Explanation: Plastic Pollution

Why is plastic pollution a problem for our coastlines?

Did you know that over 1,000,000 sea animals lose their lives each year due to the huge amounts of plastic waste in our oceans and coastlines?! Mistaking it for food, the animals will eat the plastic...but as it takes years to break down, it stays trapped in their body and they will eventually die. From our actions, they are forced to suffer and we create a bigger problem for ourselves in the future...How would you feel to be swimming in plastic?

Plastic makes up 90% of the pollution on the ocean’s surface; a large majority of that ends up inside our sea animals or wrapped around their neck, and intoxicating the waters. The plastic we leave lying on pathways and throwing on the street ends up in drains and leads to the sea. About 97 percent of New Zealanders have admission to plastic facilities, but why aren’t we doing anything about it?

Plastic is biodegradable but it takes around 1,000 years to break down based on the type of plastic it is. Plastic NZ says that every New Zealander takes in about 31kgs of plastic packaging a year, but only around 5.8kgs get recycled. “Love Your Coast” is one of the many projects that is taking action by bringing together groups of people to help clean the shores of New Zealand. This project decides to clean the shores of New Zealand as they want the next generation to be cleaner.

We should take action now for a better and healthier future!

Blurb

This week for writing we have been looking at explanations. We created an explanation in groups of 4. Victoria, Sakina and Haylee were in my group. The explanation was about Plastic pollution and the organisation called Love your coast. Love your coast is an organization that helps pick up rubbish around New Zealand. They have loads of people helping with this action, because they want he next generation to b cleaner.

Explanation | Respect, Empathy, Tolerance

Asthma

How would you feel if you had an asthma attack and your friends just started laughing? Some people take asthma as a joke or they mock you and start laughing at you. If someone can’t run as fast as you can, don’t judge them, because you don't know what they have experienced. Don't go to them saying that you don't like something about them, just keep it to yourself.

Asthma is a serious condition and isn’t expected to be taken as a joke. Your actions can hurt someone on the inside but maybe not the outside. Show empathy and understand the fact that they cannot control their breathing. If you see an asthmatic using their inhaler don’t give them the evils and start laugh. How would you like it if you fall down and scrape your knee? And everyone just started laughing at you? You wouldn’t feel so happy would you.

Treat someone the same way you want to be treated back. If someone is having an asthma attack don't just stand their laughing take them to the nearest sick bay or somewhere where someone could help them. If you go over an asthmatics house and you don’t like that there are inhalers everywhere don’t tell them that you don’t like it, just keep it to yourself and put up with it.

If you don’t like what someone does, don’t judge them for it. You wouldn’t like it if you were mocked by them. Put up with it because no one asked to hear what you think. Understand what they have been through and how their life style works. Tolerate what they do and respect them. You aren’t their guardians so therefore you don’t need to complain about something that doesn’t involve you. Don’t Judge a book by its cover.

Explanation: Should NZ ban plastic straws?

Have you used a plastic straw before? - Of course you have. And have you ever wondered how plastic straws can biodegrade? Well it takes 200 years! Plastic straws entered our world in 1870 as drinking tubes, and have still been around for the last 200 years. But now people are thinking of banning them. But why?

Banning straws will mean that our sea creatures will be able to live a longer life. Our sea animals and birds have been choking and suffocating on plastic straws and it needs to stop NOW! Plastic Straws have been a bad cause to our land because it causes pollution in our oceans. Would you like it if you were swimming in plastic straws? I wouldn’t think so.

It has been noticed that plastic straws aren’t getting recycled. And is somehow getting in our oceans and is also causing landfill. Did you know that there are chemicals in some plastic straws that could possibly get into your drink.

Banning straws will stop some pollution because not all of pollution around the world is caused by plastic straws. Did you know that in the last 10 years 65,000 plastic straws were collected from NZ beaches? Its crazy how so many people just deliberately drop their straws because they can’t bother walking to a recycling bin.

Plastic straws are harming animals and causing pollution. What if you went to the beach and all you saw were plastic straws and lifeless sea turtle? It’s almost 2020 and plastic straws are still a thing? We need to ban them!

Respect for the sea

Imagine going fishing and you catch plastic instead of fish. Well that is what I see in the future of fishing. We can still stop this by not not littering so we can keep our animals healthy. Imagine a world with healthy fish and clear seas, but then imagine a world with dirty water and sick fish. We still have time to change our thinking.

In fishing always remember to wear a life jacket, When you wear a life jacket it helps you increase your float if your boat ever throws you off or tips over. Bring a fishing ruler to help you measure the size of fish that you want. If you get a fish that is smaller than the correct size, then you must gently put it back. Also remember to pick up a fish with a wet towel, so that you don’t harm the fish in anyway. If you catch a bigger fish that is not the correct size, then you must gently put it back because it is still a breeding fish.

Know anything about plastic Pollution? Well, If we stop throwing our plastic away and recycle it, we could have more clearer waters and healthier fish. A fact about fishing is pick the size of fish that you can eat. The exact amount of fish that you can take home with you is around 7 fish per person. If you take a wrong sized fish, your boat could get taken away from you.

To help save our fish and seas, we need to have respect for the sea. If we have respect for the sea we could have more healthy fish and cleaner waters. We also need to think about fish for the future. We need to know that if we take the right sized fishes home we can leave the bigger fishes to breed with more new baby fishes.

Just remember that if we think carefully about our sea and our fishes, you could have a plate full of fish and chips in front of you. We need to stop and just think about the way we are using our fish for.