Summary and Reaction to "the Plastic Pollution" from CNN

The speaker is a visual artist who has been working with plastic for the last 20 years. Plastic has been her primary materials for arts. She turned them into three-dimension, sculpture, and installation. However, she found that her works started to break down into a bit of plastic eight years later. It’s a bad thing that plastic breaks into smaller pieces because it’s still plastic. Thus, she started wondered and doubted human beings’ use of this material. She visited oceans and founded that there are a lot of plastics drifted or deposited in the marine environment. Then she talked to people who are also concerned with the problem and then work to solve the problem as a group. They created an organization called the Plastic Pollution Coalition, which is dedicated to relieving the environmental and health problems caused by plastics. She called for the public’s concern with plastics by proposing that plastic is around our daily life. Foods in the supermarket are packed with plastic; beverages are packed in plastic; and even those sold at the healthy food market are packed in the same way. What’s more, the plastics are put in the refrigerator with potential risks that toxin may leach from plastic into our bodies. The problem triggered by the plastic is greatly severe, but at least we can do something to slow its rate. It is important that we find a way to turn off the faucets, cut the spigot, and not to use disable plastics. Plastics enter marine environment everyday on a global scale. While a glass bottle can be a glass bottle again, a plastic bottle can never be a plastic bottle again; therefore, problems of the plastic should be looked upon. Different from the traditional 3R, the Plastic Pollution Coalition proposed a new idea called 4R, which includes “reduce,”” reuse,”” recycle,” and “refuse.” Plastic pollution is a huge problem in the ocean, but the problem was created by us as consumers. To solve it, we should raise our awareness of the issue and teach others to choose alternatives instead of plastics. We can save oceans, planets, and ourselves by changing our life style.

     I had heard the problem of the plastic before; however, I seldom put the warning in mind. I go shopping without bringing my own bag and I think of plastic bags as worthless things. Not until I listened to the audio for this week did the importance of reducing plastic again show up in my mind. I was shocked as I heard the speaker list serious problems that caused by the plastic. What’s worse, the plastic is everywhere in our daily life. No matter in the supermarket, in the healthy-food court, in the refrigerator, or even in somewhere at home, I can see things made of plastics. The fact that the plastic is still the plastic even when it breaks down shocks me. It is terrible that I buy the new plastic bag every time when I shopped for things. Thus, I think it is time for me to change my life style for saving our environment!