We live in a world where “consumerism” is one of its apparent signs. This behavior has made the lives of humans and animals face dangers, and life on the planet has been involved with insoluble challenges. The mass production of plastic bags is one of the consumerist behaviors, damages from which become more obvious every day, especially since many of those plastic bags and products are not recycled and remain abandoned in the environment. Now, it is necessary to answer this question more narrowly: Why is the use of plastic bags dangerous?
According to the United Nations Environment Program Office, plastic pollution is one of the ten main and challenging problems in our world today. The materials made of plastic pile up in forests, oceans, deserts, rivers, and plains and endanger the lives of animals and plants in the cycle of nature. Especially since plastic materials have a prolonged decomposition process, it is enough to know that the bags produce less than 25 microns and are very thin. They stay in the environment for 300 to 900 years and do not disappear! The size of each micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter.
Another research finding that surprised scientists is that plastic waste (a large part of which is made up of plastic bags) causes huge floods. An example of such damages occurred in the historic flood of 2005 in Mumbai, India, killing thousands of people and causing a lot of destruction.
Investigations showed that plastic bags had blocked the drainage system of Mumbai. This carelessness caused the flood (ISNA report – 4 Khordad 1402). Later investigations showed that more than 200 million of the world’s poor people are at risk of floods caused by the release of plastic bags. We know that children, the elderly, and the disabled are at greater risk of death during floods. Many African countries and some Asian countries (such as Bangladesh and Indonesia) are in danger of deadly floods every year due to the massive production of plastic bags, the closing of drains, and the economic inability of their governments to drain the water.
Oceans and seas, victims of plastic bag production
In the 1970s, scientists discovered how plastic pollution could harm the world’s ecosystem. Their research led to the understanding that oceans and seas suffer the most damage from plastic pollution. They suspected that something close to 300 thousand tons of plastic particles were floating in the waters of the oceans and seas. Sea mammals swallow these particles and before long they die because of it! Fish, turtles, and other marine animals are victims of the plastic particles we humans produce. We will destroy their digestive system and make them so sick that they cannot eat anymore and die in excruciating pain! A study conducted in 2008 showed that every year, 267 marine species die from plastic waste (report on the website of the Institute of Chemistry Innovators). This is the result of humans seeking comfort and easy life! It is even more unfortunate that if this process continues. Plastic particles float in the seas and oceans, and their number will exceed the number of marine creatures, “and this is a disaster” (Report on the website of Etemad newspaper; Khordad 28, 1402).
Besides this great agricultural crisis of the seas, it should also be noted that microplastics penetrate the underground and surface waters and are placed on their food table, along with agricultural products, and we swallow them unknowingly. So, not only aquatic animals but also humans are victims of the plastic bag production!
