Trash Talking Plastics: The Need for Recycling

At the naive age of six I first accompanied my father to the dump. I was fascinated with the mountains of treasure, noisy tractors with Monster Truck wheels and funky smell. For years, once a month I would return to the dump. Each time I was shocked to see what people threw away: televisions, tires, clothing, toys, etc. Back then I thought it was cool, but as I return to this scene in my memory I can still clearly see the amount of plastic piling up which has still probably not decomposed, 15 years later.
I remember not being allowed to get out of the vehicle as my father removed the black bags from the bed of our truck.

“You don’t want to drown in all this plastic,” he said.

And yet that is exactly what our earth is doing, drowning from plastic which will too soon result in its suffocation. However, you can do your part to help save our earth by using less plastic. I’m not asking you to eliminate plastic out of your life completely. I’m mean c’mon, can you even find a shampoo or conditioner that isn’t packaged in plastic? What I am asking is that you pay attention to the plastics you buy and use, consciously use less, then recycle it.

28 billion bottles of water were bought in 2007. According to the Container Recycling Institute, more than eighty percent of those 28 billion containers end up in a landfill, lake or side of the road. Basically they were everywhere except in the recycling bin. Keep in mind that those 28 billion, not recycled, were just water bottles; can you imagine all the other plastics that were thrown away?

The manufacturing of plastic began in 1862. Plastic was a result of the experiments conducted by petrochemical industries. The term plastic is derived from the Greek term "plastikos" meaning "fit for molding". Plastic is popular because it’s cheap, strong, lightweight and functional. Even though it is one of the modern conveniences that we seem to be unable to do without, it is responsible for causing pollution, killing wildlife, and using up the precious resources of the earth. Here are a few examples:

Plastic kill animals. About 100,000 animals such as dolphins, turtles whales, penguins are killed every year due to plastic bags. Many animals ingest plastic bags, mistaking them for food, and therefore die.

Plastic is non-biodegradable. Since plastics does not degrade, it is broken down using a process called photo degradation. During this process plastic becomes brittle and then breaks downs into bits.

Petroleum is required to produce plastic bags. Petroleum products are diminishing and getting more expensive. Petroleum is vital for our modern way of life. It is necessary for our energy requirements such as our factories, transporting, heating, lighting, etc. Surely, this precious resource should not be wasted on producing plastic bags and water bottles, should it?

Now if we could just use less plastic and recycle what we do use we could give our earth CPR which will help breath life into it before it dies.