Plastic Bags Essay

871 Words4 Pages
Plastic Bag Usage in New Zealand Every year, New Zealanders use approximately 1 billion Plastic Bags. They are a danger to animals, the environment and the world. In my research, I have investigated how plastic bags are made, how they affect the environment and how we, as a country are trying to reduce the usage of plastic bags. My main resource is the Internet and the survey I do on 20 of my fellow classmates. How are plastic Bags made? Plastic Bags were first introduced by Alexander Parkes in 1862. His version of Plastic Bags included organic cellulose that could be moulded when heated and held its shape when cooled. Plastics are composed of polymers (large molecules consisting of repeating units called monomers.) The repeating units are either ethylene of ethene. Plastic bags are made out of one of three basic types; High Density polyethylene (HDPE), Low density polyethylene (LDPE), or Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE). The thick glossy shopping bags are LLDPE while the thin grocery bags are HDPE. The major difference between these materials is the degree of branching of the polymer chain. LLDPE bags have unbranched chains while LDPE have branched chains. Branching affects the strength and crystallinity; this is why grocery bags are weaker and flimsier than shopping bags. How do Plastic Bags affect the environment? Usually plastic bags are not disposed of properly and they end up being in the sea. In the water, plastic bags are often mistaken for jellyfish by wildlife and they try digesting the bags and it blocks up their intestines, when this happens the animals eventually die and start to decompose, they decompose faster than the plastic bags because bags take from 20-1000 years to decompose, so the bags is released back into the environment and another organism eats it. From my research, I have found pictures of a turtle having surgery because of

More about Plastic Bags Essay

Open Document