Ocean and Plastic Waste

Plastic pollution is very relevant right now as many places including my home town of Salem, Massachusetts, have banned plastic bags, and big places like Miami Beach and Malibu have banned plastic straws. A circling graphic video filmed in 2015 by Christine Figger, biologist, sharing what happens when a sea turtle came into contact with a plastic straw, started gaining traction until 2018, creating a huge media buzz to the beginning of banning plastic straws. Many companies are now making reusable straws and I recommend grabbing one from Front St. Cafe, if you are also from the Salem area. Many people mention the statistic that is 0.025 percent of comprised plastic polluting the ocean is straws. But what many people fail to mention is that 8 million tons of plastic waste is entering the ocean, making that two thousand tons of straws and if we think about how light a straw weighs about .42 grams.Another ban that has been very important is the plastic bag ban. It is deemed to be unnecessary to use plastic bags when many people have reusable bags, but just forget them. Cities and states including all of California and New York, have implemented bans not just for the ocean but because the environment including our everyday streets continue to be littered with these bags. If a plastic bag is floating around the ocean, like straws, they affect marine life by animals becoming entangled or choking consuming a plastic bag and mistaking it for a sea animal. In the environment a plastic bag takes about 20 years to decompose. To do your part in helping the environment please purchase a reusable bag, or use one you may already have to help the environment.These are just two things that you can do to help the environment and ocean. It is important that we do this not just for the animals whose habitats are being endangered but for us as people. When particles or pieces of plastic and everything that once touched or was in the bag or straw are consumed by animals, our source of marine food is being polluted with toxins we end up ingesting just like the animal itself. Do your part in helping, you would not do this to yourself why let it happen to our home. Share this article, and advocate for better and more regulated plastic use!Photo by Anna Shvets from PexelsExternal Source:https://www.

nationalgeographic.

com/environment/2018/07/news-plastic-drinking-straw-history-ban/

·RELATED QUESTION

HELP! I dropped a plastic straw in my gas tank!!!?

forget about it. aint gonna hurt nothin