Did you know it takes about 20 years for a plastic bag to decompose? Did you also know that thousands of sea life a year get suffocated and killed because of the waste that we produce?
Plastic bags sometimes get caught over bird’s heads or tangled around fishes’ fins trapping them till they get strangled and run out of air. It’s the same reason we keep plastic bags away from small children as well. It’s because they don’t know any better than to either put it in their mouth or put it over their heads which will then cut off their air flow, suffocating them. Animals are the same. They have never seen such alien masses that float around before and suddenly before they know it, they can’t breathe or they can’t get away from it.
What about that glass beer bottle you’re drinking? Glass takes over a million years to decompose. That’s longer than me plus you will ever live.
We produce so much trash every year. An average person in England or Wales produces an average of 300kg of household waste each year. In one day, that’s enough to fill Trafalgar Square to the top of Nelson’s Column.
If we don’t recycle and we just wait for nature to take its course, wouldn’t the world be engulfed with trash? It’s easy to recycle plastic, glass, paper and cardboard.
It takes a newspaper about four months to decompose and cardboard box, around two months, but such things can just as easily to be re-used again. The plastic juice bottle you just finished drinking takes about 500 years to decompose. However, it takes you five minutes to wash it out and use it again for another drink. Alternatively, it also takes you less than five minutes to put it into the correct recycling bin for it to get melted down and remoulded into something else.The amount of plastic waste generated annually in the UK is estimated to be nearly 3 million tonnes. An estimated 56% of all plastics waste is used packaging, three-quarters of which is from households. It is estimated that only 7% of total plastic waste is currently being recycled. That’s embarrassing!
Let’s all put in our efforts together and recycle. It’s a tiny step and we’ll be able to save the planet and not cover our world with trash. I want to wake up every morning and see the green of nature, smell the scent of fresh grass and hear the songs of birds. Or would you rather be faced with garbage piled mountain high, the stench of rotting food and the sound of flies everywhere? Take your pick.
Share your ideas about recycling with us and what you think the world might be like if people don’t start.
