This month’s challenge is to not use or buy any new single-use plastic bags for 30 days. Rather than focus on recycling your single-use bags, we want you to reduce your consumption by reusing them or switching to cloth bags. What we mean by new single use plastic bags is the plastic bags that have never been used before and are often tossed after one shopping trip or piled in the back of your cupboard. Learning to reuse resources is important for our future and more than reusing, we are focusing on the reducing. Now days, a lot of kids believe that reusing and recycling is the solution to problems with non-biodegradable plastic, but we don’t realize that reducing the amount of plastic we use is also critical. So, for this challenge we also ask you to reduce the use of new plastic bags to zero. At the end of the month, you can record your progress by writing it down on paper and share it with friends. Write down how you did the challenge, if you succeeded and why you did the challenge. We hope this challenge inspires you to think more about how the world is going to be in the future. Why are we doing this? Plastic pollution is a huge problem in the world and lots of people do what they can to reduce it but why are they doing this? Plastic takes up to 1000 years to decompose, which is a very long time. It can greatly damage our environment for taking so long. This is why we are trying to help this problem. Our group’s challenge ties back to plastic bags; the challenge is to not use or buy any new plastic bags for a whole month. Look around, plastic bags are everywhere! It’s taking over our everyday lives. It makes us unaware of the damage we have made to our world and the environment. But most importantly, we want to make a difference. To get this to work, we have to spread the word of this challenge and why we want to do it. One of the purposes of this challenge is to get people to notice what plastic bags do to the world. Worldwide, about two million plastic bags are used every minute. This is a shocking insight to our society. Over 44% of all seabirds have become invested or entangled in plastic, studies have shown that by 2050, it will become 99%! Plastic always finds its way into our environment and often goes through storm drains and ends up in waterways. Even though the government has found some ways to solve this issue. When a new rule had been sent to some grocery stores to charge people for a plastic bag, it made some people decide to bring their own bags for shopping instead of paying for one. Always remember that it doesn’t matter how much you helped, it only matters if you helped at all. Though humans are trying their best, plastic is still a big problem. It is overpowering us. Luckily, there is still something we can do to help us reduce plastic waste. How can I help/ solutions
11000 tiny pieces of plastic are found in seafood every year 31% from plastic bag pollution, often a result of human laziness. We want to reduce plastic pollution because plastic is taking over our world and if we don’t make an effort to change, plastic pollution will just keep growing until the natural environment will be covered in plastic. What can you do? Grocery shopping is one of the biggest uses of plastic bags. Next time you go grocery shopping, BRING REUSABLE BAGS! A lot of people have reusable bags but forget or choose not to bring them. If you forget, leave a note or put some in your car.Reusable bags are also more durable and stylish. If you ever had a plastic bag rip before, cloth bags are definitely a better option. They are also way more stylish and you can get them in different colours or patterns. Another way you can help is to use biodegradable bags. You might be wondering what that is? Biodegradable bags are an eco friendly alternative for plastic bags. They are 100% biodegradable, they are non toxic, and they keep food fresh and delicious. They are even as strong and durable as a garbage bag. You can get them in different sizes so no matter what size you need, you will have the opportunity to bag your stuff in an efficient and eco friendly way! Spreading awareness is a great way to let people know about this worldwide problem and how serious it is. The more people are aware of this, the more people take action and plastic bag pollution will slowly decrease. The solution to this problem is up to us to reduce the amount of plastic bags and overall plastic we use everyday. For a review, three ways you can help are: 1. Bring reusable bags, 2. Use biodegradable bags 3. Spread awareness. We hope you will help us stop future plastic bag pollution.
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