Blog 1: Plastic Bags

           

1) What is one local effect or impact of plastic bag waste you observed in the video that you didn’t know about, hadn’t thought about before, or just found particularly interesting?

 One local impact of plastic bag wastes is that the plastic bags are made of oil.  The problem with them made out of oil is that they degrade very, very slowly.  Another interesting fact that I found is that many other countries have banned the use of plastic bags entirely.  Some areas even have certain task forces designed to specifically remove plastic bag waste.

2) Identify one specific way in which people in the video were attempting to manage or solve this local effect or impact.

 As mentioned above some areas have banned the use of plastic bags entirely.  Some areas also use types of task forces designed to remove plastic bag usage in the area they are a part of.

3) How do you think we should deal with plastic bag waste?  Is it a problem we should solve locally, or globally, or at some combination of scales?  Why?  Alternatively, as the manufacturer suggested, are plastic bags “misunderstood”—and thus not a problem to be solved?  Explain your answer!

I think that this ordeal of plastic bag waste should be taken very seriously.  These plastic bags degrade slower than a human life and end up being around for a very long time.  I think that the issue should be dealt with both globally and locally.  This is our Earth as a global whole we are polluting with these bags; therefore it should be dealt with on a global scale as well.  Local municipalities should also enforce strict rules regarding the use of plastic bags.  I think if removing the use of plastic bags entirely is too hard to accomplish, than there should be harsher rules regarding the recycling of plastic bags so they do not end up sitting in our land fills for decades at a time polluting the planet.  I think that manufactures believe that plastic bags are "misunderstood" because they claim that plastic bags resort to only 4% of pollution, which is why they feel it is not a problem to be solved as urgently as others may think.