Should Plastic Be Banned

Should Plastic be Banned?
1st Speaker
Dear Judges and Guest. Before we debate our motion today, allow us from Team Debate 3 to introduce ourselves. I am
Tata as the first speaker. My job is to articulate our team’s arguments. To my (Left/Right) is Nasywa as the second
speaker, her job is to respond to the opposing team’s arguments, and strengthen our team’s arguments. Furthermore,
at te very end, Calisha, as the third speaker, would respond to statements from the opposing team. Then strengthen
our team’s arguments, and summarize the statements from the first and second speakers.
Plastic are everywhere in our environment. Every day, millions of people head to their local grocery stores, clothing
stores and malls to purchase whatever items they need or want. Many of those people rely on the convenience of each
store’s plastic bags. Instead of carrying a bunch of cumbersome items with their hands, they can place those items in
plastic bags and carry them for ease and efficiency. Plastic bags have become part of modern life, and you may not
think much about them. However, what happens to them once they reach their destination inside someone’s home?
Where do the two million plastic bags that are used every minute around the world end up?
Plastic should be banned because:
1. Plastic bags pollute not only our water but also our land. Plastic bags are usually lightweight, so they can travel
very long distances by either water or wind. The wind blows these plastic bags trashing the environment and
sometimes eventually moving to the world’s oceans.
2. Plastic bags are made from non-renewable sources. The raw materials used to make plastic are extracted from
natural gas and petroleum. These are non-renewable sources, and their extraction and production emit
greenhouse gases that contribute to global change.
3. A lot of energy is used in producing these bags. The energy required to produce nine plastic bags is enough to
drive a car for one kilometre. Considering they have a short useful life, it’s unfortunate that so much energy is
used in making them.
4. Plastic bags do not degrade. Instead, they photo-degrade (after many years) into tiny pieces (called
microplastics) that are eventually swept into the oceans. These tiny bits of plastic are then consumed by
wildlife while the rest remain afloat in our oceans.
5. Plastic Bags are toxic. The plastic bags are filled with toxic, harmful chemicals that include estrogen-like
substances. An Environmental Health Perspectives report disclosed that plastic has hormone-mimicking
qualities, and the plastic products released chemicals that mimicked estrogen. This is dangerous because it
means that plastic can disrupt how hormones, such as estrogen and others, behave in our bodies, causing a
hormonal imbalance that can have severe effects on our health.
6. Plastic bags are harmful to wildlife and marine life. Birds, animals, and marine life, such as sea turtles and fish,
often mistake plastic bags and other plastic materials for food and consume them. Once that happens, their
digestive system gets congested, leading to the development of health infections and death due to suffocation.
The animals may also become easily entangled inside the plastic. A study found that almost 35 percent of
turtle deaths are caused by the animals ingesting plastic, Green Tumble reports. As per ABC News reports, a
2008 crocodile autopsy in Australia found 25 bags in its stomach. And that’s not all yet — according to another
report by National Geographic, nearly every single seabird is eating plastic, as plastic that’s thrown away is
found in 90 percent of them. As the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reports, if we don’t slow down the production
and waste of plastic bags, the future looks grim: by the year 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than
fish.
7. Plastic bags are harmful to human health. There are some chemicals in plastic bags that can disrupt the normal
functioning of hormones in the body. Most plastic fragments in the oceans, like plastic bags, have
some pollutants, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl) and PAHs (Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), which
are hormone-disrupting. Once the marine animals consume these chemicals, they move through the food
web and later into the humans, who consume fish together with other marine animals. The chemical materials
bio-accumulate in the sea animals and fish system as they are exposed to them in the ocean waters.
Conclusion: Plastic, anything made of plastic. What is around us, it must be banned. Because the use of plastic can
bring various problems ranging from the environment to ourselves. Therefore, let's ban plastic and use items made
from organic materials that can be recycled.

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Should Plastic be Banned?

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