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Jesus Montes
Professor Hamalian
English 115
6 December 2014
Green Issue
Helen Mirren once stated, I'll tell you what me scares me is plastic. Plastic bags and
plastic bottles... Why does my water have to be in a bl--dy plastic bottle? The landfill and the
ocean. And I don't know, I'm just terrified with the proliferation of plastic, Helen Mirren
explaining how she fears for our overuse of plastic and how it affects the environment. Many of
us know the negative impacts plastic bags and bottles have on the environment, yet even with
this knowledge we still continue to use an absurd number of plastic each year. An interesting
statistic is collectively we as Americans, used about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year
the U.S.s recycling rate for plastic is only 23 percent, which means 38 billion water bottles
more than $1 billion worth of plastic are wasted each year (Fishman). With this being kept in
mind I believe that we should find an alternative to plastic because it uses an excessive amount
of resources and damages the environment and its creatures.
Firstly, America should ban plastic bottles because of the exorbitant amount of resources
it takes to meet the demand for them. There have been many studies that show how many
resources are actually used to make plastic. According to the Pacific Institute, Making bottles to
meet Americas demand for bottled water uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually,
enough to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year. And thats not even including the oil used for
transportation (Pacific Institute). Roughly seventeen million barrels of oil are used to produce
plastic bags in solely America. The amount of petroleum oil that is used to meet the demand is

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truly absurd and to make it worse these statistics only account for the plastic that is produced in
America and does not take into account the rest of the worlds demand for plastic bottles. The
Pacific Regional Environment found that, to make a single plastic bag could power a car for
115 meters (Pacific Regional Environment). Plastics are manufactured from natural resources
such as oil, gas and coal and many of these resources are called non-renewable because once
they are used it will take many years for them to be replaced. Many of these studies only count
the natural resources that are used to make the plastic but dont count the other factors that are
being used in the production of plastic. The production of plastic uses many valuable natural
resources that will not be replaced for thousands of years. We should find an alternative to the
consumption of plastic bottles and bags because they require a lot of resources and the resources
used in their production could better be used in other manners. If we stopped producing plastic
we could use the energy and oil to power our homes and fuel our vehicles. PBS released a
statistic stating that, The energy we waste using bottled water would be enough to power
190,000 homes (PBS), this energy could be used to power a small town for an entire year. We
should find an alternative to producing plastic bags and bottles because they require an absurd
number of resources that could be used in better ways.
Secondly, we should stop manufacturing plastic due to the damage it does to our
environment. Many people believe that all their efforts in recycling are actually helping the
environment but in reality, Only 14% of plastic water bottles are recycled (Beitiks). If only
fourteen percent of water bottles is being recycled than what happens to the rest of it? Most of
the plastic bottles that arent recycled will end up in landfills all throughout the country. All the
plastic in our landfills also will not disappear overnight it will take roughly a thousand years for
plastic to fully degrade into a reusable resource. Plastic would not be such a problem if it was

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disposed of correctly but the sad truth is that most of it will end up in rivers, lakes, and our
oceans. When we throw our plastic bags away, we often dont think of where they
can end up. In terms of plastic bags it is reported by scientists, that every square mile of ocean
contains 46,000 pieces of plastic floating (sprep.org). With all the plastic in our oceans this can
cause damage and threaten the wildlife as well. If a paper bag makes its way into the waters this
can cause an animal to mistake it for food. The marine animal will then eat the plastic bag and
will die a cruel and painful death. What makes this even worse is that once the animal dies the
plastic bag will re-enter the waters due to its inability to be disposed of and will continue killing
these creatures. Im sure we have all seen the commercials with the birds trapped in the plastic
and this really does happen in the wild. Furthermore, when plastic is being produced it produces
toxins and greenhouse gasses which are then released into the air. When released into the air
these gasses can actually lower our air quality and degrade our farming soils. According to a
study done by the United States Environmental Board, the production of plastic in the United
States releases five hundred million tons of greenhouse gasses annually (United States
Environmental Board). To put this into perspective if we compare this production of plastic to
the production of paper it is reported that paper releases roughly five millions tons of greenhouse
gasses. The production and use of plastic should halt because it damages our world and kills
many animals in the process. We can find alternatives rather than continuing the use of plastic
which will in time, help create a better world for future generations.
Many critics that are against banning plastic may argue that banning plastic is almost
illogical because of its many everyday uses. Although plastic does have its uses I believe it
causes more harm than good. Plastic bags and bottles are very costly to make as they not only
use up valuable resources but also endanger the environment. With todays technology I believe

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we can find alternatives to plastic which can be anything from developing plastic that will
degrade over time. Personally, I have witnessed the ban of plastic begin to take place; my local
Walmart has begun to charge for each plastic bag that is used. Even though this little act of
charging for bags may seem futile in time it will greatly discourage bags from being made as
their demand lowers. Reducing the use of plastic is necessary if we are to preserve the beauty of
the Earth for future generations. We can instead of using plastic use re-usable bags when we go
shopping and make sure that our plastic bags actually get recycled rather than get thrown away in
a landfill. There are many little things that can be done if we want to stop the production and use
of plastic.
In conclusion, I believe we should ban or find alternatives to using plastic because it uses
an excessive amount of resources and damages the environment and its creatures. Many of the
resources used in making plastic could be best used in other ways. Instead of using the energy
and resources to make plastic it could be used to power our homes or run our vehicles. The
production of plastic also damages the environment and leads to pollution of many of our oceans
and lakes. Many animals have been killed by consuming plastic that has made its way into our
oceans. If we want to preserve the natural integrity of our planet I believe we need to find an
alternative to plastic or ban it. The Earth should be preserved for our future generations to
experience all the beauty this planet has to offer.

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Works Cited
Fishman, Charles. Message in a Bottle. Fast Company Magazine July 2007: 110.
Pacific Institute. Fact Sheet: Bottled Water and Energy Getting to 17 Million Barrels.
December 2007.
Koelmans, Albert A, Todd Gouin, Richard Thompson, Nancy Wallace, and Courney
Arthur. Plastic in the Marine Environment. Environmental Toxicology and
Chemistry / SETAC, 33.1 (2014): 5-10
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/plastic-not-so-fantastic/
http://environment.about.com/od/reducingwaste/a/no_plastic_bags.htm
http://www.banthebottle.net/bottled-water-facts/
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-many-controversies-surrounding-bottled-water
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/bottles.html#e8XEQFAS8xeZVY6Z.99
Ocean Plastics Turtle Threat. The Observer, (2014): 14