Plastic Bag Garbage Patch' title='Plastic Bag Garbage Patch' />Narrated by Academy Awardwinner Jeremy Irons, this mockumentary video, hammers home the stark reality of Californias plastic bag pollution situation. With the help of a short video clip, students explore the life cycle of a plastic bag and develop a reduce, reuse, recycle action plan. Whats So Bad About Plastic Bags Theres no denying it. Single use disposable plastic bags are suffocating the planet, with 6. U. S. every 5 seconds. They are made using non renewable resources, either petroleum or natural gas. They take huge amounts of energy to manufacture, transport across the country, and recycle. They dont break down in landfill sites due to lack of oxygen and light nothing does, but over time they release dangerous chemicals. Theyre incredibly difficult to recycle, causing problems such as blocking the sorting equipment used by most recycling facilities. They contribute to a widespread, global litter problem. And thats not all. The Human Impact. On land, plastic bags are one of the most common types of litter worldwide. Build ups of plastic bags are notorious for causing blockages of local drainage systems in developing countries. The floods in Bangladesh in 1. Manila can be attributed to blockages caused by this litter. Plastic bags also pose serious health hazards to populations as over time they leach toxic chemicals into drinking water supplies. Plastic bags are hugely difficult to recycle. The common three arrow recyclable symbol is found on plastic packaging across the U. S. however in many cases it is a marketing trick, as there is no regulation of the symbol or legal requirements for the way it is used, and every municipality in America has different guidelines on what it can and cannot recycle. Many of the plastic bags collected by recycling companies cannot be reused or recycled, as the industry that produces them does not want to buy them back. Most recycled bags therefore end up in landfill sites or are shipped to Asia, where workers in sweatshop conditions cherry pick our trash looking for plastics that can be melted down and reused there. Not only are these enterprises quagmires for human rights issues and labour issues, the toxic open melting methods they use are also a major cause of concern for human health. The Animal Impact. Midway Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean is home to the largest albatross colony in the world. These birds come to nest on the isolated Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and they forage for hundreds of miles out to sea in search of food for their offspring. Swaths of these birds have been found dead by rescue workers on Midway due to ingesting substantial amounts of plastic bag remnants. All the plastic found in the birds on Midway Atoll is brought to the island by albatross parents who fed them to their young. An estimated 4 tons of plastic accumulates on the island every day. Most of the Earths wildlife is in the sea, which means that at least 2. Floating plastic bags are often mistaken for jellyfish by marine animals who feed on them, such as sea turtles which are threatened with becoming endangered due to mass ingestion of plastics. Shards of plastic bags fester in their stomachs, leaving no room for actual food, and because the plastic cannot be digested, it remains in the sea long after the turtle has perished and decayed because of it. In August 2. 00. 0 an autopsy of a beached whales stomach revealed 2. Similar cases have occurred with animals across the planet over the last 3 decades, since plastic bags were introduced on a mass scale. Other problems animals face due to plastic bag waste are suffocation from eating plastic shards, and strangulation from becoming caught in plastic bags. Dolphins, seals, sharks, flamingos, seagulls, pelicans and other animals and birds have been found dead in large numbers due to plastic bags. In addition to this, as the plastic degrades into smaller pieces it is also eaten by aquatic organisms, small fish and jellyfish. Plastic waste therefore enters the food chain in increasing concentrations as larger fish feed on smaller ones and other animals feed on the fish including human beings. The Environmental Impact. The litter caused by plastic bag use it not limited to land. Plastic bags contribute heavily to the formation of a quagmire of plastic debris in the North Pacific Ocean, also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is estimated to be twice the size of Hawaii or possibly even twice the size of the United States. According to program director of Wild Studies Institute, Kristen Parke, since all drains lead to the ocean, 8. Over a decade of investigation it has been discovered that plastic bag use has contributed heavily to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which Anna Cummins, co founder of 5 Gyres Institute, calls a thin plastic soup. As well as this, a 2. Chile found that while specific types of marine debris were found in particular areas of the ocean, Plastic bags, which could be from land or sea based sources, were found throughout the entire study area. Kamilo Beach in Hawaii is frequently buried in 2 feet of plastic that washes up from the sea, and theres a running joke in New York, where a billion plastic bags are used per year, that the New York City flower is actually a plastic bag caught in a tree. Whos To Blame The plastics industry has launched major and influential campaigns against endeavours to reduce or ban plastic bag use across the U. S. The American Chemistry Council ACC is a representative body for a large group of companies including Exxon. Mobil, Chevron, Dow Chemical, and Shell. The ACC works hard to protect the plastic industrys market share and profits, spending 8 million on lobbying alone last year. They argue strongly in favour of single use plastic bags, with various advertising campaigns airing across on televisions the U. S., they have attempted to sue individuals campaigning for plastic bag bans, and they even claim that paper bags cause more environmental problems than plastic. The ACC has set up campaigns such as Save the Plastic Bag and progressive Bag Affiliates, and their Plastic Bags Lobby has a significant influence in political decisions. They have successfully prevented fees on plastic bags from being introduced across America, for example in in Seattle where they launched a huge signature campaign resulting in 4. Seattleites voting for the fee on bags, and 5. The ACC spent 1. Seattle to educate people about the supposed ethics of plastic bags, claiming, amongst other things, that they create jobs and are widely and easily recycled. Lawmakers in California also rejected a people led statewide ban across the state due to heavy lobbying initiatives and advertising campaigns in favor of plastic bags. Speaking about the ACC, the Editor of The Plastic Free Times Amy Westervelt, states that They will stop at nothing to suppress or discredit science that clearly links chemicals in plastic to negative impacts on human, animal and environmental health. However, according to the documentary Bag It, the paper bags now used by San Franciscans after a plastic bag ban was enforced there are recycled at least 1. So Whos Doing WhatThe first nationwide ban on plastic bags was enacted over a decade ago in Bangladesh, after plastic bags blocked storm drains, causing massive floods. In 2. 00. 4 Sydneys Oyster Bay in Australia banned plastic bags outright. Resident Evil 4 Keygen Download Games. Rwanda has been completely plastic bag free for many years. Towns in England have been following suit, beginning with the town of Modbury which went plastic bag free in 2. China banned plastic bags in 2. Indias capital, New Delhi has passed tough laws that ban retailers from handing out plastic bags and can result in fines or jail time for plastic bag manufacturers.