Sad Photo of Endangered Bird Tangled in Debris Shows There’s No Such Thing as ‘Harmless’ Plastic

Plastic is incredibly convenient. This is a fact that most people won’t argue with. This material makes it possible for us to have food and beverages on the go and dump the packaging when we’re done. It’s great for holding liquids and malleable enough to take the form of hundreds of products, but by focusing solely on plastic’s convenience, we have forgotten about all of the negatives that come with plastic.

Firstly, plastic is petroleum-based and it is estimated that the amount of oil needed to make one plastic water bottle could fill up about one-fourth of that same bottle. Considering Americans go through around 50 million plastic bottles a year, this is a whole lot of oil. Because plastic is not made of organic material, it can take hundreds of years for it to break down. And by break down, we mean it breaks apart into millions of tiny pieces, but never truly disappears. So basically, this means that the 8.8 million tons of plastic trash that gets dumped into the oceans every year literally never goes away. It is left to float and slowly scatter, endangering the lives of countless marine animals along the way. Currently, around 700 marine species are directly threatened with extinction thanks to plastic Pollution  – and as the amount of plastic in the world’s waters goes up, so will this heartbreaking stat.

This photo of an endangered Razorbill tangled in what appears to be balloon debris illustrates the stark reality that there really is no such thing as “harmless” plastic.

One of the biggest mistakes that we make as consumers is assuming that the products we buy and use every day just disappear after we are done with them. Even something as seemingly innocuous as a birthday balloon can prove to be fatal for another animal down the line. Ingesting plastic kills around one million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals each year, while turtles now consume twice as much plastic as they were 25 years ago. Knowing this, it is up to us to take action.

While efforts are being made to remove debris from the oceans, improve recycling systems, and innovate barriers to prevent plastic from getting into waterways, we can all take action in our daily lives to stop plastic waste at the source.

If we all make an effort to identify where we use plastic and actively look for alternatives, we can drastically cut down on the amount of plastic Pollution that finds its way into the oceans.

As the leading organization at the forefront of the conscious consumerism movement, One Green Planet believes that reducing everyday plastics from our lives is not about giving up anything or sacrificing convenience, but rather learning to reap the maximum benefit from the items you use every day while having the minimum impact.

Let’s #CrushPlastic! Click the graphic below for more information.

Image source: Daily Mail