THE BUZZ No embe 2019

OPINION:

We Need to Stop Plastic Pollution

By Sunwoo Baek

1
plastic is simple. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and try
not to buy. Instead of buying plastic water bot-
years. That is how long it can
tles, use reusable bottles and bring water or get
take plastic to decompose completely. A rising water from water fountains. It’s a simple way to
source of pollution that threatens our eco- protect the earth from pollution and a simple
friendly future is plastic. Plastic gives an image way to sustain a strong economy.
of single-use convenience, but the usage of
plastic has to stop. People can see plastic every- Sources
where in their lives, and we need to focus on https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/about/
reducing plastic in order to protect the earth. live-healthy/tap-water-vs-bottled-water
One easy way people can help is to stop buying
plastic water bottles. You might think that https://www.nj.gov/health/ceohs/environmental
drinking water from a plastic bottle is cleaner -occupational/drinking-water-public-health/
than drinking tap water, but this is not the
truth. According to the Department of Health,
New Jersey has the purest tap water. Drinking
tap water is much better for the environment
than buying bottled water. Microplastics, which
are less than mm in length, continue increasing
due to plastic water bottle use. This causes
harm to marine life, as the amount of mi-
crobeads is continuing to increase in aquatic
life. These microbeads might also harm our bod-
ies, since people drink plastic bottled water.
Furthermore, plastic requires a long time to de-
compose, plastic bottles taking at least
years. Not buying plastic bottles is more effi-
cient than trying to reduce plastic in our envi-
ronment.
Additionally, from an economic stand-
point, tap water is more beneficial than plastic
bottled water. According to Food and Water
Watch, plastic bottled water costs between
. and . per gallon, which is much more
expensive than tap water, which costs approxi-
mately . per gallon. Although plastic offers
the convenience of single usage, the harmful
effects of single-use plastic on the environment
are greater than the benefits. As people might
know, the solution to reduce the amount of