Plastic was one of the most important inventions

• Introduction
• Uses of polythene
• Harmful effects in daily life.
• Harmful effect on the environment.
• Need to ban the same.
• Conclusion - Effective ban needed to save the environment.

Plastic was one of the most important inventions of the last century. Out of its various derivatives, one form is polythene, made from hydrocarbons, which is a by-product of petroleum an important energy fuel. It has a great industrial and commercial use. However, its excessive use in recent times has threatened the environment. This is a cause of great concern to all of us.

Polythene finds use in a number of industrial products like toys, automotive parts, waterproof ware, etc. However, the most predominant form of its use in our daily life is in the packing industry. It is this extensive use in domestic, as well as the industrial sector that is a cause of worry. One of the primary advantages of its increasing use is that it is durable and cheap. On account of this, it has virtually replaced the good old paper bags, which were more environment-friendly.
It is the indestructible property of this product that has disastrous consequences. 

It cannot be destroyed, nor can it decay and decompose, like jute or paper or any organic material. The polythene bags are dumped on the streets and garbage bins which litter the roads. Unsuspecting animals eat them resulting in their untimely death. Some of these bags, find their way into the sewage and drainage system of the city and choke them.

It is also one of the most hazardous materials causing environmental pollution. The polythene bags that find their way into the river or the fields, pollute the riverbed and the soil by making it infertile. It makes the soil impermeable and consequently useless for growing crop .such in the indestructible nature of this product, that it cannot be even burnt. Hence like a demon in the making, it continues to haunt our environment.

There is, therefore, immediate need for checking this menace before it acquires a gigantic proportion. We should, therefore, start educating the people, on the harmful effects of using polythene, by organizing discussions and workshops. Moreover, to put an immediate stop to this menace, we should ban the use of polythene in the packaging sector forthwith. This is so because it is in this area that is being grossly abused. If required, we should enact laws by proper legislation, so as to effectively deal with this threat. This is the least that we can do to ensure, that we leave a clean environment for our children, as had been inherited by us.