Debate 1: Single-Use Plastics

This house believes that the Environmental Protection Agency should ban all single-use plastics. As the government, I stand in affirmation with this resolution. First, I will define some terms within the resolution, and then I will move onto the three contentions for this resolution and the government’s stance.

First, I will define some of the terms in the resolution. The resolution reads that this house believes that the Environmental Protection Agency should ban all single-use plastics. I would like to first define the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government for environmental protection. Therefore, this is for strictly environmental protection. I would also like to define “ban.” Ban is to officially or legally prohibit. In this instance, it would be a legal ban. Lastly, I would like to define “single-use plastics.” Single-use plastics are also called disposable plastics, but this can include items such as grocery bags, food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, and cups that are intended to be used once before they are thrown away or recycled.

Now that these terms have been defined for better understanding and narrowed scope of this debate, I will now cover the three contentions affirming the resolution that the EPA should ban all single-use plastics. Single-use plastics should be banned because they are first, a heavy pollutant. Second, they are unrecyclable and dangerous to reuse, finally, they are harmful to humans and animals.

Plastics have taken over the world, and according to unenvironment.org, the world produces (that is today, meaning it is still happening!) over 300 million tons of plastic per year, which is nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population. These amounts are unbelievable, and it needs to change. These changes need to happen soon because plastics will most likely outlive us. So, let’s move on to the three contentions.

The first contention is that single-use plastics are a heavy pollutant in our oceans specifically. These pieces of plastic that were once our silverware, cups, water bottles, bottle caps, ice cream tubs, protective packaging just to name a few, have now infiltrated the cities’ rivers and the world’s oceans. According to Britannica.com, Charles Moore reports on February 13, 2020 that annually, countries dump between 5.3 and 14 million tons of plastic into the oceans near their respective coasts. One popular visual of this problem is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is a massive amount of plastic and other trash in the pacific ocean that has conglomerated to create an island. The GPGP continues to circulate throughout the North Pacific Ocean due to currents and the Pacific Subtropical Gyre according to National Geographic Encyclopedia. The GPGP is a snapshot of what our oceans would look like if we continued this trend of single-use plastics. The issue with the heavy amount of plastic remaining in rivers and oceans brings me to my next contention that these plastics cannot be safely reused or be recycled. This is why the GPGP will continue to float in the North Pacific Ocean until places like the United States and Asia take responsibility for the patch.

The second contention is that these pieces of plastic are mostly unrecyclable or nonbiodegradable, and they are dangerous reused. While we may hope that when we buy certain plastic products, they will be able to be used again or even recycled, but for most products they are only made to be used one time according to unenvironment.org. Unfortunately, these types of plastic will last from 10-500 years. A plastic bag takes 10 to 20 years to degrade while a bottle takes 500 years. Also, when I say “degrade,” this does not necessarily mean that is completely vanishes after this point in time, but it leaves behind smaller pieces of plastic called microplastics. According to the NOAA, microplastics are small pieces of plastic less than five millimeters long, meaning that most pieces are extremely hard to see. In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, microplastics create a cloud in the water. Essentially, these types of plastic cannot break down like other substances. Also, their recycling process is difficult, inefficient and possibly harmful to the environment. Moreover, their petroleum base makes disposable plastic problematic to recycle. New materials and chemicals have to be added to recycle these products according to plasticfreechallenge.org, and these chemicals can be harmful to humans. While we can technically reuse grocery bags, Stephanie Vermillion reports from howstuffworks.com on January 28, 2020 that certain disposable plastics like water bottles can emit a harmful chemical like BPA (bisphenol A) if reused. Ultimately, reusing or attempting to recycle these plastics is a lost cause. While these products may break down over dozens of years, they still pose threats to animals and humans during this process.

The final contention is that these plastics are harmful to humans and animals. We have all seen the turtle with a straw stuck in its nose or the duck with soda rings around its neck. Images like these never cease to break our hearts, but what about the marine life being harmed from the microplastics? The microplastics enter animals’ bodies like plankton, fish larvae, and filter-feeding animals, which humans consume, after breathing or eating according to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. These tiny particles hold chemicals that can be harmful to these animals. However, animals are not the only ones being harmed. Humans can ingest these microplastics as well, and the toxic chemicals found in our bloodstream are known to cause cancer, infertility, birth defects, impaired immunity and other ailments according to plasticfreechallenge.org. These single use plastics that we are eating off of or swimming in can harm our bodies, and this needs to stop today.

After the breakdown of these three contentions, it is evident that the EPA should ban all single-use plastics because they are a heavy pollutant for our planet, they cannot be recycled and the degradation process is dangerous, and finally, these plastic products are harmful to animals as well as humans. With a legal ban on single-use plastics, the number of plastics in our oceans, animals, and bloodstreams will significantly decrease. These effects are worth the minuscule loss of comfort and convenience that we get from single-use or disposable plastics.