PLASTIC POLLUTION AND THE EFFECT OF POLYETHYLENE ON GLOBAL WARMING

KARADENIZ 16th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLIED SCIENCES, Bartın, Türkiye, 16 - 18 Ağustos 2024, ss.373-382

Plastics, which were discovered in the second half of the 19th century and whose production

and consumption have increased exponentially since then, creat various threats. Plastics, which

are widely used due to their easily obtainable and useable, have accumulated a lot from past to

present. Plastic materials, which have many types and subtypes, cause many risk factors and

damages during their production and degradation processes. These plastics to with different

size, which has a critical role to pollution of in soil, water and air, not only threaten the health

of living things, but also negatively affect the environment in which living things live. It can

cause many damages such as death, tissue and organ loss, genotoxicity, neurotoxicity,

impairment in metabolic activities, reproductive and behavioral disorders in macro and micro

organisms. Also, they cause negative effects on the atmosphere and ozone layer due to the

greenhouse gases they emit into the environment during the production and degradation

processes. Therefore, there seems to be an increase in the effects of climate change and global

warming. The alternative studies such as about biological pathways in the degradation of

plastics are being carried out to reduce and prevent these effects. Plastic products produced

using biologically based resources instead of fossil resources and researching biological

pathways in the degradation of plastics are the most important alternatives. However, research

are still insufficient in terms of production and high cost to increase its applicability and become

widespread. However, this researches' results it is estimated that it will become more applicable

and widespread in the future with the development and changes to the technology.