Hi, my dear friends. Thanks for coming to my presentation.

Before I start the speech, I’d like you to see this. Do you know what it is?

What is it made of?

Yes, we can see it almost every day. What do you know about this thing? This is

just an example of the plastics we use everyday like: bags, straws, spoons, glass,…

Yeah, plastic remains in many essential parts of our life. This miracle material has

made modern life possible. But wait, have it created more harm than good since the

day it was invented? Plastic was invented in the late 19th century. Huge quantities

of fossil fuels (including oil, gas and coal) are needed to produce plastic. This

process also generates waste and emissions. The risks that these substances pose to

the environment is either barely tested or not tested at all. You may think that today

I’m here to talk about something like chemistry or history. No, I’m not an expert in

those fields. What I’m gonna show you is the plastic pollution problem. We made

plastic, we depend on it, now we’re drowning in it.

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The number of plastic wastes is increasing every and every day. Many people just

think that they only need to throw trash into the baskets and that’s over. The fact is

that most plastics are not degradable. They will remain where they are discarded for

a long time. How many years? 10? 50? No, the answer is 500 or even 1000 years. If

they remains that long, how much land will be enough for landfills? Now you might

still see the problem as far away as not happening to yourself. But hey, the

environment is nearer to us than we think. As you throw plastic wastes into the
environment, it will reflect the consequence right on you. Look at this image as an

example. This man asks for a plastic bag, but the seller says that it is inside the fish

already. The food that we eat every day are contaminated by the trash we throw into

the environment. Maybe this example is not clear enough. Then I’ll tell you the

stories of three plastic bottles, empty and discarded.

Bottle 1, like millions of ton of other wastes, ends up in a landfill, amongst layers

of other junk. This huge dump expand each day, more and more trash comes in and

takes up space. One day, rainwater flows through the waste, and absorbs some of

those highly toxic from the coumpounds of the waste. Then the water move into

groundwater, soil and streams, poisoning ecosystems and harming wildlife.

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Bottle 2’s journey is stranger, he floats on a trickle that reaches a stream, the stream

flows into a river, and finally reaches the ocean. He sees a massive whirlpool. This

is a place known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Here the ocean’s currents have

trapped millions of plastic. This is one of five plastic gyres in the world’s seas,

where the pollutants turn water into a poisonous soup. Some animals, like seabirds,

get tangled in the mess. They and others, mistakes the brightly colored plastic for

food. Plastic makes them feel full, but in fact they’re not, then they starve to death.

Unfortunately, these plastics don’t biodegrade, they just break down into smaller

pieces. A small fish eat them, then a squid eat the fish, then a tuna eat the squid, and

the tuna are eaten by us.

Bottle 3, is classified into a bin, then a truck bring him to a factory where he and his

friends are melted, becoming raw materials that can be reborned in something

completely new.

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So, which story do you choose? I strongly recommend the third, since it has better

effects on our lives. But we cannot bring those bottles to a factory and tell them:

“Hey, deal with it”, and there are very few factories that accept this. So what can

we do? You may have known the three-R, stands for Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle,

right? Fortunately, today I’m here to give you some tips for a zero waste life.

Firstly, Reduce and reuse. These are the best way, I think. Cause that means you are

apparently minimizing this world’s pollution. Do you know how many plastic bags

are used every day? When you go to the supermarket or a shop, I highly recommend

you to bring a reusable cloth bag, or even no bag, if possible. You won’t have to

throw any of the unnecessary bags when you’re back home. Next, instead of using

a one-time plastic straw, spoon, fork,… you can either refuse them completely, or

use an acrylic or metal material instead. There are many shops that sell these utensils

with a cleanser tool. Not only environmental friendliness, but also more safe and

clean. Similar to the bottles you use everyday. Do not reuse those bottle cause they

are used just for one-time, and if you use them more than once, they’ll release some

toxic subtances. Replace them by other kinds such as metal or wood.

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Secondly, recycle. You can choose any form of recycling yourself. I would like to

share with you my experience. I’ve been using this mode, look, this is called eco-

brick, which was made of plastic only, and very very firm, as firm as a normal brick.

You can build your own things at home like chairs, bookshelves, pots, tables,… Or

if you don’t have free time, just send it to some collecting organizations. They can

even build a house for poor people. This is also a kind of great charity work. A really

small actions, but really huge impact. Well, I know that this is certainly not very

easy. But just do it, and see how much plastic wastes you can reduce every months.

If you’re not inspired to do it for mankind, or for our children who will inherit this

beautiful planet, how about doing it for you, YOURSELF. Thank you.