Plastic bags are used on a daily basis in multiple places like supermarkets or malls. Despite this, a growing number of people want them to be prohibited because, although they are useful and easy to produce, they are not biodegradable leading to serious pollution to the land and oceans. I strongly believe they should be banned as they cause a lot of damage to these environments, which can easily be solved by opting for different materials.
Most species, including humans, are being poisoned by the high numbers of plastic bags that are dumped in the world’s landfills every day. This is because they are not biodegradable so they take up hectares of land and end up emitting poisonous gases and polluting the soil through tiny plastic particles, which ultimately poison our food and the air we breathe. These problems extent to our oceans as well. Sea creatures like fish and dolphins not only ingest plastic, but also have found entangled in plastic materials. These situations lead them to die of suffocation, starvation and drowning, which is becoming a commonplace in contemporary days. Tragically, sea species consume thousands of plastic a year, which get transferred up to bigger fish and mammals affecting the food chain. It was recently discovered that individuals who regularly consume seafood containing plastic particles suffer from gastrointestinal cancer more frequently than any other human sector. So the more plastic bags we carelessly discard, the more we are killing or marine life and poisoning ourselves.
Despite the serious nature of these issues, some still defend plastic bags should not be banned. The strongest argument is that they are durable with a low production costs. However, nowadays, there are more environmentally friendly materials as useful as plastic, like polypropylene that is even more durable and design to be used more than once. This is a perfect alternative to diminished the global problem of plastic pollution. Hence, there really is no reason to keep on using and dumping plastic.
In conclusion, while it is true that plastic bags have been a convenient part of our lives, now that we understand the serious problems that they are causing, we need a complete global ban or regulations to stop this problem. It is so easy to find alternatives that do not cause serious damage to ourselves and our fellow creatures. There really is no excuse.