Plastic bottles, chip bags, and old shoes roll down the water stream by the curb that goes to the sea. Smoke stacks make smoke come out of their tops which makes the place really foggy. Plastic bags are bad for the environment because they wrap around bushes and birds put them in their nests. You might think we are living in the modern days of The Lorax. You might not know what to do to help the Earth. But, don’t worry, I can tell you what you need to do. Reduce, reuse and recycle.
Reduce means to make less trash. Part of it is don’t litter. Try to use reusable water bottles and not plastic water bottles to make less trash. When my mom was little, we always got plastic or paper bags at the grocery store. Now, we use reusable bags, which are bags made of fabric or vinyl that you can fill up and use again. The reason you should reduce trash is because we are running out of space in the landfill. It takes a long time for trash to biodegrade, which means to basically disintegrate. An aluminum can takes 200 years. A disposable diaper takes 450 years. We don’t even know how long it will take for a glass bottle to decompose. Styrofoam never biodegrades. Plus, we are running out of space in the landfill so if you can cut down on the trash you make, you will help a lot.
Reuse means to have something and use it again in a new way. Like, if you have a plastic bottle and corks, you can make a bird feeder. When I outgrow my clothes and shoes, I donate them to the Goodwill or friends and family. That way, someone else can use them and I will not waste them. Before you throw something away, think of another way you could use it. For example, my sister made a mission project made of cardboard boxes and my mom’s shoe inserts.
Recycling is when you take plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and papers, and instead of throwing them away you recycle them. We put them in a blue trash can called a recycling bin. Then, on Tuesday, a truck comes and takes our recycled stuff to a plant where people sort the stuff into piles where they belong. Then, people take that into a place where they use it to make something else. If we recycle, we will save natural habitats and natural resources. Like trees, which make paper, oil that makes plastic and sand that makes glass. Plus, if we don’t cut down trees then animals can still have their homes and habitats.
Storm water pollution is usually made from either chemicals or soap. How the chemicals make this type of pollution is if you put a certain type of chemical on your grass. It is possible that it could rain and the chemicals go down the storm drain to the ocean. This is bad for the animals that live in the ocean, and for people too. The way that soap can make storm water pollution is if you wash your car with soap and it rains, the soap goes down the storm drain. That’s why it is better to go in a car wash instead of washing your car on your own.
There are other kinds of pollution, like air pollution. This is when you see smog from cars or smokestacks, and it makes people and animals sick. They have trouble breathing, and it can sometimes cause disease. Some cars like Teslas or electric BMWs are better for the environment because they don’t run on gasoline, not even one percent. So they don’t make smog for the environment. We need rules about cars and factories so they will stop making smog.
If we work hard enough we can stop pollution. I want everyone to know about this because it could be dangerous for everyone on our planet. The most important thing to do reduce, reuse and recycle. People need to know how important it is to keep the Earth clean. If all the people reading this tell friends and family, we can fix pollution together as one team.
Amelia wrote this wonderful essay while pursuing her Girl Scout writer's badge. She is well on her way to making the world a better place. Follow her advice and you can make the world a better place, too.