In Male—the capital city of Maldives—there is a new island next to the main island that was created by merely an unused waste. This waste consists mainly of plastics, foods, and clothes. While only contributing to one third of total waste, plastic waste still becomes the most dangerous pollutant for the body water near Male, as it affects the amount of microplastic inside the Male’s water system.
From this real world example, it is evident that plastic waste could become a very serious problem, and hence become one reason for people’s demand to ban plastic bags—one type of plastic that is heavily used throughout the world. However, banning plastic bags doesn’t necessarily remove the threat of plastic waste, as it’s only one type of plastic and only contributes 30 percent of total plastic waste—the rest are plastic bottles, straw, amenities, etc.
On the other hand, the usage of plastic bags could stimulate economic activities in some traditional markets due to their price that is usually very cheap and therefore reduce overall cost for the seller. Furthermore, plastic bags have always become a part of developing countries’ market society, rendering the idea of banning plastic bags irrelevant in such countries.
In my opinion, the usage of plastic bags should be regulated—in a very strict way possible—not banned. As plastic bags are regulated strictly, the total amount of plastic waste could be reduced significantly, while the economic activities in traditional markets are still stimulated—although reduced. This way, the danger of using plastic bags could be compromised in a great, harmonized way.