COURSE CODE: UU114

COURSE NAME: English for Academic Purposes

REPORT TITLE

A Case Study of Single Use of Plastics in Vatuwaqa Settlement.

ABSTRACT
This report is written on a case study of single use of plastics in Vatuwaqa area and

how people tend to use plastics, issues regarding plastic usage well as its effects it

has on the climate. The methods used to meet the objectives added the distribution

of questionnaires, general procedure and library research. The results show the

usage of plastics and reasons behind it. This result will also make recommendations

regarding single use of plastics.

Table of Content
Abstract

Table of Content

List of Figures

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Methods

2.1 General procedure

2.2 Questionnaire

2.3 Library research

3.0 Results

3.1 Results from questionnaire

3.1.1 Uses of plastics

3.1.2 How many times plastics are used

3.1.3 Harmful effects of plastic usage

3.1.4 Intensity of various types of plastics

4.0 Discussion

5.0 Conclusion

6.0 Recommendation

7.0 Bibliography

8.0 Appendix

List of Figures
3.1.1 Uses of plastic

3.1.2 How many times plastics are used

3.1.3 Harmful effects of plastic usage

3.1.4 Intensity of various types of plastics

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Plastics usage has been a growing issue for Fiji. Plastics are the major contributing

factor of this pollution. This report focuses on the single use of plastics in the

settlement, questions were raised to the people about the usage of plastics and what

were some of the advocates taken prior to the issue being raised. This report will

also highlight some aspects where government and the settlements people could

work hand in hand to resolve the issue of the usage of plastics in homes and the

society.

This report is based on the society of Vatuwaqa. The commoners of Vatuwaqa tend

to use most of the plastics since it lies in the urban area and regardless of knowing

the dominant effect it plays in the climate change. Plastics are not eco-friendly in

terms of biodegradability (Shah.A.A,Hasan.F,Hameed.A,Ahmad.S.2009). The

production of plastics has increased in decades.

(Hopewell.J,Dvorak.R,Kosior.E.2009) Due to the unprecedented amounts of plastics

the ocean organisms and animals are currently threatened

(Sankar.K,Srain.H.S,Thavarajah.V.2018). Pollution of plastics damage land,

waterways and ocean. The prevalence of plastics in ocean become diet of some

organisms which can either lead to death, mechanical effects or exposure to

chemicals within plastics which harms their

physiology(Bergland.H,Pedersen.P.A.2019).

It is expected that government and commoners to put in its efforts to contemplate the

issue of plastics pollution. New methods should be improvised for the betterment of

organisms and animals. It is hypothesized that in this report not only the worst but

some recommendations will be suggested to alter the scenario in Vatuwaqa

regarding plastic pollution.

2.0 METHODS

GENERAL PROCEDURE
A research was carried out to get as much as information about the single use of

plastics in Vatuwaqa Area. It was found that majority of the people in Vatuwaqa use

plastics as a source of catering stuffs. A visit to people’s homes in Vatuwaqa

revealed the opportunities for the questionnaires which were given to them. After

four days of time frame given to them a second visit was made to their homes to

collect the questionnaires.

QUESTIOANNAIRE

A questionnaire was designed to collect information on the people’s thoughts. The

first set of 16 questionnaires was given to the people of Vatuwaqa. The people of

Vatuwaqa were asked politely to return the filled questions after four days. The

questions on the questionnaire looked at the intensity of the usage of plastics,

consequences and what were some of the actions taken.

LIBRARY RESEARCH

University of South Pacific library was used to gather information. Reference texts

which highlight the single use of plastics comparatively supported the case study.

Books relating to the concerned topic were also available at the library which

depicted multiple ideas needed in the assignment write up.

3.0 RESULTS
3.1 RESULTS FROM QUESTIONAIRES TO COMMUTERS OF
VATUWAQA.
3.1.1 USES OF PLASTICS
The following figure describes the use of plastics in Vatuwaqa area. This graph is
drawn from a sample of 16 people.
Figure1: Pie Chart for uses of plastics.

USES OF PLASTICS

6%
19%

50%

25%

SHOPPING PACKING STORAGE OTHERS

Fig.1 shows the average response from the sample of 16 people having a propensity
to use plastics.

3.1.2 HOW MANY TIMES SINGLE PLASTICS ARE USED.

The following figure describes how many times a single plastics are used.
Figure2: Bar Graph Showing How Many Times Single Plastics Are Used.
 HOW MANY TIMES PLASTICS ARE USED

8
MORE THAN TWICE

TWICE 4

ONCE
4

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

MORE THAN TWICE TWICE ONCE

Fig2 shows the average response from the commuters regarding how many times
plastics are used.

3.1.3 Harmful Effects of Plastic Usage

The following figure describes the harmful effects of plastics.
Figure3: Bar Graph Showing Harmful Effects of Plastics.
 Harmful Effects Of Plastics
9

8
8
7

5 Results
5
4

3
3
2

0
LAND POLLUTION GLOBAL WARMING LOSS OF MARINE OTHERS
0
ORGANISM
Fig
3 shows the average response from the commuters regarding the harmful effects of
plastics.
3.1.4 Intensity of Various Types of Plastics
The following figure describes the intensity of various types of plastics on the
Environment.
Figure 4 : Line Graph Showing The Intensity of Various Types Of Plastics.

INTENSITY OF VA R IOUS TYPES OF

18 PLA STICS
16
WEAK CASE MODERATE CASE STRONG CASE NO OPINION
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
SNACK WRAPPERS TAKEAWAY BOXERS STRAWS LIGHTWEIGHT OTHERS
SHOPPING BAGS

Fig4 shows the average response from the commuters regarding the intensity of
various types of plastics.
4.0 DISCUSSION

The results from first graph illustrates the propensity of people using plastics in their

homes. Out of 16 questionnaires, 8 people responded they use plastics for storage

usage, 4 use it as packaging, 3 tend to use for storage purposes whereas an

individual use it as an other relevant use. As a result, commoner’s of Vatuwaqa area

have different or same uses of plastics.

The second graph illustrates how many times a single plastic are used. Therefore 4

people said they use plastics once, another 4 of the respondents use it twice, while 8

tend to use it more than twice such as shopping be major factor contributing to the

usage or more plastics.

The third graph illustrates the harmful effects of using plastics. Therefore, 8

respondents said that usage of plastics would result in harmful effects such as land

pollution, while 3 of the people said that it would result in global warming, remaining

5 said that it would lead to loss of marine organisms and none supported for the

others.

The final graph depicts the intensity of various types of plastics, it was visualised

from the analysis that snack wrappers is a strong case according to 11 people,

moderate for 4 people and its weak case for 1. For takeaway boxes 9 categorise it

as strong case whereas 7 said its weak case. For straws 8 people voted that it’s a

moderate case, 2 voted it as strong and 6 said it’s a weak case while all 16

supported light weight plastics as a strong case and none supported for others.
Therefore, this results show the different perspectives of different people regarding

the usage of plastics. Since Vatuwaqa lies in central area people tend to use more

plastics regardless of knowing its menace.

5.0 CONCLUSION

This report sum-up’s to some extent, as it holds authenticity. Therefore, assumptions

can be made regarding the single use of plastics in Vatuwaqa and effects it holds to

the people as well as the environment. However, time was a major factor which

hindered the people to return the questionnaires. This would provide more data in

regards to the single use of plastics in Vatuwaqa.

The afterwards research work regarding this topic should be in depth and more set

of questionnaires should be given to people ,accumulate more statistics and if

regardless of time issue a wider area of Vatuwaqa should be covered. The

researcher should be more considerate on the issues on plastics.

However, this research has revealed that usage of plastics in every household is

common since it lies in urban area people tend to use more plastics regardless of

knowing the dominant effect on the climate. Also, it can be asserted that there are

many campaigns and awareness raised by the government and the people of

Vatuwaqa showed concerns in regards to work hand in hand to cope up with the

plastic issue.
6.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

The following recommendations are suggested:

 Levy on the buying of plastics should be increased.

 More awareness programmes should be carried out.

 3R’s programmes should be practised.

 Environmental projects should be supported.

7.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ahmed.S, Hameed.A, Hasan.F, Shah.A.A, 2009, Biological degradation of

plastics: A comprehensive review ,Elsevier.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2009.12.005

Bergland.H,Pedersen.P.A. 2018, Reducing Marine Pollution from Single Use

Plastics, School for Resource and Environmental studies, Canada.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X18307033

Kosior.E, Dvorak.R, Hopewell.J, 2009, Plastics recycling: challenges and

opportunities,The Royal Society.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0311

Sankar.K, Srain.H.S, Thavarajah.v.2018, Reducing marine pollution from

single-use plastics( SUPS): A review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.10.001