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should plastic bag be banned
Today I'm going to talk about plastic bags and whether they should be banned.
As you may know, plastic bags are one of the main sources of rubbish that end up polluting our rivers and oceans. In fact, the problem has become so immense that a huge island of rubbish containing plastic bags and other items has formed in the middle of the Northern Pacific Ocean. The area polluted by this rubbish is so vast that it covers an area greater than the size of Australia.
So should plastic bags be banned?
Plastic bags are a non-biodegradable, which means it they cannot decompose naturally. So they will remain on the earth forever.
Plastic bags can cause environmental destruction and harm human health when they enter our environment. Pollution from plastic bags is known to make soil unfertile and can cause lung diseases like asthma when toxic gases are emitted from burning plastic bags.
Plastic bags are also responsible for the deaths of many animals on land and in the sea. For example, scientists have found sea turtles that have swallowed plastic bags because they mistake them for jellyfish. Sea turtles can live for many years and are very important for the biodiversity of our oceans. Many are now suffering slow and painful deaths because they cannot digest a plastic bag when swallowed.
Why should we continue to use plastic bags when we only use them once? Because they cannot be recycled, we should consider using other more sustainable bags. Good examples already exist in other countries where they promote the use of canvas bags in supermarkets. In fact, plastic bags have been banned all together from one major city in Australia.
Whilst banning plastic bags is unlikely to be supported in Malaysia, we need an education campaign to inform everyone about the environmental problems caused by plastic bags. Then, people may think twice before using a plastic bag next time they go shopping.

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