Saying No To Single-Use Plastics
*Author’s note: I feel that at times, we all forget that our world is becoming more and more polluted. Most of us are aware of this issue, yet instead of taking action, we still continue to take straws from every restaurant we go to, buy plastic water bottles or fountain drinks in plastic cups when we are out, and use the plastic shopping bags that most stores provide for us–simply because it is “easy”. Now although taking the easy way out is what we as humans want to do, it is common knowledge that nothing worth having comes easy, and it is important that we acknowledge this ongoing issue.
You may or may not have heard of the saying “Save the turtles”, that was most popular during the 2019 VSCO girl (someone who edits photos on the app VSCO) trend that was all over social media and promoted the use of metal straws and eco-friendly devices. Well whether you know what a VSCO girl is or not, it is common knowledge that plastic is polluting our planet, and it is necessary for us to try to stop it. While most people would say that just one person cannot help the world, this is not the case. Just one person alone can benefit our planet in many ways, whether that is using a reusable/metal straw, skipping the plastic bags at the grocery store, or having a reusable water bottle.
One of the most easy ways to eliminate plastic waste is to use a reusable straw, or to just simply skip the straw. According to ecocycle, in the U.S. alone, 500 million plastic straws are used a day, which by itself is enough to fill 125 school buses with straws. On average, a human uses 1.6 plastic straws per day (which is 584 straws a year), according to the National Park Service, and according to Seth Borenstein, humans as a whole use over 8.3 billion straws a year. Although this doesn’t seem like too big of a deal, it takes around 200 years for just one plastic straw to decompose. Currently, there are over 437 million plastic straws on coastlines around the world, and most of these straws will end up in the ocean due to being left on the beach in seaside communities and littoral resorts, falling out of overfilled trash cans, and excessive litter. This is fatal because according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy, over 100 million marine animals die each year from plastic in their habitats. Using a reusable straw not only benefits our environment but also helps save our world’s marine life.
Plastic bags are some of the most abundant plastics in the world that will end up in oceans and harm marine life. Over 100,000 marine animals die from plastic bags a year, and it has been found that one in three leatherback sea turtles have plastic bags in their stomachs, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Plastic bags will take around 20 years to biodegrade, and although this is not as long as plastic straws, if just 4 family shopping trips can accumulate over 60 plastic shopping bags, this adds up to a lot of plastic bags just sitting around. A simple solution to this problem is to invest in a reusable shopping bag that will last you multiple shopping trips. By using a reusable shopping bag, you are not supporting the demand for companies to produce more plastic bags, and you are also helping the environment.
If you go out to eat and purchase a bottled or fountain drink, it is most likely that you will not be recycling the plastic bottle that comes afterwards. Instead, a better alternative is to bring your own reusable water bottle with you, for as reported by Habits of Waste, over 50 billion plastic bottles are used each year, and only 9% of those are recycled. This is concerning because more than 8 million tons of plastic bottles end up in the ocean annually, and it takes over 450 years for plastic bottles to decompose into microplastics in the ocean. If you were to use a reusable bottle instead of a single use plastic bottle for a year, you would be saving around 167 plastic bottles and would be stopping the demand for the production of more harmful plastics.
The production and use of harmful plastics is hurting our environment tremendously by polluting our Earth’s oceans and harming marine life. According to Jonathon Gatehouse, it is estimated that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fishes in the ocean in numbers. One of the many reasons that this will be fatal is because plastic traps sunlight on the ocean’s surface, meaning that heat will not be able to travel to the depths of the ocean, which will disturb fishes’ natural habitats. When the fish that humans consume ingest plastic materials, these harmful plastics and chemicals will make their way into our own food systems. The chemicals found in microplastics can cause several health issues if found in the human body. Some of these issues include organ problems, reproductive harm, developmental delays in growing children, obesity, and more. This can be prevented if everyone were to limit their use of plastics and instead utilize reusable straws, reusable bags, and reusable water bottles, for by doing so, we would be stopping the demand for the production of plastic materials and saving our Earth as a whole.
Works Cited:
Some statistics from- ecocycle. 2021.
Be Straw Free Frequently Asked Questions. [online] Available at: <https://www.ecocycle.org/bestrawfree/faqs> [Accessed 25 March 2021].
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U.S. National Park Service. 2021. The Be Straw Free Campaign. [online] Available at: <https://www.nps.gov/articles/straw-free.htm> [Accessed 25 March 2021].
Phys.org. 2021. Science Says: Amount of straws, plastic pollution is huge. [online] Available at: <https://phys.org/news/2018-04-science-amount-straws-plastic-pollution.html> [Accessed 25 March 2021].
Conserveturtles.org. 2021. Information About Sea Turtles: Threats from Marine Debris – Sea Turtle Conservancy. [online] Available at: <https://www.conserveturtles.org/information-sea-turtles-threats-marine-debris/> [Accessed 25 March 2021].
World Economic Forum. 2021. This is how long everyday plastic items last in the ocean. [online] Available at: <https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/11/chart-of-the-day-this-is-how-long-everyday-plastic-items-last-in-the-ocean/> [Accessed 25 March 2021].
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L'Aquàrium and WATER BOTTLES IN THE SEA, T., 2021. WATER BOTTLES IN THE SEA, THE BIG THREAT FACING THE OCEANS - L'Aquàrium. [online] L'Aquàrium. Available at: <https://www.aquariumbcn.com/en/blog/conservation-and-sustainability/water-bottles-in-the-sea-the-big-threat-facing-the-oceans/> [Accessed 25 March 2021].