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  • Essay / Plastic: photodegradation vs. Biodegradation

    Plastic is generally a durable material. Its durability has created problems in this matter, as it is believed to be immune to environmental biodegradation processes. The microbes that break down alternative substances do not recognize plastic as food. However, plastic can be fragmented by ultraviolet light, being weakened by the light into metal particles and metal debris over time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. Biodegradation, the breakdown of natural substances by the environment, suggests that it happens all the time in the environment. All substances of plant, animal or mineral origin can, over time, biodegrade. In its critical state, crude oil can biodegrade, but humans will not produce petrochemical compounds from oil, including plastic. Why not now? Because plastic can be a combination of components extracted from petroleum and then remixed by men in white coats. therefore, since these combos are produced by man, they are unknown to nature. Therefore, it is believed that there is no natural system to interrupt them. The enzymes and microorganisms responsible for breaking down naturally occurring organic matter, such as dead animals, rocks, plants and minerals, do not recognize them. This means that plastic objects are said to be indestructible, at least in a biodegradable sense. Overall, in the long term, we all know that plastic can eventually photodegrade, that is, break down into metal and metal fragments as a result of exposure to sunlight. The photodegradation process continues down to the molecular level, however photodegraded plastic remains a chemical compound. Even if the objects are tiny, they are always and forever plastic, that is, they are neither consumed nor modified by normal processes. In the ocean, the process of plastic fragmentation occurs in the same way, due to the action and reaction of waves, sand. Of particular concern is measuring the tiny floating plastic fragments typically referred to in the media as mermaids' tears, which measure the small cores of raw plastic organic compound that make up the building material of every factory-made plastic product, or measure household waste granules which have fragmented over the years. Regardless, mermaid tears, or divided plastic waste, reaching infinitesimal size after a while, remain everywhere and are relatively difficult to wash away. They are light enough to float in the breeze and arrive in land seas. Mermaid tears are regularly found in channel-eating organisms like mussels, barnacles, arenophores and amphipods. Therefore, photodegradation of plastic waste aggravates the situation. Plastic becomes microscopic, invisible, but it still pollutes waters, coasts, seabeds, beaches, being ingested by even smaller marine organisms, therefore entering insidiously and inevitably into the food chain. Since plastic belongs to a chemical family of high polymers, they are essentially created from an extended chain of molecules containing repeating units of carbon atoms. Because of this inherent molecular stability (high molecular weight), plastics do not simply break down into less complicated parts. Plastics decompose, although.