PLASTIC BAGS – A THREAT TO ENVIRONMENT

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National Plastic free day was celebrated today. The main concept of the program is to minimise the utilisation of Plastic carry bags and by this initiative, several school has reduced the usage of plastic among their children. The organisation requested every citizen of India to at least give up the usage of plastic carry bag for one day a year.

Prof. C.Venkateswar told that estimates of the number of plastic bags used around the world each year vary in range from 100 million to a trillion according to a New York Times article. Since only a small portion of these bags is recycled, many plastic bags are left to enter the waste stream. The bags will likely take about 1,000 years to decompose.

Prof. K. Purshottam Reddy eminent environmentalist told that even in urban areas, where wildlife is relatively scarce, plastic bags cause significant environmental harm. Runoff water collects and carries discarded plastic bags and ultimately washes them into storm sewers. Once in these sewers, the bags often form clumps with other types of debris, and ultimately block the flow of water.This prevents runoff water from properly draining, which often inconveniences those living or working in the area.

For example, roads often flood when storm sewers become blocked, which forces them to be closed until the water drains. This excess water can damage cars, buildings and other property, and it also collects pollutants and spreads them far and wide, where they cause additional damage. Clogged storm sewers can also disrupt the water flow throughout local watersheds.

Blocked sewer pipes can starve local wetlands, creeks and streams of the water they require, which can lead to massive die-offs and in some cases, total collapse.

Telangana Goshala Federation President Sri Mahesh Agarwal told that Plastic-Free day is a growing movement. On Plastic-Free day we skip plastic to reduce our plastic footprint. That means we don’t buy anything that is made of plastic or contains plastic. We also don’t use anything made of plastic that we have to throw away after using it. So no bananas wrapped in plastic, no plastic bags, no take-away coffee in plastic cups and so on.

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