By Hezekiah Kit Sales Canlas
(Argument and Persuasion)
Everyday, people around the world use plastic bags, particularly in
supermarkets and groceries. According to Vincent Cobb, a Chicago
entrepreneur, somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags
are consumed worldwide each year. Of all those, most end up in litter
streams outside landfills.
We all know that too much of something can be disastrous. This also
applies to our abusive use of plastic bags. When the typhoons and storms
arrive and wreck our cities, you’ll see plastic hanging on tree
branches, plastic scattered on the muddy road, and plastic clogging
sewerage systems.
Plastic has already harmed wildlife. In recent
reports, corpses of aquatic animals, specifically whales, are washed
ashore. After scientists and environmentalists examined the carcass of
the whale, they found plastic wrappers stuck in the whale's abdomen. On
the other hand, plastic and other trash at sea suffocate sea turtles and
other marine animals. These animals mistakenly think that these trashes
are food, thus killing them.
We can conclude that most people in
the world do not know how to reduce, reuse, and recycle garbage. Though
there are programs to suppress and minimize trash, people around the
world still do not follow these processes.
In
the Philippines, environmentalists and nature-lovers sell and purchase
recycled plastic bags and woven bags. These bags are far more helpful to
the environment, less plastic bags are used, limiting unwanted trash
floating in our waters and promenading the streets.
For a better,
cleaner, fresher and greener environment, the government and
non-government organizations should endorse the usage of recycled bags
and woven bags, and should strictly implement the rules and laws
concerning sanitation.
Let us protect the environment. Although
buying these bags is helpful, throwing trash at the correct place is
still the best way to help the environment. If only everyone in this
world will decently place garbage at designated places, we could have
saved more wildlife from extinction.
If only.