Hazards of Using Polythene

Polythene is very hazardous for us, and we have been studying from a long now. In one way or the other, these polythene bags are one of the major pollutants that are damaging our environment. While one goes for purchasing groceries, or even for many of our other daily activities such polythene bags are in common use. However, if the convenience of these polythene bags will come at the high cost of environmental degradation and also a negative impact on human health, than it is not good for whole ecosystem.

Polythene bags have the tendency to equally pollute the land, air, sea and water resources. Polythene bags are very harmful for marine species, wildlife and even for the birds in some of the cases. Moreover, despite these warnings in small prints which also read ‘Keep away from young children’, child death cases have also been reported because of them. Most importantly, the bags are non-degradable and hence it does not decompose into our earth’s soil.

Globally, we have seen that several countries have already banned the using of polythene bags and have started using paper or cloth bags. Bangladesh and India are few of the countries for naming. Even in country of Pakistan, some years back, the government had also issued directives for the usage of plastic bags which is of a minimum thickness of 30 microns, yet these plastic bags of thickness less than the minimum required are also still being widely used which is particularly by street vendors.

By: Prerana Sharma