People often see plastic as an essential product in modern day living whether plastic is being needed to wrap something or packaged. However I believe that plastic is one of the main reasons why global warming is taking a turn. According to the British Plastic Foundation "Food waste has at least ten times the environmental impact of packaging waste and that's before taking account of the impact of methane from decayed food." I do believe plastic is somewhat necessary to keeping food fresh and protecting vulnerable objects from being damaged, but I think that we could cut down the amount of plastic we use, and use starch based polymers instead of plastic. According to how stuff works starch based polymers are biodegradable, low-cost, renewable and natural polymer,and starch has been receiving lots of attention for developing sustainable materials lately. In conclusion people should be more aware of the amount of plastic they are using, and there is a environmentall y safe substitute for plastic.

http://www.bpf.co.uk/packaging/why-do-w … aging.aspx
http://science.howstuffworks.com/enviro … utes10.htm

I agree I think investing in reusable containers and water bottles could make a huge impact and save a lot of plastic. I also think a way we can solve this is by using our own containers for takeout food. It might sound crazy but the amount of plastic I waste from takeout food alone is a large amount. This small change could make a big difference and save money for restaurants who wouldn't have to buy as many plastic containers.

I completely agree! I also think that plastic is affecting global warming big time. As a person who uses plastic often i try and reduce the amount I use. I also think of alternatives that I could use instead of plastic.

I agree as well, and if we only take what we need and not waste much, we can reduce out food waste, and our plastic waste by a lot! I try to use more reusable containers but we need to make more things that can replace plastic so more people can reduce their carbon footprint!

Totally agree with the reusable thing, but until then, biodegradable plastics like PLA are great!

I completely agree with reusing bags and biodegradable plastics. But for the biodegradable plastics, they may take a long time to fully degrade. I believe companies (and others) should be working hard to develop plastics and other materials that can biodegrade quickly.

I also agree and always try to use reusable containers and bags when they are around.

If we can find a material that has the same usage of plastic and won't take us back in any other way its a great idea, but We have to remember that if there was an way solution to this problem we would have already solved it

a lot of plastic things can be made from non-petroleum sources, but these still do take a long time to degrade under most conditions

I also agree, whenever I go to the store I use a re-usable bag to help cut down on my plastic use.

I was listening to Komo News, and BPA is a big health concern that can come from plastic. I think London has banned it already.