Investigation and Evaluation of the Effect to Environmental Pollution of Plastic Shopping Bags

Abstract

Shopping which is related to the level of economic development, except for consumption necessities such as eating-drinking-dressing, is taken up a wide space extremely in today’s conditions. By increasing in the number of shopping, environmental pollution increases, too. Plastic bags (shopping bags) used in shopping have a duration of extinction in the nature 400-1000 years, during this time, plastic bags enter the food web and are toxic for human and other livings as a soil pollutant; cause the death of marine and by increasing anaerobic conditions as a water pollutant; and in the form of biodegradable plastic bags emit marginally more carbon dioxide (CO2 - a greenhouse gas) as they decompose as an air pollutant, shows that plastic bags are a serious pollutant. It is estimated that about 100 billion plastic bags and 10 billion paper shopping bags are used each year only in the United States; Local and State Governments around Australia spend more than $200 million per year picking up litter. Some plastic bags are produced as biodegradable. But they cannot exist completely and photodegrade - breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web. Paper bags are alternative to plastic bags, but in the producing, require three times the energy over their life cycle as compared with plastic bags. It is estimated that each year approximately 14 million trees are destroyed to produce paper bags for consumers. In this study, the plastic bags, their impacts to environment, solution proposals and alternatives were investigated and evaluated