Plastic bans

Plastic bans are laws that prohibit the use of polymers manufactured from petroleum or other fossil fuels, given the pollution and threat to biodiversity that they cause. A number of countries have instituted plastic bag bans, and a ban on single-use plastic (such as throw-away forks or plates), and are looking to spread bans to all plastic packaging, plastic clothing (such as polyester and acrylic fiber, or any other form of unnecessary plastic that could be replaced with an easily biodegradable, non-fossil-fuel or non-polluting alternative. Plastics biodegrade over a long period of time and may not biodegrade fully (so that they are absorbed into the ecosystemic) leaving traces of microplastics, ranging from 450 years for a PET plastic bottle (type 1) to thousands "never" for polypropylene-based products, including food containers (type 5). Plastic bans are particularly initiated to stop or reduce pollution. Pollution is one of the large factors for plastic bans. It also can damage the internal digestive tracts of animals. Another big factor is animals getting ensnared in plastic, which, in turn results in animal population being reduced.