What are the environmental problems with plastics?

Answer 1

Plastics have extremely long half-lives in landfills. They can also be hazardous to wildlife (choking hazard, digestive blockage, or other hazard such as is seen with dolphins and plastic rings). Also as they degrade they release hydrocarbons, which is added to the carbon cycle. The answer can also be:

They are non organic substances and hence the various microorganisms that decay matter can not act upon the plastics and hence the do not decay in nature. They pollute the environment. In other words they do not rot. When kept in landfills they still are bad for the environment because of this and as most of our waste ends up in landfills they take a lot of space. Burning them will also create pollution releasing toxic gases.

Answer 2

The problem is: There are many different kinds of plastics. All plastic can be recycled, but not all recyclers will accept every kind of plastic. They will only take plastics that are economical for them to process.

Soft plastics like plastic bags and food wraps are usually uneconomical to recycle. If they still have food scraps then they have to be washed first. This is why few recyclers will accept wraps and flimsy food containers.

The plastics have all to be separated after collection, often by hand. This takes time and is dirty work. Plastic bottle tops are made from a different plastic than the bottle, so they have to be separated. So you should always remove them before recycling.

Answer 3

plastic has a long half life and does not break down easily. Look into the great garbage patch to see the effect it has had an wildlife like birds and turtles. Not pretty pictures so be warned.

Answer 4

Certain types of plastics are contain toxic chemicals.

During the manufaturing process and during its lifespan, these chemicals are realized into the environment. Some plastics rely on fossil fuels. The plastic manufacturer I worked for used soybean oil.

There are now plastics that use all Natural Resources usually with cornoil that are non toxic, but the associated expense is higher. Im not sure if there is subsidy of these industries right now, but that would help to make them competitive with companies that have a bottom lower line but use harmful chemicals.

Proper disposal and recycling greatly reduce pollution, however sorting is expensive and recylced materials can sometimes cost more than using fresh materials, because of the labor involved. Recycled plastics are not usually good quality. Automated sorting technology and worldwide recycling programs are helping to reduce these costs.

The best solution is to avoid plastics as much as possible. Reuse plastic utensils, water bottles (beware of science experiments growing in the bottle after many reuses) Wash out freezer bags, properly dispose of tube TVs etc. etc. Just take a look at your recycling or -gasp- trash. You'll see where the problem is. Recycling works when everyone pitches in, not when one person becomes a recylcing drill instructor.

Plastic is an amzing technology, saving lifes and making life much easier. It's relatively safe and an important industry. I worked in an RD lab mixing up chemicals in a bowl with a spoon then heated them on an oil heated mill until I had a sample. It was fun and kind of like mixing cookies. If it was off spec, make adjusments and try again. Then scale up tests to fine tune measurements at higher quantities, test test test, then off to the lines

Answer 5

Yes, you can create your own customized Monopoly game easily online. Just visit http://www.mymonopoly.com/ to get started. You can name the properties on the board anything you like such as your friends' names, favorite cities or anything else.