In less than ten years, climate change will be irreversible and we’ll be on the path towards mass extinction. Our energy sources will come to an end if we don’t make a change now. Our kids and their kids will live in a world … Recycling correctly is a major step in increasing the chances of saving the planet. It’s important to inform everyone about the importance of recycling because it’s something simple we can achieve but we are just lazy. 

According to The Journal of Polymers and the Environment, there was an article called “An Overview of Solid Waste Management” which states that “Recycling is the favored solution for plastic waste management, because it has a lower environmental impact on the defined impact categories, from Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Human Toxicity Potentials (HTP) indicators.” The benefits of recycling include reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills and incinerators, saves energy, increases economic security by tapping a domestic source of materials, helps create jobs in the recycling and manufacturing industries in the United States and it conserves natural resources such as water, minerals and timber. 

On social media, especially on Twitter, I see some popular people using their platform correctly like spreading the word about the importance of helping the planet. For example, recently I watched a video of a sixteen year old activist by the name of Greta Thunberg give a passionate speech at the United States Nations Climate Action Summit. In half of her speech, she said “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” I am thankful the face of a young girl is out here speaking the truth and making herself heard. Her intensity in the speech moved the whole audience. It really is upsetting to see how a lot of people, mostly older people, not care about the planet they’re living in when we could all be making a difference. 

A while back I watched a video about two guys setting up an experiment in public to see if people would throw away their trash in the proper bins. They set up the trash bins as basketball hoops to encourage people to throw away their waste and not just leave it wherever they want. They got a good amount of people participating in the experiment. The best part was that nobody told those people about the experiment. There were hidden cameras and seeing the result makes me want to get with an organization or even a club to try this same experiment at school. I think labeling the trash and recycle bins and adding a basketball hoop will motivate students to trash their waste in the correct bin. Preferably it would be better to have more bins outside of the classroom to not cause a distraction in the class. I just think it depends on the students and professors in the class. Having an entertaining way of throwing away your plastic and trash will reduce the chance of students leaving their trash in the classroom, cafeteria, on the benches, bathroom, and parking lot. 

According to Gorilla Bins in Environmental Conservation, throwing your trash and plastic can ruin the ecosystem especially if you throw it on the streets, which end up in sewer pipes and rivers which lead to entering the ocean. Also, a good amount of waste comes from landfills. The Pacific garbage patch is a good example of the several swirling trash zones in the oceans where all kinds of trash including plastics, glass bottles, cigarette buds, and even mattresses end up. Both microplastics and whole plastic products have adverse effects on marine life. For instance, experts claim that loggerhead sea turtles can’t differentiate between plastic bags and their favourite food, jellyfish. Also, microplastics and other kinds of trash can prevent sunlight from reaching algae and plankton that form a vital part of the ocean food web.

The movement of the ocean plays a big part in transportation because of the ships out at sea. Understanding the ocean currents can also help preserve the marine environment, according to the book Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of the Ocean Motion. Cleaning the ocean because we are too lazy to find a trash or plastic bin to throw our waste away in is just absurd. In the journal, “Cleaning America”, it mentions we can find a way to fossil fuels and pollution to prevent the environment using ocean-based reactors for hydrogen fuel. 

A large organization by the name of 4Ocean is a global movement that allows anyone from anywhere to join the team and help in ocean trash removal efforts world-wide. In an interview, the founders of 4Ocean were just two surfers visiting Bali in 2015 when they got the idea of making a change to help clean the ocean. One of the founders, Andrew Cooper, said “The Ocean is a resource for so many things that make life possible and this resource must last indefinitely. We do whatever we can. The Ocean has been so good to us, we want to give back.” It’s difficult for the environment to stay productive when all this trash is disrupting it. I signed up to volunteer whenever the organization was in a city near me to help clean the ocean. I found information on their website and they would just send me a text to inform me the date and time of when they’re going. Recycling correctly and cleaning the ocean is a way we can help the Earth be reborn. 

Work Cited 

Al-Maaded, Mohammed, et al. “An overview of solid waste management and plastic recycling in Qatar.” Journal of Polymers and the Environment 20.1 (2012): 186-194.

Bins, Brock G., and Gorilla Bins. “How Does Garbage End Up In The Ocean?” Gorilla Bins, 29 Nov. 2017, 

Burns, Loree Griffin. Tracking trash: Flotsam, jetsam, and the science of ocean motion. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007.

Speakman, Oliver. “4Ocean: Pulling Trash, a Pound at a Time.” Impakter, 6 Mar. 2018.

Williams, L. O. CLEANING OF AMERICA. Martin Marietta Corp., Denver, 1972.