In many regions, plastic containers have been popularly distributed to many food and drink companies. This essay will ouline many pros and cons of this trend.
On the one hand, there are several advantages of using plastics for food and drink. To begin with, plastic is a cheap material. Nowadays, food and beverage industries tend to prefer plastics to wrap food and drink due to the reasonable price. This will reduce the burden if food and drink packaging costs for manufacturers. Additionally, plastics can preserve food better. For instance, in some supermarkets, staffs often use plastics to preserve fruits, vegetables and frozen foods. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, cucumbers wrapped in plastic last eleven days longer then unwrapped cucumbers and beef wrapped in plastic lasts 26 days longer. Therefore, food and drink industries usually use plastic to preserve food usefully.
On the other hand, distributing plastic can bring some drawbacks in many different ways. First, using plastic to wrap food can affect on people’s health. Scienctists assert that abusing plastics in food and drink can considerably increase microplastic. Clearly, plastic is everywhere and it can easily move to food chain, therefore, people maybe unintentionally absorb microplastic which leads to immune system disorders and other dangerous diseases. Second, using plastic for packaging food and drink can seriously destroy the environment. Plastic containers can degrade and end up in landfills or oceans. In many coastal areas, plastic pose a threat to marine species and destroy the habitat. Besides, plastic industries are responsible for a huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions which is the result of air pollution and global warming.
In conclusion, the reason for the popularity of plastic containers is their cheap price and useful food preservation. However, plastic containers can affect both human’s health and the environment.