Saturday, March 24, 2012

Where's the baggage counter?

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.