Persuasive Essay About Plastic Pollution

However, you are right because all of us should be concerned about this trend and join the Plastic Pollution Coalition. It is important to do it, considering that tons of plastic containers are polluting our sea, rivers, and beaches around the globe (Gould, page 175). This problem seriously affects the survival of wildlife planets and animals. Just recently I heard in the national Geographic channel that, almost 11 million tons of plastic debris and more than 15 billion of trash is being dumped in the oceans every year. Sad statistics that are breaking the natural equilibrium of our sea ecosystems and sooner or later we will be paying the consequences of our irresponsibility, ignorance, and lack of self-awareness. We must stop right now. With

Plastic – an American-made synthetic material, renowned and praised for its almost indestructible quality and versatility, yet on the contrary has had detrimental consequences on our environment and ourselves. It is quite amazing to observe how plastic has completely changed our way of life. In Susan Freinkel’s book “Plastic: a Toxic Love Story” she writes about the effects of plastic on our world. The author points out, a commonly overlooked fact, that plastic is literally everywhere. Plastic is in the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the cups we drink from, and sometimes even the ground we walk on. Two chemical bonds made in a laboratory have forever changed the way we live, through small commodities like

In 1988, it was determined that the United States alone, was producing 30 million tonnes of plastic per year (Derraik, J.G.B., 2002). This can be compared with the global and annual production of 260 million tonnes of plastic as of 2012 (Pearson, E., 2014). Plastics are lightweight, durable, and cheap to make. This makes them incredibly easy to sell and manufacture. However, these attributes are many of the reasons why plastics are the most prominent type of marine debris, and why they are a serious hazard to various ecosystems and the organisms that live within them (Derraik, J.G.B.,

Plastic in the ocean breaks down into such small segments that pieces of plastic from a one liter bottle could end up on every mile of beach throughout the world.

A pile of plastic bags sits on the floor from the last shopping trip. A trip that consisted of long lines and other customers' screaming children that needed their nap. What do you do with the bags? Maybe throwing them away would be easy, but why waste those hard-earned plastic bags if you could do something with them? If you make your monstrous pile of bags into a rope, they won't be wasted. A rope can be used for many things including tug-of-war, tire swing, etc.

Americans use over 500 million plastic straws every single day—that’s enough to circle the earth’s circumference 2.5 times (Ives et al 2017). By 2050, there will be more plastic debris in the ocean than fish (Kaplan 2016). These staggering statistics are unacceptable and it is our duty to find a realistic, sustainable solution to the issue.

In conclusion, it should have been learned that the issue of plastic pollution has become ruinous. The cost of repair and the inconvenience of lifestyle changes cannot compare to the frightful future this planet is headed. At current rates, hazards are not just inflicted on Earth's oceans but individual human health and the other creatures that rightly inhabit this land. With this concern

In the article When the Mermaids Cry” The Great Plastic Tide by Claire Le Guern Lytle, she wrote “For more than 50 years, global production and consumption of plastics have continued to rise. An estimated 299 million tons of plastics were produced in 2013, representing a 4 percent increase over 2012, and confirming and upward trend over the past years” This means that more and more trash is added to the 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the ocean. Almost everything around us is made out of plastic, this is later misused and ending in the wrong place. The Center for Biological Diversity wrote “In the first decade of this century, we made more plastic than all the plastic in history up to the year 2000. And every year, billions of pounds of plastic end up in the world’s oceans. Most ocean pollution starts out on land and is carried by wind and rain to the sea. Once in the water, there is a near-continuous accumulation of waste.” Our plastic is misplaced and it escalates from there. However, plastic pollution hurts us as well. “Trash in the water compromises the health of humans, wildlife and the livelihoods that depend on a healthy ocean;” wrote a non-profit group called Ocean Conservation. If our oceans are covered in trash, everyone that relies on the ocean is going to suffer. The effect is not just in our health, it also affects our economy. Ocean Conservation also

Some ways that plastic enters the marine environment can be  through improper waste management, intentional or accidental dumping and littering near shorelines or at sea, or it could even be through stormwater runoff carrying them to sea. “Plastics are used in many aspects of daily life and are a big part of our waste stream. Many plastics are colorful and will float in water, which makes plastic debris a very visible part of the marine debris problem.”(OR&R's Marine Debris)”. Plastic is used by humans everyday because it is in mostly everything. From phones to water bottles to your toothbrush. Plastic comes in many colors and can easily seen floating on the water's surface. That means that it is even easier for fish to see and be mistaken for food.

Where does all the plastic go. Every bit of plastic that has been created is still here. This is because plastic is one-hundred percent non-biodegradable! Even the most degraded plastic down to polymers cannot be digested by bacteria (Laist, 1997). If global issues like starvation and climate change are not enough to stress on, the weight of an issue literally churning in the Pacific Ocean is startling. For decades the majority of the world’s population has not been properly educated on the nature of plastic and the potential harm it can do to our environment and our physical health. Due to factors of man and the natural effects of nature, a major problem has developed that is now harming our food.

Plastic pollution affects every waterway, sea and ocean in the world. When we damage our water

The numbers of how much plastic and trash that are dumped into our oceans every year are sickening. According to Julie Mailto (2017) from her website Plastic Oceans, “More than 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans every year” (para. 1). Plastic debris in oceans affect more than just simply ocean plants. Around 250 species of ocean animals are affected and are known to suffer from the consequences of severe plastic pollution. Reusable plastics are a great alternative to single use plastics. By using refillable water bottles the amount of plastic waste could be drastically decreased. Not using plastic straws, silverware, and sandwich bags could also lessen the effect of waste in our oceans. Recycling is the best way to cut back on how much debris ends up in the water. I have been recycling since I can remember. If people got paid to recycle then everyone would without question. I believe recycling should be a law in our state because it already is in other states and has been shown to reduce waste pollution so I believe it needs to be implicated in ours.

With the combination of polymers that don’t biodegrade and mass overproduction, companies are harming the environment in severe ways. Plastic, a material seen everywhere, is a polymer made from oil. It is mass produced to make everything from shampoo bottles to automobiles and does not biodegrade. When it is eventually thrown out, the waste usually finds it way into the ocean, where it is either buried under sediment or eaten by marine life (Weisman 287-295). Creating a material that will ultimately kill marine life will undoubtedly wreak havoc on the

This has been done over and over again throughout the years. All though plastic is biodegradable, it takes an average of 450 years for it to do so. Some bottles can take up to 1000 years for this to happen. By that time our planet will not be able to support such thing and will give up on us. Plastic usually breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic over the years before it to fully biodegrade. These tiny pieces of plastic are eaten by so many marine animals that live around them and every single animal that eats these tiny pieces are affected by it and many times die. All these tons of plastic don’t just disappear or get eaten by the animals though, they accumulate. The great pacific garbage patch is an example of this happening. This area is around 7 million tons heavy and twice the size of texas, it can also get 9 feet deep. Facts say that there is 6 times more plastic than plankton. In case you didn 't know, plankton is the main food for many animals living in the ocean, from small fish to the great whale shark depend on plankton to stay alive.

The overuse of plastics in today's society has become major environmental issue for our oceans. Plastic pollution is the dumping, littering, or disposing of any type of man-made plastic that has been produced and has ended up in our ocean and has not been recycled.