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Oksana Owens

Dr. Molly

ENGL 2230

10 February 2020

Wasting Away

Every year in the US each person produces approximately 234 pounds of plastic. If you

average the amount of people in the U.S. together that comes out to be about 230 billion tons of

plastic. The main issue with this is that only about 25% of this is being recycled. Did you know

that plastic takes up to 1,000 years to degrade in a landfill? What about that using recycled

plastic takes 88% less energy than making it from raw materials? (RCU) Not to mention the state

of our oceans and reefs from plastic pollution. I would assume not as this is an issue that is not

spoken of enough or acted upon in the U.S.

The US is falling behind on finding constructive ways to eliminate the amount of plastic

used each year. Several countries such as South Korea, China and many others have banned the

use of single use plastics already. I am left wondering why America, who some claim to be “the

greatest country in the world” is not taking this pending issue seriously? Now while there are

very important issues being addressed each and every day, we won’t be addressing anything at

all if we make our planet unlivable. The sad truth is- the state of our planet is beginning to

crumble at a faster rate than we can fix the mess we’ve created.

What is shocking to me is that hardly anyone is making an effort to change our current

fate. Even if our government doesn’t have pollution and plastic waste on their list of priorities,
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U.S. citizens can make the change. There are a million small things that we can do to make the

change ourselves and there are a lot more of us than there are people in the government. Why

wait for the government to create a law saying we have to start caring about our environment?

Well I say why don’t we as a country create our own illegitimate law of common sense and

begin to fix what will become our demise. There is nothing holding us back except the

unacceptance that this is a real and serious issue.

Now you may be wondering what it is that us small people can do to change such a big

issue? We can do a lot! Some ideas you have probably heard might be using reusable food and

beverage containers, using as little paper as possible, and obtaining a recycling bin for your

home. These are all small things that anyone can do that will make a difference. The most

important thing I think we can do to help our environment is to do our best to boycott disposable

plastics including plastic shopping bags, disposable water bottles, and single use plastics like

straws and eating utensils. Again, it can take plastic a mind boggling 1,000 years to disintegrate.

Now picture how much plastic we throw away in just a month as a country. That’s an

uncomfortable thought.

We the people can change the world and it’s up to us to make the first move. So, I would

like to ask you to think twice before you accept a plastic cup and straw at Starbucks or throw

away your ten pounds of paper from school into the trash. If everyone one of us does just a little

bit, it will go a long way.

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Works Cited

Recycling Coalition of Utah (RCU), utahrecycles.org/get-the-facts/the-facts-plastic/.

“News Release.” It's "America Recycles Day." Is the United States Set up for Recycling

Success? | U.S. PIRG, 15 Nov. 2018, uspirg.org/news/usp/it’s-“america-recycles-day”-

united-states-set-recycling-success.

“8 Simple Ways to Help the Environment.” Fastweb, www.fastweb.com/student-

life/articles/eight-simple-ways-to-help-the-environment.
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Rhetorical Rationale

I chose the topic of plastic use and the direction our environment is going in because it is

a very important subject to me. I think it is an issue that should be highly prioritized across the

globe. I chose to do most of my reading primarily on pieces including a lot of statistics because

as they say, “numbers don’t lie.” I would like to say that it’s not me necessarily advocating for

one side over another, but it would be dumb to assume there are not people who don’t care about

our environment. I chose to advocate in the way of providing clear information as well as

solutions. Most of my reading was reading about what our country is doing compared to others

to fix the issue as well as what other countries are doing to make changes.