubators , and equipment for clean drinking water. 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, are used for mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years. Plastics by the Numbers Some key facts:

• Half of all plastics ever manufactured have been made in the last 15 years.
• Production increased exponentially, from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 448 million tons by 2015. Production is expected to double by 2050.
• Every year, about 8 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans from coastal nations. That’s the equivalent of setting five garbage bags full of trash on every foot of coastline around the world.
• Plastics often contain additives making them stronger, more flexible, and durable. But many of these additives can extend the life of products if they become litter, with some estimates ranging to at least 400 years to break down.

How Plastics Move around the World Most of the plastic trash in the oceans, Earth’s last sink, flows from land. Trash is also carried to sea by major rivers, which act as conveyor belts, picking up more and more trash as they move downstream . Once at sea, much of the plastic trash remains in coastal waters. But once caught up in ocean currents, it can be transported around the world. On Henderson Island, an uninhabited atoll in the Pitcairn Group isolated halfway between Chile and New Zealand, scientists found plastic items from Russia, the United States, Europe, South America, Japan, and China. They were carried to the South Pacific by the South Pacific gyre , a circular ocean current. Microplastics Once at sea, sunlight, wind, and wave action break down plastic waste into small particles, often less than half a centimer (one-fifth of an inch) across. These so-called microplastics are spread throughout the water column and have been found in every corner of the globe, from Mount Everest, the highest peak, to the Mariana Trench, the deepest trough . Microplastics are breaking down further into smaller and smaller pieces. Plastic microfibers (or the even smaller nanofibers), meanwhile, have been found in municipal drinking water systems and drifting through the air. Harm to Wildlife Millions of animals are killed by plastics every year, from birds to fish to other marine organisms. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by plastics. Nearly every species of seabird eats plastics. Most of the deaths to animals are caused by entanglement or starvation. Seals, whales, turtles, and other animals are strangled by  abandoned fishing gear or discarded six-pack rings. Microplastics have been found in more than 100 aquatic species, including fish, shrimp, and mussels destined for our dinner plates. In many cases, these tiny bits pass through the digestive system and are expelled without consequence. But plastics have also been found to have blocked digestive tracts or pierced organs, causing death. Stomachs so packed with plastics reduce the urge to eat, causing starvation. Plastics have been consumed by land-based animals, including elephants, hyenas, zebras, tigers, camels, cattle, and other large mammals, in some cases causing death. Tests have also confirmed liver and cell damage and disruptions to  reproductive systems , prompting some species, such as oysters, to produce fewer eggs. New research shows that larval fish are eating nanofibers in the first days of life, raising new questions about the effects of plastics on fish populations. Stemming the Plastic Tide Once in the ocean, it is difficult—if not impossible—to retrieve plastic waste. Mechanical systems, such as Mr. Trash Wheel, a litter interceptor in Maryland’s Baltimore Harbor, can be effective at picking up large pieces of plastic, such as foam cups and food containers, from inland waters. But once plastics break down into microplastics and drift throughout the water column in the open ocean, they are virtually impossible to recover. The solution is to prevent plastic waste from entering rivers and seas in the first place, many scientists and conservationists—including the National Geographic Society—say. This could be accomplished with improved waste management systems and recycling, better product design that takes into account the short life of disposable packaging, and reduction in manufacturing of unnecessary single-use plastics.

Media Credits

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Production Managers

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October 19, 2023

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Ocean plastic pollution an overview: data and statistics

09 May 2022

https://oceanliteracy.unesco.org/plastic-pollution-ocean/

Plastic is one of the most enduring materials man has created. Nowadays, we all know that it can take hundreds of years for plastic to degrade, and research is showing that it is possible that it does not even fully degrade, but becomes what we call microplastic .

Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic that can be eaten by marine animals and end up in their bodies and tissues, entering the food chain and leading to disastrous consequences for the health of our planet and all its inhabitants.

Even if human beings are becoming more and more aware of the hazards this material poses to life, the presence of plastic in our ocean is continually increasing, and plastic pollution is still one of the main causes of marine species extinction , health problems for human beings and animals alike, and the destruction of our ecosystems.

In this article, we will look at ocean plastic pollution and lay out the data and statistics you need to understand the daunting issue we are facing. Most importantly, we will also look at what we can do as individuals and as part of our society to prevent plastic pollution and save our planet.

Let’s start!

Plastic Pollution in the Ocean: Where does it come from?

It is clear that plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental issues we are currently facing, but how did it come to be? Moreover, where does all the plastic in the ocean come from?

Plastics produced from fossil fuels are just over a century old , but they revolutionized our life completely. It allowed the invention of many life-saving devices and the implementation of new technologies that changed the course of history.

However, the great advantages plastic offered led to a throwaway trend that made us discover plastic’s dark side: the threat it poses to our environment and life.

The majority of plastic pollution in the ocean is caused by littering : we buy or use disposable plastic items (food wrappings, plastic bags, razors, bottles, etc.) and do not dispose of them properly, which cause them to end up in the waterways and eventually in the ocean.

Yet, not all-plastic waste in the ocean is an effect of littering: many plastics and microplastics are the product of improper manufacturing processes and about 20% of the ocean’s plastic pollution comes from industrial fishing.

Plastic Pollution: Key Facts

• Plastic waste makes up 80% of all marine pollution and around 8 to 10 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year.
• Research states that, by 2050, plastic will likely outweigh all fish in the sea.
• In the last ten years, we have produced more plastic products than in the previous century.
• The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has stated that basically 100% of all plastics human beings have ever created are still in existence.
• Plastic generally takes between 500-1000 years to degrade. Even then, it becomes microplastics, without fully degrading.
• Currently, there are about 50-75 trillion pieces of plastic and microplastics in the ocean.
• This plastic either breaks down into microplastic particles (see below), or floats around and ends up forming garbage patches.

Garbage Patches in the Ocean

Most of the plastic we find in the ocean comes from land: it flows downstream through rivers all the way to the sea. At first, it may stay in coastal waters, but it can soon be picked up by rotating ocean currents , called gyres, and transported literally anywhere in the world.

According to National Geographic, scientists found plastic coming from Russia, the United States, Europe, South America, Japan, and China on Henderson Island , an uninhabited isolated atoll halfway between Chile and New Zealand.

Usually, marine plastic debris groups up in what we call garbage patches, plastic accumulation areas, in the center of the ocean’s gyres. The biggest is the Great Pacific garbage patch , located between Hawaii and California.

Consequences

Today, plastic production and use is still at its highest, but the data on recycling are not at all promising: only about 10% of the plastic we produce is currently being recycled . The rest is either incinerated, causing air pollution, or it ends up in our oceans and environment.

Harm to Wildlife

Plastic pollution in the ocean has a devastating impact on marine life and ecosystems. The most obvious one being the damage plastic items cause to animals when they come into contact with or ingest them, which include suffocation, entanglement, laceration, infections and internal injuries.

17% of the species affected by the presence of plastic in the ocean are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

Yet, there are more problems related to plastic: floating plastic items can help transport invasive species, which leads to threats for marine ecosystems , biodiversity and the food web.

Harm to Human Beings

As we explained above, microplastics have now become part of the food chain and have been found everywhere: in drinking water, salt, beer and in the soil where we grow our vegetables.

Plastic materials are carcinogenic and can affect the body’s endocrine system, causing developmental, neurological, reproductive and immune disorders. Another health hazard is given by toxic contaminants that often accumulate on plastic’s surface, and are then transferred to humans through the consumption of seafood.

Climate Change

Plastic pollution and climate change are two sides of the same coin : plastic production, as it is created from fossil fuels, highly contributes to the climate crisis.

Moreover, as we already mentioned, when plastic waste is incinerated, it releases carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, increasing emissions and worsening global warming.

Economic effects

According to research, the yearly economic costs of plastic in the ocean are estimated to be between $6-19bn USD. These costs are given by its impact on tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, and (governmental) cleanups.

Images of Plastic Pollution in the Ocean

Here, we have decided to show you some recent images of plastic pollution in the ocean.

This will help you comprehend the magnitude of the threat that plastic pollution in the ocean poses to our planet and life, as we know it, and hopefully help you develop a deeper awareness of what is going on.

Why it is Vital to Prevent Plastic Pollution

Plastic pollution is undoubtedly an issue that requires worldwide cooperation. Its consequences affect the whole planet and its inhabitants: it threatens ocean health , the health of marine species, food safety and quality, human health , coastal tourism, and contributes to climate change.

Reducing the presence of plastic in our oceans will not only allow us to save marine species and ecosystems, but will improve our overall health and that of the environment in general, helping us fight climate change and working towards a more sustainable future .

How to Stop Plastic Pollution in the Ocean

It is quite hard to retrieve plastic from the ocean once it has entered it. New technologies allow us to catch larger marine debris, but small plastic items and microplastics are virtually impossible to reach, especially when they are deep in the ocean.

Therefore, many scientists and conservationists have declared that the best solution is to prevent plastic waste from entering rivers and seas in the first place.

This could be accomplished with the improvement of our waste management systems and the implementation of recycling . In addition, it is essential to reconsider the design and usage of disposable packaging , and the reduction in manufacturing of unnecessary single-use plastics.

What Can We Do

There are many ways to keep plastic out of the ocean ! Here are some strategies you can adopt and share with your community:

• Reduce plastic use Think about all the plastic items you use in your daily life. Can you even count them all? Being more aware of the way you use plastic is a great starting point to reduce plastic waste.

We know, habits are hard to change, but even a small individual commitment can make a difference especially when talking about the single-use plastics we mentioned earlier which, according to data from the European Parliament, are responsible for 49% of all marine pollution.

Here are some new habits you can take inspiration from:

• Swap plastic bags for reusable ones, made of cloth or fiber.
• Reduce the use of disposable plastic cups, plates, cutlery and bottles. For example, bring your own reusable bottle to work and a reusable coffee cup for your morning take-away!)
• Buy food and cleaning products in bulk to avoid useless plastic wrappings. Nowadays, there are plenty of options to choose from, and many supermarkets let you fill your own jars/bags.
• Choose metal or glass food containers and storage options instead of plastic ones.
• Avoid buying and using cosmetics that contain plastic microspheres or microbeads.
• Participate in (or organize!) a cleanup

If you live by a sea or river, you can volunteer to pick up litter in your local community, thus remove plastics from the waterways and preventing them from getting to the ocean in the first place. There are many organizations you can join, or simply do it on the weekend with your friends and family. Every little helps!

• Support the right legislation

Of course, it is essential to change our individual behaviors and habits, but unfortunately, this is not sufficient to prevent and stop ocean plastic pollution. It is also essential that you support legislation that aims at reducing the use and production of plastic, improve recycling facilities and better manage waste in general.

• Support research and organizations

One of the main weapons we can use to stop ocean pollution is research. By deepening our knowledge of the effects of the issue, we can start implementing better policies for all.

There are many NGOs and non-profit that rely on donations to develop their projects and research for reducing and eliminating plastic from the ocean. Here are some examples:

• Oceanic Society
• Plastic Pollution Coalition
• Plastic Soup Foundation

Sylvia Earle, marine biologist, said: “It is the worst of times but it is the best of times because we still have a chance.” So, let us make the best of this chance; we can all make choices to protect our planet, it is not too late!

https://www.itsafishthing.com/plastic-in-the-ocean/

https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/plastic-planet-how-tiny-plastic-particles-are-polluting-our-soil

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/marinedebris/plastics-in-the-ocean.html

https://theoceancleanup.com/

https://www.iberdrola.com/sustainability/plastic-in-the-ocean

https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/how-does-plastic-end-ocean

https://www.oceanicsociety.org/resources/7-ways-to-reduce-ocean-plastic-pollution-today/

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Ielts essay # 1238 - plastic bags, bottles and packaging are bad for the environment, ielts writing task 2/ ielts essay:, plastic bags, plastic bottles and plastic packaging are bad for the environment., what damage does plastic do to the environment what can be done by governments and individuals to solve this problem.

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