My Third Blog Post
The Pros and Cons of Single-Use Plastic Bags
There are definitely benefits of using the single use plastic bags we see everywhere. But there are also things that are not good about using them.
One pro of single use plastic bags is that they are easy to use. They are light-weight, so if you have something heavy the bag won’t make it heavier. They are also flexible, so if you have a small place to store them they will actually get very small. They also come in many sizes, colors, and sometimes with messages.
One con is that they are plastic, so they don’t break down: they break up. Even then, they take about 1,000 years to break up into those tiny microscopic pieces. They can easily get caught on trees like you see a lot on the highways, and they choke the sea turtles who think they are their food, jellyfish.
Another pro is that they are easy to make. There are only four steps. This is the order, according to Google:
“Step 1 – Extraction of crude oil and natural gas. The first step to making plastic bags is to extract the raw material.
Step 2 – Plastic film extrusion. The process of plastic bag production looks pretty strange.
Step 3 – Printing on the plastic bags.
Step 4 – Completing the manufacturing process.”
Another con is that they are hard to recycle. Since they are flexible, they can slip into cracks and crevices in recycling companies machinery, so many places don’t accept them. If they are left alone, they could harm wildlife, and even if they don’t they will leak harmful chemicals into the soil and groundwater as they break apart.
So, there are benefits of single use plastics, but there are also some pretty bad things that happen too. So what do you think? Should we use single use plastics?
Works Cited
Google. “Google.” Google.com, 2019, www.google.com/?safe=active&ssui=on. Accessed 1 Feb. 2021.
I agree, plastic bags can be good but also bad. I am leaning a bit more to the side of avoiding plastic bag usage due to the pollution that is occuring. Do you think it is better to use plastic bags or worse?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and think that we shouldn't use plastic bags because we have other options like paper bags and bags made of compostable material. I understand that plastic bags and other plastics also have their benefits, but the consequences, in my opinion, are much worse.
DeleteGreat job on this blog. I dont really know much about this. How long did this take you?
ReplyDeleteThe research was pretty easy. The questions I needed answers to were pretty basic, so it was pretty easy to find the stuff I needed. I think that it wasn't very hard to put it into words either. This stuff is happening in our world, and I think that the hard thing about writing this blog is figuring out how to put in words how incredibly bad this situation is getting.
DeleteHi Book Worm, I like how you said how to make a bag and the exact steps to creating one. I have seen plastic bags all over the place, I went to the beach like 5 months ago, and I saw many bags all over the floor. do you use plastic bags more than other kinds of bags?
ReplyDeleteI sometimes use plastic bags, sometimes use paper bags, sometimes use reusable bags. I know that my family keeps the single-use plastic bags we get from grocery stores so we can use them for other things.I can't say I use plastic bags less than other bags, but I guess I don't really use them more either.
DeleteYou explained how plastic bags are made in a very specific way, which helped me to understand their creation. I have seen people make reusable bags out of these plastic bags. Do you think that is a good solution to decrease the amount of pollution that the plastic bags can cause?
ReplyDeleteI think that because we have come up with so many alternate situations, like bags that can completely break down or reusable bags that I think we should be able to live our lives just fine without plastic bags. So yes, I do think it is a good solution.
DeleteEm Bookworm I really liked your blog post. I actually reuse plastic bags and I cut the soda can holders so there not to big and not to small. What do you do to save the ocean?
ReplyDeleteMy family keeps plastic bags, and every years on Earth Day we go down to this pond near my house and pick up trash there because every year people dump an insane amount of trash there. We cut apart things like soda can holders, like you do, and make sure we cut the other things that could trap or hurt animals, aswell.
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