Our Plastic Oceans - Lexi Hall

In paragraph two it talks about where all the plastic is coming from. It says in that paragraph since the 1950's, when products began being made with plastic, only twenty one percent has been recycled. That's crazy, after all these years we have only recycled twenty one percent of all plastics in the world! That shows that majority of people who drink out of coke bottles, water bottles, or eat out of plastic to go containers either throw them on the ground or in the trash. As citizens who want to help with this terrible problem, we need to be trying to stop this from happening. I have never realized how much plastic is thrown into the ocean instead of in recycling bins. In paragraph two it states that plastic is indestructible, we can barely decompose of it when it's recycled. How can we re-use it or dispose of it when it's in the ocean? Americans aren't the only ones held responsible for this. China is responsible for almost half of it. Imagine if we could cut each country contribution in half, we would hardly have any plastic going into the ocean. According to the article even when we wash our clothes the plastic fibers are going into the ocean. How can we stop our fibers from our clothes from adding to this problem? No one at this point knows or we would have a solution already. Hopefully, one day we can lessen the amount of plastic going into the ocean and make a safer environment for sea creatures.

Our Plastic Oceans - Lotti Hoffman

     In the article, "Our Plastic Oceans," we are told of the vast amount of plastic going into our oceans. Throughout the article, it is explained how there are 5 major whirlpools of garbage floating around. This could be detrimental to our marine life. The title of the first paragraph, "How Bad is Pollution?" stuck out the most to me and influenced me to start thinking about my part in the whirlpools that kill our marine life daily.

     I believe our pollution is severe whether it is involved in the ocean or not. I recently did a highway cleanup for Science Club and the number of cigarettes I picked up was crazy. When I read this article it made me think about how much trash is around us. On a daily basis, I probably drink 3-4 water bottles, which could all end up in the ocean, just by me throwing one into the wrong can. After I read this article I really started to think about where my trash goes and how I can stop it from going into the ocean. I decided to start recycling all of my trash during school and reuse items that I would typically throw away, such as refilling my water bottles at the fountains, to do my part in cleaning our planet.

     Part of the pollution problem is that many people may not have access to recycling in their homes. My family does not have a recycle can, so it is really hard for me to do this at home. The article talks about how much of the pollution in our oceans is plastic and how many times our landfills end up in the ocean. It is crazy for me to think about the amount of plastic I see every day and how much of it ends up killing animals.

ocean pollution thing-- Teressa Boatman😃

   "Our Plastic Oceans" would probably be more interesting to anyone but me. I mean, it was informative, I get that. Yes, us as humans have failed our planet! We get it, we're garbage, lol. Trying to figure what we could do to fix this would be helpful. Yeah, it'll take more than just people using big machines, we will have to change our lifestyles, which most people will be unwilling to do.
  Hey, I did have a favorite part! I liked "What's being done?" I mean, sure, some things are being done, but it'll never be enough. There is literally a patch of garbage 2x bigger than Texas. Pathetic to be honest. We will eventually have to change this, but it will never fix it. We're too deep now. I think we're eventually going to kill marine life!
  In conclusion, we are trash, making trash. I really have nothing else to say besides that we need to recycle and quit being the over-loaders we are. anyways, we may never change this, I don't think we are either. Try your best to change this trash we've created, future humans. This time, friends, it won't buff.

Our Plastic Oceans - Heavyn Hadl

Our Plastic Oceans do a great job, I think, of bringing people to the realization of just how bad our oceans and water are filled with waste. This is an issue that we have had for years upon years now, but not many people care to try and fix it. They are more worried about themselves instead of what the future holds for the animals in the sea and even generations to come. With the rate we are currently going, the waste is going to constantly be building up and, like landfills, is going to be a huge problem for our great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Humans are doing so much harm to this earth, but most people don’t realize. Say, for example, you have trash in your car and you're on the road and nowhere near a trash dispenser. For some people, their first reaction is to use one of their precious fingers, hit one button, and throw the trash outside of the car. And that’s it. They don’t think about it again. Then, let’s say a bad storm causes flooding and that plastic goes into a nearby river or ditch and then it ends up in the ocean. Now, yes, that is just one bottle, but because a lot of people throw their trash out, over time, it had built up and became as bad as it is now. But the thing is, I honestly don't think that people realize what they are doing. I know I didn't before I heard about this issue. I never really realized how bad littering was. Now, I stop myself from littering because I think of the harm it would be doing. But, because of this waste in the ocean, several species are dying and suffering. I love that some people are actually working to try and fix this issue. Kudos to them.

Plastic Ocean -Grace Powell

Where is it coming from? The writer really made some good points in this part of the article, where he points out the reasons and how the waste gets in the sea. People have gotten to where they don’t care about the earth and just continue to destroy our waters, and the author continues to point that out. He makes a big move coming out and speaking statistics about whose fault this is. But it’s not only our fault as a country, and it’s not just china’s fault. He tries to get that point across, that we did this as a whole. It should be a bigger deal to clean our rivers and and keep this from happening anymore than it already has. Our rivers and our sewer systems should not be flushing waste into our ocean waters. Killing species, harming us as humans, we should be able to do something to prevent these things from getting in our waters. Campaigns and banning smaller things to try and prevent these things from happening isn’t going to stop everything. The author uses these statistics, and facts to scare the people who are reading this article, but he does this to prove a point. To show what we as a world are doing. I think he made a wise move in this article to make his point known.

Plastic ocean thing -Gage Crews

“Mom, next time I want to go to a different beach, this one is full of plastic and other

trash,” said Anna disgusted. Plastic waste has been a problem in oceans for a long time.

While there are people trying to fix this, the plastic continues to take over our oceans.

According to the scientist in the article, there will be more weight of plastic than fish in the

oceans. This is a huge problem, that us as a society need to fix.

Plastic comes from many different places. It is found in every single country around the world.

Some of the most common waste found are soda bottles, fishing nets, and other fishing

equipment. China is the most accounted for, because they dump the most plastic out.

Waste is also found in household items like toothpaste, deodorant, and sunscreen.

There are many different types of wildlife affected by the waste. A whale was found dead,

with 17 pounds of plastic, and over 80 shopping bags blocking it's way to digest food.

Fish and birds are other types of wildlife that are affected.

Scientist estimate 663 species in the ocean that plastic hurts.

It is unknown whether humans are affected or not by the plastic. Some of the plastics have

additives that can do damage to human hormones. Also, 83% of drinking water is contaminated,

and 93% of bottled water contains plastic. There are organizations like the #stopsucking

campaign

to stop all the plastic waste. They’re trying to get rid of all plastic straws and banning plastic shopping

bags.

Plastic is absolutely killing our environment, and we are the reason. We continue to throw it out,

instead of recycling it. The article says that a garbage truck of waste goes into the ocean every

minute. That is absolutely pitiful. In order to stop this nonsense, we must come together, and fix it.

Our Plastic Ocean -- Zoe Meyer

The issue covered in this essay is very real and severe, and the author doesn't sugarcoat it in the slightest. He/she stresses this perfectly. The issue is that the ocean is polluted with trash, but more specifically, plastic. According to the author, in 2015 researchers analyzed all of the trash in the ocean (there were more than a million pieces), 99.9% of the trash was plastic. It's taking over everywhere we look or go, and what makes this terrifying issue even worse, is the fact that it may not even degrade. These are some of the causes of the issue that the author explains.

In the first paragraph, the author says that by 2050, there will be more weight than fish in the ocean. This is due to the fact that garbage full of plastic is put into the ocean every minute, and that 14 million tons of plastic have been dumped into the ocean. Where is it all coming from? Practically everywhere. The article says that plastic is appealing to people because it's cheap and almost indestructible, and the fact that it's so sturdy is also one of the major reasons that it is so dangerous. The plastic is also caused by microparticles in deoderent, toothpaste, and sunscreen that may go down drains. When clothes that are made out of synthetic fibers are washed, 200,000 fibers are released into wastewater. The author then gives an example of the Hudson River in New York can dump 150 million plastic fibers into the ocean every day from just washing clothes.
I think this is quite disturbing that we let the pollution so severe. It's damaging so many habitats for underwater creatures and that's just sad. It's crazy how it's like this, and it makes me scared for the future generations to come. Will this make animals become extinct or endangered? Probably. This is just a huge mess that desperately needs to be cleaned, and if we get a lot of the plastic out of the ocean, it needs to be prevented from ever happening again.