In our daily lives, people who throw away plastic instead of recycling it every day. People who throw away all that plastic don’t realize that it’s causing harm to the environment. There are many things that people throw out and don’t realize are plastic.
We have to find ways to reduce plastic waste because the more plastic we use, the more polluted the air and water get. There are many ways to reduce plastic waste but we have to put effort into making a change. In our daily lives, 90% of the plastic items we use are used only once and then thrown away. If we can bring down that percentage then it would avoid polluting the environment.
Plastic straws are a very big factor causing plastic waste. Every day there are 500 million straws being used in the USA, and none of these straws are recyclable due to the materials used to make them and their small size. Many end up in landfills, are burnt, or leak into the environment. This is harmful to the environment because it’s polluting not only the air but also the water, which is harmful to marine life and humans as well because they pollute places we rely on to get our water.
Microbeads are another factor contributing to plastic waste. Microbeads are found in many things we wouldn’t expect: they are found in many beauty products, facial scrubs, and many other products. The tiny size of these microbeads makes it easy to slip through water treatment plans.
There are many solutions to help reduce plastic waste in the environment, but we as people in the community have to be willing to make this change. Recycling is an important action people can take. We need to improve this because less than 14 percent of plastic packaging is recycled. Some people are lazy or don’t know what bin something goes in but that’s an easy fix. Most beverage bottles and liquid cleaner bottles have a number on the bottom that says which bin it belongs in. I believe that people should look into recycling and what are the positive impacts it has on the environment. They should be educated on why pollution harms the environment, and how it can be dangerous. Looking into sources would be a helpful way of educating people on how to dispose of things the correct way.
There are many people who don’t even try and take time out of their day to make sure something is thrown in the correct bin and just throw it away in any bin they see, which is not the right thing to do because doing this affects not only the environment but even the person who isn’t mindful of doing the right thing.
People across California should care about this issue because not taking care of the environment can have negative effects, like many nice tourist areas will get very polluted due to the decisions we people make. If everyone is willing to take action and make a change to reduce the usage of plastic, the environment will be so much better. An important thing to remember is the 6 R’s which are Reduce, Redesign, Reuse and Recycle, Reimagine, and Rethink process. Making a change overall is important because if we don’t do our part to avoid so much plastic waste then we will continue to have air pollution which is a factor causing climate change. We should definitely try and make a change to avoid more air pollution.
