Plastic Bags

Slideshow Transcript

1. Slide 1:POLYETHYLENE & ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION By: Dustin Koontz
2. Slide 2:The Significance of Polyethylene  Plastic bags are made from polyethylene, the world’s largest commercial polymer.  Requires petroleum and toxic materials to manufacture.  It is a recyclable material, however…  Most bags and wrappers end up in dumps or the ocean.
3. Slide 3:Uses of Polyethylene  Plastic bags  Any sort of food wrapper  Bottles  That plastic that electronics always come in  Anything that you would describe as “plastic”
4. Slide 4:Environmental Concerns: On Land  Not biodegradable (takes 1000 years to degrade.)  Most plastic bags & many polythelene products are not recycled.  8 billion pounds of plastic enter land based water sources yearly (a large contributor of which are plastic bags.)  60 million tons of polythene used year