My Speech
Title: Plastic bags
I am transparent and often mistaken for jellyfish. I pollute the environment and can block drains. It takes me 1000 years to decompose. I can get into the soil and release toxic chemicals. Animals eat me, then die. What am I? I’m a plastic bag.
It might not sound like much but it is a big problem. Every minute one rubbish truck worth of plastic is dumped in the ocean. Woah, that is WAY too much! I think all of us should stop using plastic bags.
My first reason is because they harm wildlife. Animals think the plastic is food so they eat it and die. Over 100 million marine animals are killed every year because of plastic in the ocean. Scientists estimate that there are 100 million tons of plastic in oceans around the world. It is expected that another 60 billion tons will be produced this year alone!
Sometimes plastic ends up as part of a food chain. A fish think it is food and eats it. Then another fish eats that fish and then we catch the fish and realize that it has eaten plastic and cannot eat it. Or even worse, we eat plastic contaminated fish. Yuck! Now 500 species are known to be affected by plastic bag pollution because of us!
Approximately 1 million seabirds die from plastic. The seabirds, they eat plastic bags thinking it is food and cannot digest it so they die. Also they can get caught in the plastic bag handles that are floating in the sea or on land and die because they cannot move. Sounds sad right? Well that is the exact reason why we have to stop using them.
On average we only recycle one plastic bag in every 200 we use. Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as rubbish each year.
There is only one person who can make a change. That person can make a big difference and that person is you! Start by using reusable bags. Now in some stores you can get a reusable bag and get it replaced for free! You are the one that can make a difference. Start today!
