Are plastic bags good for our environment?

Answer 1

The nature of the question is somewhat unusual, given that very little of what happens on Earth, natural or otherwise, is beneficial to the environment.

In short, the answer is no; plastic bags are harmful to produce, both in the extraction of the resources and the production itself, and their discardsion often results in environmental damage.

The initial step of creating a plastic bag is extracting crude oil. This is a vastly damaging process for the environment, both damaging the area around and removing the stability of the surface under which it lies. once extracted, energy is used to heat it for fractional distillation, which, rather ironically, normally comes from the burning of other crude oil products. After the various stages of evaporative separation, the alkene products are then collected and undergo polymerisation, the process through which plastics are formed.

Plastic is, as much as is possible, un-biodegradable. The natural decomposers in the Earth cannot break it down, owing to its chemical structure, and, as a result, it will continue to exist indefinately, probably forming new crude oil after subjection to immense heat and pressure in the thousands of years to follow.

The consequence of this is that plastic bags are, therefore, eternally wherever they are left, and can suffocate wildlife, catch on trees, and separate decomposers from decomposable material, slowing the whole process. Recycling of the bags is also highly environmentally damaging, owing to the high energy consumption and the un-recyclable waste that is discarded afterwards.

to me no. I think no because plastic bags are disposable we need reusable bags so like a cloth bag would work just as good. But we can recycle the plastic bags! just as we would recycle paper and glass!