Environmental Impacts of

Plastic Bags
Posted on February 9, 2015 by Salman Zafar

Plastic bags are one of the most objectionable

types of litter in urban areas. The sheer volume of plastic waste generated coupled with energy
and material resources required for production, as well as emissions resulting from these
processes paint a grim picture of the environmental havoc created by plastic bags. Plastic bags
are a huge threat to the environment as an estimated 1 trillion such bags are consumed
worldwide every year.

Threats to the Environment

Plastic bags are notorious for their interference in natural ecosystems and for causing the death
of aquatic organisms, animals and birds. In 2006, The United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) estimated that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of
ocean and upto 80 percent of marine debris worldwide is plastic which are responsible for the
death of a more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals each year from
starvation, choking or entanglement.
Infact, there is a huge floating dump in the Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch which is hundreds of miles wide and consists mostly of plastic debris caught in the
oceans currents.
Plastic bags are mistakenly ingested by animals, like cows and camels, clogging their intestines
which results in death by starvation. In addition, plastic bags clog urban drainage systems and
contribute to flooding, as witnessed in Mumbai, Dhaka and Manila in recent decades. Moreover,
toxic chemicals from single-use bags can enter the food chain when they are ingested by
animals and birds.
Unfortunately only a small percentage of these bags are recycled each year, and most float
about the landscape and create a tremendous expense in clean-up costs. Several countries,

regions, and cities have enacted legislation to ban or severely reduce the use of disposable
plastic shopping bags. Plastic bags litter serves as a floating transportation agent that enables
alien species to move to new parts of the world thus threatening biodiversity.

The Way Forward

Environmental education at workplaces, schools and residential areas is a vital tool in the fight
against plastic bags. Empowering people to take proactive actions and encouraging them to be a
part of the solution can also be helpful in reducing the reliance on single-use plastic bags.
Municipalities can make use of 5Rs of waste management Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and
Recover to encourage safe disposal of plastic bags which may be facilitated by mass
deployment of plastic bag collection systems and recycling facilities at strategic locations.
Some of the alternatives are cloth-based bags, such as jute and cotton, which biodegradable as
well as reusable. Infact, the range of durable fabric shopping bags is growing each year in the
Western countries, including those that can be conveniently folded up into a pocket.
The introduction of plastic bags tax can also be a handy weapon in restricting use of plastic
bags. For example, Ireland introduced a plastic bag charge called PlasTax ten years ago which
has virtually eliminated plastic bags in the country.