Nowadays, when we go to a market, travel to other places, and even throw away some trash, we use plastic bags. To add more, cup, toy, and lots of things are made up of plastics. Plastic is sturdy, light, and cheap. Although there are lots of advantages of using plastics, there are also some serious effects and problems. Therefore, there are some laws. I believe it is better to change individual aspects than have social affairs.

▲ Disaster created by convenience of people

In South Korea, an individual consumes over 130 kilograms of plastic a year, which means they need lots of money for destroying and causing some pollution. The government recommends some coffee shops, like Starbucks, Ediya, and others to use reusable cups rather than disposable cups. Nowadays, lots of people know some serious problems when we continuously use plastic materials. However, they do not exert any efforts. We have to be more conscious about that and try to change it.

▲ A scuba diver swimming among the plastic trashes

What is more, there are lots of side effects of using lots of plastic materials. First, one-third of plastics consist of the plastic bottle, bag, and others. Unfortunately, they change into trash within few minutes or few days. The wasted money is estimated at about 80 billion to 120 billion dollars. Second, although people recycle some plastic materials, actually, the amounts of recycling are just about 14 percent. Third, the main problem of plastic materials is plastic does not biodegradable. It remained on the Earth. It usually pollutes the environment by flooding the earth for hundreds or thousands of years. Not only waste energy recovery creates pollution, but also the pollution does not disappear because it is invisible. Specifically, plastic materials are discarded from 1950 to 2015. It is estimated that 79 percent of the 63 tons are buried or abandoned in mountains, sea, and many more.

▲ Many plactic trashes were found in the dead bird.

Some people said that plastic materials are so convenient and effective. Also, some people said that it is okay to use it if we do well in recycling and reusing. However, it is better not to use plastic materials because they will also be discarded someday. Making our Earth polluted and sick is made by us. Now, we have to be more careful about not using plastic things. If we try to use non-disposable things, it will be another help for saving Earth.

June 9th, by 김민현