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   DIR Return to: Plastics?!
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       #Post#: 9--------------------------------------------------
       The problems about plastics
   DIR By: randomUser
       Date: September 5, 2016, 4:19 pm
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       Plastics are everywhere in our life. For more than 50 years the
       global production and consumption of plastics have continued to
       rise. Today we produce about 300 millions of tons every year.
       The growing production replaces materials like glass, metal and
       wood. About 4 percent of the oil production worldwide is used to
       make plastic each year, and another 4 percent is used to power
       plastic manufacturing processes with energy.
       Plastics are derived from materials found in nature, such as
       natural gas, oil, coal, minerals and plants. Because of their
       intermolecular bonds plastics degrade very slowly in the nature.
       They are also mixed with additives to improve their performance
       like hazardous chemicals benzene and vinyl chloride or additives
       like carbon or silica.
       Our current usage of plastic is simply not sustainable. The
       biggest amount of plastic, more than one third, is used for
       non-durable plastic items like shopping or trash bags, plastic
       bottles and other utensils. We are throwing them away after a
       short time of usage.
       If plastic gets recycled we still need new plastic as supplement
       to produce the same product because when plastic is being
       reprocessed, it changes to a lower quality. This means even if
       no more plastic was needed only the same amount, nonrenewable
       resources would still have to be used to produce the same
       product. Recycling of plastic does not mean sustainable
       recycling.
       If they are discarded improperly they are ending in the nature,
       sometimes for thousands of years. According a scientific working
       group at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological
       Analysis and Synthesis 8 million tons of plastics are ending
       alone in the ocean per year. They can be eaten by fishes and sea
       animals. These often die from the physical and chemical impact
       of these chemicals. Animals who survive can be a part of our
       food chain and the plastics in their organism can have harmful
       effect on the human body.
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