Fast facts about the plastic bag pandemics:
1. 500 billion to 1 trillion bags are used every year, worldwide.
2. About a million plastic bags are used every minute.
3. A single plastic bag can take 1,000 years to degrade.
4. Plastic bags are the second-common type of ocean refuse, after cigarette buts.
5. Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.
These facts are very alarming, aren’t they? Sure, you might not be affected by any of these, but you will soon once this pandemic is not stopped. Have you ever left your trash purposely and pretended like you just forgot to throw it? Or maybe your trash fell while you were walking but you actually meant for it to fall? I know some of us have been guilty. We humans, have recently been producing a lot of waste. Too much that we can’t anymore control them.
When I was in 4th grade, I was given the chance to go to the Kalahunan Dumpsite together with some other learners. It was a very eye-opening experience. Yes, you could smell the foul odor from afar. We were welcomed by dirty old garbage trucks. As we went further, I was taken aback by HUGE mountains of trash. And most of them were still plastics. I bet some of those plastics were thrown away decades ago but they were still very recognizable. This then led me to question, what will happen next after all our trash can’t fit anymore? We were met by the person in charge and he oriented us about the Dumpsite. The whole experience surely inspired me to change my ways and become a much greener person.
Going back to the plastic pandemic, most of us people use a lot of plastic but then take these for granted after merely one use. When we do this, we totally take for granted the whole purpose why we use plastics rather than paper bags because plastics last longer and therefore can be reused more times. It’s a good thing a lot of firms right now, firms that are influential, are beginning to become greener. Take SM for example. They already have this practice of putting groceries on boxes instead of plastics every Wednesday. And they also provide these green bags that are much sturdier and last longer.
Humbly speaking, I myself have also started to do some green things myself. Namely, not using a straw whenever I have a drink. And, I whenever I order from McDonald’s, I don’t buy those ice cream sundays on cups. Instead, I buy Vanilla cones so that I don’t use any plastic. By doing this, I actually save more money but still get a happy tummy.
So what are you waiting? Help stop this plastic pandemic and save Mother Earth! Be GREEN!
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