Plastic Pollution Explanation Writing

Did you know that it takes some plastic over 400 years to break down? Some of that plastic is slowly breaking down in our oceans, on land, and even in the stomachs of birds, fish, and sea animals. Plastic is made from natural materials such as cellulose, coal, natural gas, salt and crude oil. Plastic pollution is a big problem, and is killing the planet, and the creatures on it.

Firstly, microbeads. Microbeads are tiny bits of plastics that can be found in some products such as toothpaste, facial scrubs, hand sanitiser and more. But microbeads are not good for our oceans, Microbeads could leach toxic chemicals to any animal that consumes it. Microbeads are banned in some countries like Canada, USA, Sweden, France, UK, Scotland, Netherlands, Wales, South Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Northern Ireland and Australia.

Next, small packaging. lots of small packaging, and bits of plastic are found in animals (fish, birds, sea animals and more.) to solve this problem, we could buy things in bulk. By buying (foods, drinks, and more) in bulk, you don’t have lots of small packaging, but bigger containers and cardboard packaging that contains more, and isn’t small enough to fit in a sea turtle stomach. Things like single serving yogurts, or travel sized toiletries, could change into bigger containers of yogurt, and bigger tubes of toothpaste, soaps, and more toiletries.

A lot of plastic can be found holding your food, and maybe around the house. Plastic is a part of our daily lives, and it’s getting worse for the environment. We could reduce our use of plastic by (at the supermarket,) using reusable bags instead of plastic bags (which are banned in NZ), and (anywhere,) using metal water bottles instead of plastic water bottles, and maybe when you eat out, or even at home, instead of using plastic straws and cooking, and eating utensils, use metal, glass, or just reusable straws and cooking and eating utensils.

In conclusion, plastic is a problem on our planet, it can be found in lots of different things, including packaging, as microbeads in products. The microbeads in some products can lead to the ocean, and into fish, which people eat. But there are ways to replace it, for example, using mesh/reusable bags to carry our vegetables at the supermarket, or reuse packaging. You could reuse packaging for things like art, or to fix something. It’s much better in your house as art, then in a seagull's stomach. Remember the five R’s, reduce, reuse, recycle, re purpose, and refuse.