Plastic bags
WHENEVER the term “plastic bags” is used, somehow “climate change” is also mentioned as the effect of its misuse and careless discharge.
It certainly causes pollution and there is no real argument with that. This is when we as humans –– since the plastic cannot do it itself –– carelessly intentionally or otherwise, discard it as waste in our land, marine or air environment, to become a pollutant, unsightly nuisance and a danger to human, animal and marine life and ecosystems, because of its non-biodegradable qualities.
So then what does that have to do with our global climate and climate change?
In my humble opinion, it has no direct effect on our climate, locally or globally. If we overstretch our imagination, one could conclude, albeit with some difficulty, that perhaps plastic wastes gathered in very, very large quantities and burning in our landfills, may block sunlight, but that is really overstretching it. Health problems from the smoke pollution is more the issue here. Even the famous floating plastic mass in the east Pacific Ocean does not affect the climate, but is more a danger to marine life and hazardous to shipping. It seems these days that we tend to link many things to climate change whether rightly or wrongly.
I believe we should always be very clear as to how we relate the “causes and effects” of events happening around us. Attributing an “effect” to the “wrong cause” and vice versa, can be problematic, costly and time wasting. The bottom line in all this is that, carelessly discarded plastic waste is an environmental pollution problem period.