Harmful effects of plastic bags:
“May I have a plastic bag to carry my stuff?” It is a very common statement which we hear in the markets and shops since our senses began. It is a fibre that is waterproof, light in weight and easily available which makes it a very strong alternative of paper or jute bags. No doubt their fabric is very attractive and fashionable to be carried. But people were hardly ignorant about its unforeseen threat to the nature. It is chemically a polymer by property which reveals its evil side towards nature and its cycle. Scientists say that a polymer is non-biodegradable and thus takes millions and millions of years to go down the earth.
Now before describing the harmful effects of plastic bags, I would like to focus upon the fact that our nature has created our ecological system that happens to be inter-dependent upon every living creature for survival. This mode is popularly called as the Food Chain and the Food Web. And the most fearful fact is that the human being is also included in this interdependence system of nature. So, a mistake caused by us multiplies itself all through the cycle to return back as a boomerang, but reaches us in the form of a major crime. We generally throw our plastic bags after our purpose is done. These thrown bags are collected in the dustbins of the municipality garbage dump areas. Day by day every else bit gets decomposed by the microbes except these plastic bags. They remain intact in the ground.
Now this causes the land to get polluted making it unfit for utilisation. Its non-biodegradable nature also proves that it can never mix up with the soil nutrients and get recycled with them. Consequently, the soil loses its fertility making it unfit for the growth of plants and crops in it. Thus the land remains barren and unfit for any further agricultural practices for a period even longer than our imagination.
There are cows, goats, buffaloes and sheep whose mass population depends upon the grass for survival. Sometimes the plastic bits get mixed with the grass and goes inside the bodies of this grazing population with their diet. at times, it has been observed in the villages where these grazing populations are domesticated by the local people residing. The plastic bits are impossible to be digested due to their non-biodegradable nature and thus become a serious threat to the health of these animals. This in turn reduces the quality of their health and their rearing products like milk, meat and wool.
Plastic has not even spared the aquatic life. People dump the sewage in the waterbodies nearby to free the land portion from getting occupied. Also, Tourists visiting the sacred rivers like Ganga, Yamuna pollute them by throwing their plastic carry bags after fulfilling their own selfish needs. Tourists visiting the beautiful beaches of the seas and oceans do the same mistake due to ignorance about their fatal effects caused to the ecological system. The plastic bags flow to the rivers, and canals to get merged with the water of ponds, lakes, seas and oceans. The next possible effect is quite predictable. The aquatic animals like fishes, whales, dolphins, and many amazing population are put into the mouth of death when they consume the plastic bits along with their food in water.
Now comes the ultimate point which needs a highlight. The amazing fact is, These all animal products, like vegetables, dairy products, meat, fish etc. are brought to our home with our daily necessary commodities. We too consume these products innocently, unaware of the fact that what danger has entered our body. This can even prove fatal for the babies and infants who are fed the cattle milk as a major platform of nutrition. So, plastic has a core adverse effect on our lives as well.
So, it is evident that we ourselves are working for our graves. We have not only endangered our population, but also the whole ecology and its creatures. It is us who have got the core responsibility to swipe out this menace from our society to ensure a better future establishment for our mother earth. We should strictly practice the habit to avoid the usage of the plastic bags and replace them with the jute and paper bags that are totally natural fibres making them easily bio-degradable by the nature. We should raise our voice to reach to the society as well. This will create a spark of awareness on the behalf of the society to have a mass response for this recue mission. We can suggest the eco-friendly practices in turn. Doing this bit, can save the ecological balance from getting disturbed and threatened. After all there is a purpose that nature has empowered the human race as the most superior of all in this world. It is time to show some gratification for the sake of the bright and long safe future of the world.
Slogan: “ lets begin the paper rule, plastic was the old school “