The document discusses plastic pollution and the environmental issues caused by plastic. It notes that plastic persists in the environment for a long time and ends up in oceans and waterways, harming wildlife. While plastic has many uses, the document discusses how plastic is not truly recycled and instead is usually downcycled into lower quality materials. Much of the plastic waste generated is not recycled and ends up polluting the environment. The prevalence of plastic is an environmental problem because of the persistence of plastic in the natural world.

1. KARTHICK.G.K
DEPT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

2.  Many economists, environmentalists, and citizens
have recently criticized the gross national product.
The criticism stems from the fact that this
measurement of national product does not account for
environmental degradation and resource depletion. A
new approach to the situation of allocating these
omitted environmental features in the national
product has been the advent of the green national
product.

3.  Lots of manufacturers call their products “green,”
but are they? Here’s our guide to the high-
performance attributes that matter.
 “Green Attributes”—a set of broad criteria and
definitions, knit together with life-cycle thinking.
Translated into the practice of design and
construction, they help distinguish green from
greenwash, evaluate the relative greenness of
different product alternatives, and make
appropriate product selection choices to ensure a
high-performing, healthy building with the
lowest possible impact.

4.  Green products and services provide intrinsic
benefits for the university. Examples include
products that are reusable, energy efficient (or
have greater efficiencies than industry
standards), made with post-consumer materials,
have reduced toxicity properties, manufactured
with minimal environmental impact, and are
delivered in eco-responsible packaging or
containers. Green products are no longer limited
to recycled paper or remanufactured toner
cartridges. Examples of the types of green
products that university suppliers provide are:

5. Laboratory chemicals that can be easily
disposed of without harming the environment
Cleaning supplies with less harsh and safer
formulas
Wide variety of items made from 100% post
consumer materials or recycled products
Unique items made from replenishable natural
resources such as corn and soy
Energy efficient laboratory equipment such as
safety cabinets

6. Disposing used materials (i.e., carpeting
and catalogs) in recycling centers
Replacing mercury thermometers with
one with less hazardous materials
Investing in reusable shipping containers
and eco-friendly packaging materials
Managing a program for collecting and
recycling pipette boxes and inserts for U-
M labs
Assisting departments and Procurement
Services with sourcing and identifying
green products

7.  Plastic pollution involves the accumulation of plastic
products in the environment that adversely affects wildlife,
wildlife habitat, or humans.[1] Many types and forms of
plastic pollution exist. Plastic pollution can adversely affect
lands, waterways and oceans. Plastic reduction efforts have
occurred in some areas in attempts to reduce plastic
consumption and promote plastic recycling. The
prominence of plastic pollution is correlated with plastics
being inexpensive and durable, which lends to high levels
of plastics used by humans.[2]


8.  I remember when plastic meant cheap and shoddy. People
bought plastic stuff largely because either they didn’t need
a really good product or because they couldn’t afford it.
Many scoffed at credit cards as mere plastic money. I
haven’t heard that kind of talk for decades. Industry has
invented many new kinds of plastic and discovered
applications for which it is a superior material. Now, plastic
is everywhere. I loved plastic grocery bags when they first
came out. After years of begging clerks to try to fit
everything into one paper bag because I had to get it home
on the bus. I truly loved carrying several plastic bags in
each hand easily even after I got a car as long as I lived
within walking distance of a store. What’s not to love about
plastic? The environmental problems it causes.

9.  Some people finish drinking something out of a plastic
bottle and then toss it out the window of their car. It’s
an eyesore there, but it doesn’t stay there. Eventually,
rain water will move it until it lands in a storm sewer or
a stream. Every ocean in the world has plastic trash in
it. Plastic washes up on the most remote and pristine
beaches. It would be bad enough if plastic were only an
eyesore, but plastic pollution also creates an
environmental hazard.

10.  Ah, plastics. We might be quick to smother this
question with a long-winded attack on the plastics
industry and plastics consumption entirely. After all,
plastics are made from fossil fuels—four percent of the
world's annual petroleum production is converted
directly into making plastics, and another four percent
gets burned to fuel the process. On top of whatever
other problems we might have with plastic, surely this
nonrenewable product must be a net contributor to
our global climate problem, too. Yet the truth about
plastics is a little more complicated.

11.  Plastic is found in virtually everything these days. Your food and
hygiene products are packaged in it. Your car, phone and
computer are made from it. And you might even chew on it daily
in the form of gum. While most plastics are touted as recyclable,
the reality is that they're “downcycled.” A plastic milk carton can
never be recycled into another carton — it can be made into a
lower-quality item like plastic lumber, which can’t be recycled.

 How big is our plastic problem? Of the 30 million tons of plastic
waste generated in the U.S. in 2009, only 7 percent was recovered
for recycling. This plastic waste ends up in landfills, beaches,
rivers and oceans and contributes to such devastating problems
as the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch, a swirling vortex of
garbage the size of a continent where plastic outnumbers
plankton. Plus, most plastic is made from oil.