Essay Sample on Single Use Plastics: The Impact and Possible Solutions

Pollution in Earth’s environment has gotten worse over the years. Human activity mostly contributes to most of Earth’s pollution. Single-Use Plastics are mostly responsible for land and water pollution. 

To start, Single-Use Plastics cause water pollution. The United Nations Environment Programme reported how single-use plastics impact the environment and how these solutions can reduce water pollution. The United Nations Environment Programme reports that “High concentrations of plastic materials, particularly plastic bags, have been found blocking airways and stomachs of hundreds of species” (United 330). This indicates that plastic materials that are in the environment enters the species and damages the airways and stomachs leading to death. 

In the infographic “Landfills and Oceans” it states that many of the recyclable items that are labeled to be recycled are never recycled. The infographic “Landfills and Oceans” claims that “bottles that aren’t recycled end up in landfills, where they never truly degrade, and in oceans where they break down and can be ingested by birds and other marine life” (Wheels 324). This specifies that items that need to be recycled end up being dumped in oceans and landfills, instead of being recycled and turned into something useful. Therefore, single-use plastics can cause severe damage and harm to the oceans and marine life.

To begin, land pollution is caused by single-use problems that are not recycled. For instance, “The Story of Bottled Water” claimed that many items that are meant to be recycled end up in landfills instead of being repurposed into something else. Annie Leonard claims that “instead these bottles were slated to be downcycled, which means turning them into lower quality products that would just be chucked later” (Leonard 2). This shows that we are using many bottles a day and expect them to be repurposed into products that would be useful. But instead, they are turning into lower quality products that will end up in the environment. In the video “A Story of a Water Bottle” it claims that people put efforts into recycling single-use plastics that are just being chucked away and sit here on Earth for many years without being repurposed. The video “The Story of Bottled Water” reports that “eighty percent end up in landfills, where they sit for thousands of years or in incerators, where they are burned releasing toxic pollution. The quote explained that most of the single-use plastics that are meant to be recycled end up in landfills or are burned which affects the Earth and the atmosphere in horrible ways. To sum this up, single-use plastics keep building up in landfills instead to being repurposed.

As a matter of fact, some people believe recycling single-use plastics will be a solution. Recycling will not work as many around the world are not contributing to recycle. But, even if people do recycle, most of it ends up in landfills or oceans. Courtney Lindwall reports “The majority of this pollution dominated single-use plastic waste comes from countries lacking infrastructure to properly manage waste, particularly in Asia, India” (Lindwall 6). This shows that with many of the countries contributing to the single-use plastic disaster, are not managing waste, in this case, it would take a lot to get everyone to manage waste. Thousands of people use single-use plastics every day. Some people will and some will not recycle. But those who are end up in landfills and oceans. “Single-use plastics 101” claims, “But a sheer amount of plastic waste inundates communities until they are drowning under thousands of tons of plastic trash” (Lindwall 8). Many people do not recycle, so they keep littering and use plastics multiple times a day. This adds to single-use plastics piling up everywhere in the environment. Finally, recycling does not help as thousands are not contributing to recycling and are not managing waste correctly.

All in all, single-use plastics are destroying the environment. Single-use plastics are most often liable for polluting water and land. Think about reducing single-use plastic and think about using reusable items.