Rajesh Kishen Kumar looked helplessly up at the sky. His cow Gopi, lay choked at his feet.

Why, God? Why did MY Gopi have to choke on the plastic? He said. His only cow had, indeed, choked on a plastic bag she had found on the ground and thought fit for consumption. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, Shoichiro Kazaki Kim looked around in despair. His father had just passed away. He had died a painful death at the hands of a disease they called the Minamata Disease. The disease is caused by poisoning due to methyl mercury, commonly found in plastics. Tears streamed down the young boys face as he cursed Man for dumping plastics in Minamata Bay. On the other side of the world, Ugoye Hitiki Jacobsen was inconsolable. Their familys hut had just been flooded by drainage water, and they now had nowhere to live and no pure water to drink, for their underground water supply had been contaminated by the effluent-sewage runoff. What had happened was that plastics which had not been properly disposed of, had been clogging the drainage pipes for a while now, and it had eventually burst, leaving Ugoye and her family homeless in its wake. All over the world, people have been suffering from the use of polyethylene, commonly known as polythene or plastic. Animals have died, people have fallen ill, and homes have been devastated because of plastics, all over the world. It is a small world, after all. Many, especially those affected will ask, What is the solution? It is commonly known that polythene bags (quite possibly the most dangerous form of plastic) have been extremely useful to man over the ages. They are waterproof, do not decay easily, and are easily disposed of. From their point of view. Oh, the irony. But solutions do exist. Its just that Man has been so caught up with the convenience of plastics that he has been blind to the harm they are causing, and oblivious to possible better choices available. This is not the first time. I do believe war is an example of that. The plastic bag, which is non-biodegradable, can be replaced with the easily degraded paper bag, or perhaps the much-more-sturdy jute bag. Granted, they are not leak-proof, but liquid materials can be stored in rubber containers or bottles. Jute and paper bags should be used only to store solid materials. Apart from being infinitely more eco-friendly, jute and paper bags are also much more reusable, as well as aesthetically and visually appealing. Man has been faced with many problems because of plastic, special mention to plastic bags, yet not many people fully realize the harm we are doing to ourselves and to Mother Nature through its continued use. Let us all refrain form the use of plastics, for the good of the world, and make it a better place, for you and for me, and the entire human race.