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Julia Oliveira
Alyssa Pritchett
7th Grade English
March 21, 2020
The Plastic Globe

About 14 billion pounds of mostly plastic trash end up in the ocean every year. One of

the biggest problems the world faces right now is climate change, which is heavily rooted by

pollution and the massive amounts of plastic poured into the ocean. Around 8 million pieces of

plastic per day are being dumped. This is very damaging to the environment and the animals that

live in these waters. In order to solve this problem, there would have to be effective and reliable

solutions for this problem. Many studies point to a plastic eating bacterium to be promising.

Since plastic and pollution put the environment at serious risk, a solution like a plastic eating

bacterium could reduce the amount of plastic in the ocean and help return it to a safe and healthy

state.

There are many causes for this disaster, and they all come from different sources. One

specific example is the waste that industries and companies produce and where they discharge it

to. About half a million gallons of oil wind up in the sea as a result of indiscriminate dumping

from factories, urban areas, and farms (Denchak, 2018). The saddening but true reality that the

environment has a major impact on the organisms around it. It can reduce an animal or

organism’s ability to reproduce and can also lower its life span. 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic

have been created, and of this, 6.3 billion metric tons have become what we call plastic waste,

with only 9% of that actually being recycled (Denchak, 2018). (National Geographic Society,

2019). 40% of plastic is only used once before it becomes plastic waste (Parker, 2021). The vast

majority of plastic will only be used once and has a very low probability of being recycled. This
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reassures the fact that the amounts of plastic waste increase every day as well as its probability of

becoming one of the millions of tons of plastic floating in the ocean right now. All these factors

contribute to a self-repeating and never-ending cycle of pollution and destruction of the

environment.

A possible solution to this reoccurring problem is a newly discovered enzyme that can eat

plastic. This enzyme was created in 2018 by scientists from the University of Portsmouth in

hopes to lessen the amount of plastic in the ocean. In a research made by Professor John

McGeehan from the University of Portsmouth, he combined two already known enzymes and

created a new one, the super-enzyme. It is shown that it can dissolve or break through a

crystalline barrier of a plastic water bottle. This means that it can dissolve and deteriorate plastic

quickly and even be used to help reduce all the plastic in the ocean. Although this solution

appears to be really helpful, actions must be also taken by each and everyone’s own hands.

The average urbanized home produces about 185 pounds of plastic waste yearly.

According to Earth Day.Org., about half a billion plastic straws become plastic waste around the

world EVERY DAY! This means that most of plastic that is destroying the environment and

putting an end to many animal lives is particularly because of us. To bring down the problem, it

is important to come up with easy, practical ways to cut out plastic out of everyday life. One

way to achieve this is the use reusable fabric bags when going grocery shopping instead of the

usual plastic ones. About 100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags in the ocean each

year and this small action can save each person about 1,500 plastic bags

(TheGreenHubOnline.com, 2017). Another way is to buy organic items that can decompose into

the soil instead of plastic items that will take about 400 years to decompose. One example of this

is a bamboo toothbrush that has less of a negative impact on the environment and is produced of
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more easily decomposable materials. Little by little and with the help of everyone, we can be the

change that the world needs.

As can be noted, the oceans are in danger due to pollution and a solution like the enzyme

may show to be very helpful and effective by lowering the amounts of plastic in the ocean. In

order to do so efficiently, with significant change, an enzyme that can dissolve or “eat” plastic is

a good idea as it can lessen the number of plastics in the ocean. Although this could bring hope

in restoring and bringing back the environment to a state of safety, small actions like using only

disposable items and work on recycling could have a big impact. It is also really important that

society take more responsibility in the way we have treated the environment in the past and work

on improving it in the future, for if we don’t make changes now it might simply be too late .
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Works Cited

5 Easy Ways You Can DITCH Single Use Plastic - a Beginners Guide to Going PLASTIC FREE.
18 Sept. 2019, thegreenhubonline.com/2017/06/12/plastic-free-july-5-ways-to-reduce-
single-use-plastic-in-your-life/.

EcoWatch. “22 Facts About Plastic Pollution (And 10 Things We Can Do About It).” EcoWatch,
EcoWatch, 8 Oct. 2019, www.ecowatch.com/22-facts-about-plastic-pollution-and-10-
things-we-can-do-about-it-1881885971.html.

“Fact Sheet: How Much Disposable Plastic We Use.” Earth Day, 4 Dec. 2020,
www.earthday.org/fact-sheet-how-much-disposable-plastic-we-use/.

May 14, 2018 Melissa Denchak. “Water Pollution: Everything You Need to Know.” NRDC, 5
Nov. 2020, www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know.

“New Super-Enzyme Eats Plastic Bottles Six Times Faster.” The Guardian, Guardian News and
Media, 28 Sept. 2020, www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/28/new-super-
enzyme-eats-plastic-bottles-six-times-faster.

National Geographic Society. “A Whopping 91 Percent of Plastic Isn't Recycled.” National

Geographic Society, 1 July 2019, www.nationalgeographic.org/article/whopping-91-
percent-plastic-isnt-recycled/.

National Geographic Society. “Pollution.” National Geographic Society, 9 Oct. 2012,

www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/pollution/.

Parker, Laura. “Plastic Pollution Facts and Information.” Environment, National Geographic, 10
Feb. 2021, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution.