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Running head: PLASTIC AND TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM 1

PLASTIC AND TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM 6

Plastic and Terrestrial Ecosystem

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Plastic and Terrestrial Ecosystem

Introduction

The terrestrial ecosystem is the plants and animals that live on land. We will talk about the terrestrial ecosystem at large and how plastic harm the living and non – living things. The damage they bring to the biotic and biotic but especially the biotic that is the plants and animals. Furthermore, we will discuss the methods of disposal and the way of reducing plastic pollution on land. Citation of several examples will also be given, and a general conclusion will be made at the end of the essay (Hopewell et al. 2009).

Terrestrial Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a collection of biotic and biotic living organisms that are interrelated. The ecosystem consists of organisms that exist on water and land. The living things found in an ecosystem comprised of plants and animals, also called flora and fauna. The living or non – living things are connected through their cycle of neutral they feed and the flow of energy. Plastic pollution is a significant environmental problem faced all over the world. The population of the world keeps increasing daily and the disposal of plastic bottles and can pile up in a short period. Plastic pollution happens when a large number of plastic accumulates at a particular area they tend to start affecting affect plants, animals, for example, human beings and the soil. Plastic is harmful and causes soil pollution. It, therefore, causes long-lasting damage to the environment because they take thousand or probably hundreds of years to break down.

Several matters cause plastic pollution. The leading cause of plastic pollution is the overuse of plastics. Plastic is readily available and cheap; they produce an incredible amount of toxins to the land. Trash tends to be one of the significant reasons that plastic pollution exists. The disposal of waste such as disposal of water bottles, milk cartons with plastic lining and bathing soaps with small plastic beads.

Methods of Plastic Disposal

1. Incineration

Plastics come from petroleum and natural gas, giving higher energy because of storage. One pound of plastic can generate a very high amount of energy as Wyoming coal and fuel oil.

2. Landfilling

All plastic can be landfill. However, discharge requires a large amount of space for a high amount of disposal. For instance, in 2008, in the United States, approximately 29.2 million tons of plastic was landfilled.

Plastic pollution tends to affect the terrestrial ecosystem in the following ways:

1. Plastics can get stuck in the traffic lights, trees, fence, and other structure due to the wind. When animals come in direct contact with this plastic they get entangled with them and might suffocate, and they end up eating the toxins in plastics.

2. Plastic debris is commonly found in street drainage of most of the cities which clog them. It also litters our stadiums and national parks. Plastic trash is said to be found on Mount Everest.

3. Micro beads pollute the soil in that during harvesting some micro beads might be harvested together with the harvest. During consumption, it might be eaten and cause harm to human beings and animals. A Global Symposium on Soil Pollution was held in 2018 from 2nd to 4th May at the Food and Agriculture Organization Headquarter in Rome. Plastics, in general, were placed in the 'Chemicals of Emerging Concern.

4. Plastic garbage can also lead to franking, which is terrible for our planet earth. It generally pollutes the soil with toxins; it causes underground cavities that break down into sinkholes. It leads the rocks in the underground during formation to have high pressure those later results in earthquakes and makes the stones to be destabilized. Adding more insult to injury, franking has many products, but the major one is plastic.

5. Change in the climate. When plastics are burned, they affect the environment to the extent that they go and destroy the ozone layer making it weak. This further makes the heat from the sun to cause too much heat to human beings affecting their melanin and scorching the plants (Knight, 2012). 

Methods of Reducing Plastic Pollution

1. Recycling and reusing the plastic

Most of the plastics can be reused, but not all can be recycled. For example, the water bottle can be used to store other liquids such as paraffin and they can also be recycled by being taken back to their companies and industries. Milk cartons that have a plastic lining can be reused b storing some books if it's a student. Broken buckets and basins can be mended instead of being disposed of so that they can be reused. This is most plastic last forever, they can break down after hundreds of years, but they are not biodegradable.

2. Incineration

Most of the medical equipment in the medical laboratory is incinerated instead of being disposed of. This has reduced the amount of plastic that is eliminated from the medical laboratories. As much as incineration causing adverse environmental effects.

3. Introduction of policy

In Canada, in the European Union and the United States, BPA has been abolished from being put during the manufacturing of bottles used by children and plastic cups because of health reasons and due to children being very vulnerable to diseases and infections. This is also essential since a child can start biting the bottle, and the micro plastic enters its body and causes health hazardous (Dales, 2002). 

Conclusion

In conclusion, methods of reducing plastic pollution and methods of chemical disposal are almost similar. However, not all methods of plastic disposal will reduce plastic pollution, but all means of reducing plastic pollution are methods of plastic waste disposal.

References

Dales, J. H., (2002). Pollution, property & prices: an essay in policy-making and economics. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Hopewell, J., Dvorak, R., & Kosior, E. (2009). Plastic recycling: Challenges and Opportunities. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Knight, G., (2012). Plastic pollution. Capstone Classroom.

NORTH, E. J., & Halden, R. U. (2013). Plastics and Environmental Health: The Road Ahead. Reviews on Environmental Health, 28(1), 1 – 8.