I take a view around me. The land is littered with plastic for miles away. I take a step forward. A small plastic bottle crunches under my feet. An inch of soda bottles cover the ground. All of this trash has piled up over the years. Welcome to 2050. It didn’t have to be this way. We had to stop using plastic, but we never did.

I know, plastic is convenient, and basically everything is made of plastic, but plastic will basically never go away, and small pieces of it can harm or kill animals.

When I walk on the streets of noe valley, where I live I see tons of plastic. In stores, lining the streets, Everywhere. This is a massive problem. First of all, I used to have an adorable angelfish and I know that they are crazy hard work, but easy to love. The problem with plastic these days is that fish can choke on plastic. Plastic will also take 1000 years to go away on its own. Did you know that plastic will most likely outlive humans? Well, it will. Also, animals on land or in the sea may eat plastic. If they eat plastic, and we eat animals either, we eat plastic, and that is very harmful to the fish but is also harmful to humans. As you can see, we need to stop using plastic.

On to the second reason! Did you know that plastic is made of oil! No, that’s not a good thing. Plastic is strong, lightweight, and durable, but making plastic requires digging up oil. Digging up oil will spray oil into the environment, which, in theory, will cause climate change and will eat away the ozone layer. We need to protect the environment! Oil is also VERY important, and when we use it to make plastic it saps away our oil reserves. Oil is used in electricity generation. If we lose all oil on earth, our production will stop. A better type of plastic is bioplastic, which is better for the environment, and made from plants. This is yet another reason why we need to stop using plastic.

Lastly, Plastic can seep into water and other food items. Plastic bottles are polymers, which means they do not break easily, however, if a fish happens to eat a plastic bottle that somebody threw into the ocean, the fish will not only die, but if a fisherman caught that same fish, and decided to eat it, the plastic would go inside that person’s body. Plastic releases chemicals, which can cause long-term side effects. Did you know that the average adult human eats about 140-170 small pieces of plastic in a day? This could become a serious problem. Not only for us humans, but other animals can consume plastic. That can become more serious for smaller animals, because if a bird ate just a small chunk of plastic, It cannot digest that. Like I said earlier, the solution is simple. Try not to use plastic at all, or use some alternatives, such as plant based plastic, which ceases from giving off particles, or paper, which is compostable. I am trying to use these plastics, and I hope you will, too.As you can see, this is my final reason why we should stop using plastic.

Another little glance into the future. Rubble lining the streets. Bottles cover the grounds. Houses made out of garbage. This is what would happen if we did not do anything about plastic. A second glance into the future. Sleek titanium skyscrapers rocket out of the ground. Fully electric cars line the streets. Option one, or option two? The choice is yours.

As you can see, we need to stop using plastic!