When I’m walking around, I always notice plastic bags flying around. The plastic bags can get caught in trees and that ruins our environment. Governments should ban single use plastic bags because they damage the environment, kill land and sea animals, and carry germs. 

Governments should ban plastic bags because they damage the environment. Plastic bags and their production are one of the biggest contributors to climate change. Every year, 80% of the pollution in the oceans and seas are caused by plastic bags. Studies have estimated that the 80% is 8.3 million tons of plastic being discarded yearly. This is a lot of plastic in the oceans and banning plastic bags will reduce that number. Plastic bags can also clog waterways and drains. The clogging of the drains can cause bad smells and flooding from the waste. It’s possible the flooding will carry the waste stuck inside the drains. The odor is usually called plastic odor or waste odor, but it can do damage to the liver over time. If we don’t do anything about the plastic bags, they will ruin the waterways, the seas and our planet. 

Plastic bags can kill animals from land and sea. Lots of plastic bags can get into the seas and the oceans. Many marine animals get tangled up in those plastic bags and get choked to death. Over time, plastic bags decompose into tinier microplastics. Fish and other animals will mistake these microplastics as food, and then the fish eat the microplastics. Once we eat those fish, those microplastics will enter our body. Plastic is very harmful to the human body, and even a tiny microplastic can damage our vital organs like our stomach or our lungs. Plastic is already in our food chain, and an estimated 92 species of fish have already ingested that plastic. Soon, that plastic will take over our food chain and will kill off many species of animals.  

Plastics carry and spread many germs. The other side might say that plastic bags don’t carry or spread any germs because plastic bags are labeled as sterile since we can’t see the germs. This thinking is incorrect in many ways. Every single year, 400,000 to 1,000,000 people die of diseases related to chemicals from plastic. The production of plastic is also very toxic and dangerous to us because plastics include petroleum, and the process releases many chemicals. PVC is a great example. PVC is a very toxic chemical and it’s also known widely around the world as one of the most toxic chemicals released from plastic making for our health. These chemicals are very toxic and can cause pollution and damage to us, which is why governments should ban plastics. 

Banning plastics is something the governments should ban, because they really damage the environment, can kill both land and sea animals, and can spread a lot of harmful chemicals and germs. Having a plastic ban is good, because our one and only Earth might get ruined by them.