Stop Using Plastic or Recycle Journalism October 17, 2018October 25, 2018 Stop Using Plastic or Recycle October 16th 2018 Cora Pereira The amount of global plastic consumption is poisoning our planet! Plastic is being used in so many factories and facilities for packaging, containment, and much more. Plastic waste is one of the many current issues of our time. We use so much plastic in our everyday lives that there are more plastic items than fish in the ocean. Fish are being surrounded by plastic waste on a day to day basis. Our planet is 71% water and most of it is filled up with plastic. Pollution is a huge problem and causes global warming. All the coral reefs are dying because of the exposure to plastic. Allowing the large amount of plastic use and consumption to continue will ruin our world. We will not be able to gain food from the ocean, and are killing nature. Even a plastic shampoo bottle harms the ocean. Globally we should switch to a non plastic containers to preserve the wildlife and fish in the ocean. Recycling however makes a huge difference. The amount of plastic that end up in landfills is astonishing. All the plastic in landfills can be reused to save the planet. A few companies are taking the warning signs seriously. Some companies are creating packets of shampoos and body soaps that are in a dissolvable casing that disappears when in contact with water. Companies like these are starting to take the first step in reducing plastic consumption. More products like these should be produced to help save the planet. A few companies are making glass water bottles to avoid the use of plastic. Refilling a water bottle is considerably more beneficial than drinking out of plastic water bottles. Drinking out of glass bottles also allows us to avoid the chemicals in the plastic. We are not only poisoning our planet, but ourselves as well. Fish that consume plastic and end up in restaurants and in grocery stores are also poisoning us. There is no benefit to using plastic! Our planet has to last us another 7.5 billion years. If our planet is covered in plastic and polluted beyond repair and there will be nowhere to live. Pollution of plastic doesn’t only affect the ocean and animals, but the human race too. Plastic burning and use of plastic is going to poison our atmosphere. As we continue to level out the earth to produce more plastic, we are killing ourselves in the process. When the amount of plastic starts to effect the air we breathe we will no longer be able to get oxygen. Plastic consumption causes a huge depletion in the food chain and will eventually lead to mass extinction. We must take care of our planet and take all available actions to preserve it. Limiting our use of plastic bottles and starting to take care of our planet is the first step. We must also start retrieving plastic from the ocean and create more recycling plants. Eventually we must start using plastic all together. Just cleaning up the plastic we already have is the first step.