Is It Really Not Easy Being Green?
Photo taken by Marem from Fotolia.com as featured on livingstrong.com
David Rode, Staff Writer
March 2, 2012
Filed under Green, Health & Science, News
Every time you’re at the grocery store and the food is rung up and passed to the bag boy, the same old question is asked, “paper or plastic?” And, although environmentalists may say the healthier choice is paper or even reusable bags, is plastic really all that bad or does it have good? Everyone knows that paper has to be better because it’s made of trees so therefore it must be good for the environment. As true as that is, plastic remains a very useful product, but if you look at the bigger picture it is clear that plastics are better off not being used.
Ann Akey, a science teacher at Woodside High School whose credentials lie in economic and green education, said in an interview, “plastics are not all that bad. They are actually very useful because they serve many different purposes. As for polystyrene, I know there are different materials we could use to package and transfer food to go that work just as well and are definitely better for the environment.” She as well boldly states “plastics are very useful because of all their characteristics. They do not retain moisture, can hold a significant amount of items depending on the type of plastic because they do vary, and they’re cheap.”
But with all this good there must be some bad. Plastics do not degrade over short periods of time, but rather 500 to 1000 years, and because they are made of a light material they often tend to fly loosely into the environment which not only is a danger to small wildlife but also an eyesore.
Innocent turtle getting caught up in the terror of plastic litte
On February 7, Associated Press reported in an article titled “San Francisco poised to expand plastic-bag ban,” that “it has become a law that all bags, paper and plastic, cost 10 cents per bag in hopes to encourage shoppers to use reusable cloth bags.
Plastics are made of many different materials, called polymers, which are harmful to the environment , animals, and humans. In another article, written by Michelle Durand of the San Mateo Daily Journal, she said, “[it too has become a law] that plastics be banned and shop owners fined if they do not obey.”
Kayla Velho, a student in the Green Academy, stated that “Plastics are bad because we have to eventually get rid of them either through garbage or recycling. By us recycling it helps the planet, yes, but it also hurts it because the plastics have to be melted down and the machines that melt them down cause pollution.” The very process that is suppose to be good for the planet appears to still have negative effects.
It is obvious to see that the world and environment are changing but are these little changes enough to make a big effect? Although they have good and bad, the best way to avoid any interaction with plastics are using very simple yet inexpensive alternatives.
Some alternatives to plastic water bottles, suggested by students at Woodside High School’s Green Academy, are ceramic, glass, steel, metal, and aluminum. As for plastic bags, cloth reusable ones are a given but if one still insists of using plastic, also reuse the plastic. The less bags used, the more help the environment gets.
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