Forums → WEPR → Do you think we should lessen our useage of plastic?

this is definitely NOT a hot topic..

Erm, probably because you just posted that. Let me say, we don't need to go all Global Warming on this right now. It's unnecessary. Plastic is a very useful, durable substance...however, some negative effects are that they can kill wildlife in water by clogging up breathing and they take a WHILE, a very long while to disintegrate. However, I, like many will not stop using plastic. It won't make much of a difference and please don't tell me I have a negative attitude as I won't make much of a difference in this world if I stop. Thinking positively, "I could make a difference", and all that junk, but please, don't even. I have a thorough understanding of what I'm doing but also a thorough understanding on how large my foot print is. The human race is probably going to die and everything is going to be alright again until another race becomes intelligent. It won't probably be in my lifetime so I really won't waste my life living a green one. I will enjoy it however I damn please.

haha
your comment is rather perculiar and i somehow
agree with you.
but i think we need to recycle plastic
and yes.I myself dun think i can make a diff or even go green because i'm 14 and i dun think i can make a diff but the world is really hot now.jst think
6 years ago
do u hear ice melting so much or people complaining about the hot weather?
do u still enjoy the night now?when it's isn't chilly

recycling paper is much needed to as I HATE THE WEATHER NOw.
yes i do




AND THX FOR POSTING ON MY FORUM TOPIC!!=D

I don't think that we need to lessen our usage of plastic, if we recycle more. I would answer more of your rhetorical questions (I'll assume they're rhetorical) but I'm not sure I understand them...

In any case, I don't think plastic is the biggest concern we have right now. Maybe we should lessen our Styrofoam usage or something... but I needs my hot cups on my iced coffee! ^.^

Planes and plastic. Simple alliteration or hard truth:
Planes pollute more solid wastes from the food and drink they serve than the gas emmisions! And they DO NOT recycle! If they recycled, our environment would be cleaner. I agree with DragonMistress. We need to recycle more. I bring home plastic cans from home to recycle. However, our school uses silverware made out of potatoes. And yes, Styrofoam is pure evil.

lessen plastic and all our usage.. at least we are sorta getting on the right track... using rubber for mats and stuff at parks, but its a little excessive.. and landfills are horrible too.. there is one about a mile from my house and its disgusting..

Are you aware of how much we rely on plastic? I dare you to walk around your house and count all the things that have plastic as part of them.

Come On, i will wait.

*Long sequence of waiting*.

As you can see if we shortened are use of plastic we would have a lot less things.

oh i know we have a lot of plastic in my house.. just sitting at my table i see at least 10 things.. i know we use plastic a lot.. and if we didn't use plastic hospitals would be hurting a little.. think how much they use it.. IVs, blood, tubes for blood, meds, soo much stuff..

why styrofoam is pure evil?
is it non-biodegradable?
sorry,becuz i dun know that styrofoam is non-biodegradable,i think

Waste removal would be so much easier without an ozone layer. If we didn't, imagine the area would we save on not using landfill if just burnt everything? It would make a big difference.

But, alas, we must find other ways around disposing of plastics and other waste...

That ozone layer protects you from being cooked into a walking mass of cancer! It be very important!

Plastics is a tricky issue because as Ricador points out, we pretty much depend on it. On the other hand, it's also non-biodegradable and the effects of litter are significant, as shermzx points out.

But while these may seem both hefty considerations, consider this:

1) Plastics are a petroleum product. They are manufactured via polymerisation of hydrocarbons. We also happen to be running out of the resource that forms the basis of all plastic. Oh dear!

2) Non-biodegradable plastic bags and products are only disposed properly by landfill. Landfill is not a sustainable waste solution. Technically you could completely obliterate it by using a lightning generator but those things suck up a huge amount of power and just imagine how much work it'd be to transport all the landfill waste there? Not good either.

The solutions to this have been many but vary in effectiveness. On one hand we (at least I do) recycle as much plastic as we can. The problem is that we still produce too much waste, so if we manufactured less waste, we'd save the cost on several levels. Which we have been, to an extent. As for plastic bags, I note that some of my local supermarket chains charge a surcharge for plastic bags and prefer you to use your own (well done), but they've also replaced the plastic bags with a biodegradable variant which literally melts in your hand (not good), therefore creating 3 times as much waste because in order to make it to my car (let alone if I walked home) I need that many bags.

The other issue is that recycling isn't that well implemented just yet. It's getting there, but we could do better.

Personally I can sacrifice certain comforts to reduce plastics usage. If that means you feel entitled to be more selfish to make up for my altruism...shaaaaaaame on you! At any rate, seeing as the day of plastics is somewhat limited anyway, we'll have to turn our attention to other forms of material, whatever they might be.

=D
that's a very nice comment from you!!(strop)
btw,when's the petroleum expected to run out and wat's the alternative for petroleum?

And maybe i'll ask my mum to use the bio-degradable bags.

I think that we need to do two things with this one:
1. Come up with better ways to recycle, and encourage more people to do so.
2. Cut down on plastic manufacturing in general.

The fact is, there is nothing on Earth that is evolved to break down plastic. It will be on our planet, sitting here, polluting our water and land until some sort of bacteria evolves to break it down. Plastic will be around long after man becomes extinct.

If you are interested in some of the effects that plastic can have on the ocean, I suggest you read this. It is really amazing how well man can find ways to damage our environment.

Does burning of plastic harms the ozone layer(sp?)

Decomposition and burning,why is more enviromentally friendly?

burning plastic does harm the ozone layer