While they rarely admit as much, the general public tends to take our planet for granted. That the earth will always be here, at least in our lifetime, is the general consensus. The plastic bottles that line Randall Parkway as I walk to campus everyday are evidence of this way of thinking. The ditches are full of garbage, beer bottles, and plastic bags.
Plastic. Plastic every where. This is the real issue. It’s cheap, and so easy to make. You can go to any fast food restaurant, and buy a drink. 100% of the time your cup has a plastic lid, and a plastic straw. After a one time use, it gets thrown away adding to the plastic garbage. It’s non-biodegradable, so earth is being flooded with plastic day after day and it’s not slowing down. This build up is dangerous to our planet as well as our health.
Chemicals from the plastic end up in our bodies. One of the larger effects it has on us and many different species of animals, is a rise in hormone levels. The Dangers of Plastic goes into great depth all the issues associated with plastic, our earth, and us.
So if the earth is flooding with plastic, where does it all end up? Look around you, and identify a few things that are made of plastic. Chances are that item will end up in the garbage in a few years time. Plastic is so inexpensive that so many things in our every day lives are made out of plastic and are disposable. But are they really disposable?
Yes, it is important to recycle plastic and there are huge efforts around the country and the world to recycle. However, only a small portion of plastic is actually recycled. Most of it ends up in the ocean, effecting sea life and eventually us.
It’s important for us to cut down on our own individual use of plastic if we are to see a big change in the future. It starts with us. Hopefully, one day the world will realize that even though plastic is inexpensive, it’s still a huge cost to our planet.
Green Planet 
Reading your blog made me realize the amount of plastic that I use on a daily basis. It also made me conscious of how much I don’t recycle. I try to as often as I can, but at times I am not aware of where I am throwing away my trash. As a semi-clean freak it’s disgusting to see the roads lined with plastic trash knowing that the plastic is bio-degradable. Thank you for making me more aware where I throw away my trash and how much impact it has on the environment.
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I was just having this discussion with someone today about limiting human consumption. Everyone wonders why there are so many health issues and we seem to blame what we eat and drink only. I think we need to consider what we are eating and drinking out of. The chemicals are terrible for you. The combination of cheap plastic and the ability to recycle makes society produce even more plastic. Recycling is a good thing but it seems to make people less concerned about how much of it we actually make. Like you said, only a portion of it is actually recycled. People just assume that every piece of plastic made does actually get recycled. I read that there is a pile of plastic the size of Texas at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately people are only concerned when it becomes a financial issue and care very little about environmental issues.
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It is sad to say that yes everyone at one time or another has put our planet and us in danger due to improper disposal of plastic and many other objects. To think it is as easy as putting a bottle, glass, or paper in a green bin and hardly anyone takes the time to do it. Over time I believe that we in America have gotten better about displaying more recycle bins, but also believe that they are not being fully used. I also see just walking around campus or driving down the road probably thousands pieces of garbage that someone was to lazy to through in a trash can or in a recycle bin. I would also admit that recycling might not seem like the biggest issue to some people and think that one piece of plastic on the side of the road would not hurt anything. The point that they are missing is that those plastic pieces add up and create awful toxins in the air that is bad for our health and our planets future.
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