Gene 1101

How Plastics negatively affect us and the ways to solve this problem.

As far as I’m concerned after doing some research about plastics pollution, I noticed that

this topic has been an issue for years and years. Before the age of high technology, many

people had come up with several ideas but it was not effective and the percentage of plastics

tended to rise up gradually each year. Sadly, the major group of people tend to ignore their own

actions and never seem to blame how careless they are. For example, they can throw away

their waste anytime at anyplace which can cause damage to landfill and ocean without notice.

Plastics are cheap, strong , and very convenient to use. So, many citizens prefer to use plastic

and ignore the fact that it could be radical to both themselves (human) and animals. However,

because plastic pollution has been damaging our ecosystem a lot and there is a possibility that

it will become more violent, some individuals have come up with an idea to form a group of

people who are interested in banning plastics. We all know this movement as the Anti-Plastic

movement.

This community (anti-plastic movement) grew a lot when the time passed by because of

the purpose of the movement (reduce the use of plastics and restore nature). Many people are

now interested in helping the environment for many reasons. For example, some people want to

reduce the use of plastics because they don’t want to see an unpleasant view when they’re

travelling or visit popular travel destinations. Furthermore, people whose jobs are involved with

the animal or the environment surely have an eagerness to protect what they love because it is

their responsibility to prevent the death of the animals (which comes from the plastics that they

ingest).
 For the solutions and strategies, there are many possible methods that we can do to

reduce the plastics pollution which is beneficial to the environment. However, I’m going to pick

up some methods that I think are easy to follow because I’m still a student so some solution

might be hard for me and other teenagers to follow. For example, I cannot design an eco-design

product or improve it because I’m not a businessman and I don’t have my own company yet.

The only thing that I can do so far is to reduce the use of plastics. I really like the idea that we

should use alternative bags like cotton or silk instead of plastic bags. Although plastics are used

to carry things, they aren’t beautiful at all in my opinion (it is plain and the texture isn’t smooth).

On the other hand, bags have the same purpose of usage and it looks more fashionable. There

are many styles that we can choose and it doesn’t harm our environment as the material is eco

friendly. Furthermore, we can use it over and over again since we don’t have to throw it away.

This idea will encourage many sellers to produce more cotton bags in the market because not

only they can gain more income, but they also save the environment. Reducing the amount of

plastic bottles and straws is also a great idea (we can use colorful water bottles and have a

metal straw that looks so cool).

Other methods that I like include doing some challenges and having some games that

involve plastics. For challenges I see that many people are doing some challenges in different

ways. For instance, some people take a picture of the beach before and after it was cleaned up.

They will put some hashtags on, so people who see the post will play this challenge too (I see

many people in Thailand playing this challenge too). Now, turning to the games, I think that

school is the best place to create a game for their students from my point of view. For some
elementary schools, the game that they have with their students is a card game. This game will

teach their students how to figure out whether the plastics are good or bad and which material

can be replaced. They will know by themselves when they see a card with a plastic picture on it.

Students need to tell their teacher whether it has a negative impact or not. If they answer the

question correctly, then they will get a point and they will know that these things (plastics)

should not be used.

For my idea about the challenge, I think that if we have a challenge where there are two

teams (4-5 members approximately) competing against each other, then that would be fun. The

purpose of this game is to see how fast people can clean up the waste and how they can

separate the type of waste correctly. For example, team A and team B need to beat each other

by cleaning the place where there are tons of trash as fast as they can. They also need to

separate the type of waste correctly in order to win. This would be fun for many teenagers and

many people might want to play this challenge with their friends. This is a very helpful challenge

from my point of view because not only people can have some fun, but the environment also

gets better. I also think that school should form a club where people can do community service

together. In addition, people who are interested in art can make a poster and put it on the wall in

public as a reminder that we should not use plastics anymore.

For my last idea or the solution, I think that people who love to draw can sell their art

commission or adoptable in order to gather money. This way they can donate the money that

they get to the nature conservationist. I once tried to sell my drawing and it’s quite effective.

Although I gave away my money, I didn’t feel bad at all. Moreover, I feel very delighted by doing

this because at least this is all I can do to help the environment.