Microplastic’s severity
1학년 1반 23번 장성우
Why plastic a
problem?
How do you
feel you eat a credit card every week? According to a report by the World Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF) and Newcastle University in Australia, a report
"Plastic's Evaluation of Human Ingest“, said people eat
microplastics that are equal to the weight of credit card. People all over the
world use many plastic because they are cheap and easy to processing. According
to Statistics Korea, Annual use of plastic per person in Korea is 98.2kg. Don’t you find the
severity of this figure? Even though we use a lot of plastic in everyday life,
plastic recycling rate is only 34%. Maybe you all know that plastic doesn’t break up
until more than 500 years. 8 million tons of plastic are thrown away to the sea
all over the world. Maybe someone might think that plastic is abandoned to sea
so it doesn’t cause any problem to people. I would say, it is
wrong. Let’s suppose that a plastic bottle is abandoned to
the sea. A plastic bottle is maybe crashed by ultraviolet rays from the sun and
friction of waves, but it is not absolutely crashed and it becomes only small
one. It is called microplastic. Microplastics are swept away by the waves, and
it sinks down. One plankton can eat mircroplastic. It will be accumulated in
its body and it doesn’t break up. Then a fish will eat plankton for its
prey. Then, a bigger fish eats it, and finally people will eat it for food.
Consequently, by eating fish, we can take plastic. Also, tap water, beer,
cosmetics, and wind contains plastic. Today, we eat marine products that have
microplastic, wash our body with mirocplastic, and even drink water with
mircroplastic. A microplastic has germs and toxic elements, so it is harmful to
people. If these phenomenon continues, humanity’s distinction
is coming.
How can we
reduce the plastic usage?
Recognizing
the situation, I thought that reducing the usage of plastic and recycling
plastic is the best way to reduce microplastic. I’m going to
tell you my story of small actions. First, my family went to "Gumho river”.
When I was riding a bike, I found some plastic products that were abandoned. I
picked up all of them and recycled them. Next, my mom and I went shopping to
buy some snacks for school. Before we go shopping, I told my mom to take our
shopping bag instead of buying plastic/paper bags in the store. After shopping,
we went to “Bom Bom” to buy beverages. I
brought two cups from home that are made of ceramic ware. I gave them to the
clerk and got delicious beverages.
Reflection
By my small
action, many plastics were recycled, and many plastic products were not broken
into microplastic. Also, less plastic products are used by me. Microplastic’s bad effects,
such as increasing toxic molecules in our brain, increasing stress in our
viscera decreased though these small actions. I have seen that there are many
abandoned plastic products on the floor, and many people use them excessively.
After I did small actions like these, I realized that everybody can make the
world a better place to live in. Also I get a mind of love of nature. I’m really proud
of my did.