Plastic Pollution Essay: Plastic pollution essay is an important topic for students to comprehend. It educates about the repercussions of the plastic and its impact on the environment. Plastic pollution occurs when plastic objects and debris accumulates in the environment to such an extent that it adversely affects wildlife. Moreover, plastic does not degrade quickly, and disposal has become a big problem. Plastic even has the potential to travel up the food chain and enter the human body. Worryingly, some forms of plastic are now designated as carcinogens, which means they have an increased risk of causing cancer.

Plastic was originally invented as a cheaper alternative for other raw materials of the time. Its inventor could not have predicted its global implications. Nonetheless, decades of use has resulted in plastic permeating every nook and corner of the world. For instance, if one were to travel to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench, they could find plastic littered on the seafloor. From an academic perspective, plastic pollution is a moderately easy topic if students present their facts accurately. Furthermore, we have also provided important writing tips and tricks to help students secure more marks for their essays.

Plastic Pollution Essay – Writing Tips and Tricks

The following tips and tricks will help students secure more marks for their essays. Moreover, these tips and tricks will also help improve their general presentation and writing skills:

• Make a habit of beginning the essay with an introductory paragraph. The introductory paragraph must provide a brief background about the topic, or its history
• Always incorporate specifics such as names, dates, places and any other relevant information that may provide more clarity to the topic
• Always try to break up the content into small blocks of text. Large monotonous blocks of text may make the reader lose interest. Write the content into headings and subheadings
• Try to present information in bulleted points, end the essay with a concluding paragraph.
• The concluding paragraph must elaborate on the key-takeaways of the topic or its highlights
• Read through the essay at last, this will help to filter out grammatical mistakes or wrong spellings.

Plastic Pollution Essay 300 Words

Brief History of Plastic

Parkesine, invented by Alexander Parkes in 1856, was considered the world’s first man-made plastic. However, it incorporated organic materials, such as cellulose. Bakelite, which was created by Leo Baekeland, was the world’s first fully synthetic plastic. Ever since then, mass production of plastic helped to fill niches that were occupied by more expensive and harder-to-manufacture products.

Why do we use Plastic?

At the time, the implications of plastic were unknown because it was a brand new material. Today, we can see the applications of plastic in nearly all aspects of life. The reason plastics are widespread is because of its low cost and ease of manufacturing. When it was invented, it was touted as a material of the future. It found applications in many fields such as medicine, technology, defence, food packaging and more. In fact, plastic has permeated nearly every aspect of our life.

Repercussions of Plastic

Plastics has its downsides too – with the biggest one being biodegradability. Discarded plastics take a very long time to decompose; a plastic straw can take 150 years, a plastic bag can take 50 years, and a plastic water bottle will take almost 450 years. Moreover, most of the discarded plastics end up in the ocean – under these conditions, plastics breakdown into minute particles which are then ingested by plankton.

Plankton is consumed by other animals, such as small fish and other invertebrates. These animals are, in turn, consumed by larger animals such as sharks and bigger fish. Eventually, these microplastics travel up the food chain and reach humans. Some plastics are thought to be carcinogenic. This means it has a higher risk of causing cancer if exposed. Besides its impact on health, plastics also drastically affect the environment. It contributes significantly to global warming and ever-increasing carbon footprint.

Conclusion on Plastic Pollution Essay

In conclusion, plastic may be a wonderful invention, but it has many negative effects to be considered safe or even feasible for long-term usage. Hence, we must phase out plastic for other safer, eco-friendly alternatives.