Listening exercise: The impact of plastic (BBC Learning English)
Articles to read:
Great Pacific Garbage Patch (National Geographic)
How big is the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch? (Office of Response and Restauration)
Trash-mapping expedition sheds light on 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' (The Guardian)
Pacific 'garbage patch' changing insect mating habits (The Guardian)
SOLUTION: How to recycle old plastic bags (Wiki How to do anything)
LINGOHACK:
Today, plastic has gone around us from all sides. Plastic products are cheap, “plastic is not toxic”, and it is easy to use it. However, plastic is killing us. Plastic is filling our rivers, beaches and mountains. It is filling our planet! Animals in the sea and in the land die because of our plastic bags. Everywhere plastic is!
ResponderEliminarPlastics make our lifes easier, but, be worth the effort use plastic? I reckon that plastic isn't good in our lifes. Plastic has less advantages than disadvantages.
- It is flammable: they can be melted down, but when it passed, they produce toxic fumes.
- Recycling is a very costly endeavour.
Nowadays, there is a famous seventh continent (the big island of waste from the Pacific). It is one of the most disgusting examples of the human footprint in the planet.
I think we must recycle all that we use, and so, we won't be where we are now.
María Béjar Rodríguez 4º ESO A
Pollution has become a big problem for both people and animals.
ResponderEliminarFirst people don't think about the future of the planet and although recycling is easy, the sea has become a dumping ground for all kinds of garbage especially objects made of plastic.
Secondly there are growing animals that live in the sea and found with plastic and eat. These animals die because they not only swallow but sometimes your body gets entangled in plastics.
To sum up, I reckon the problem of pollution is a problem of education, we should all think the threat is all the trash we throw all garbage at the sea not only for the species that live there but to preserve the planet.
Recycling is easy! |
Paola Ruiz Fernandez 4º ESO A
PLASTIC OCEANS
ResponderEliminarAnnually approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. More than one million bags are used every minute; half of these are thrown away. Ten per cent of this waste plastic ends up in the sea, but plastic is so indestructible and so permanent that when you cast it into the ocean or into a dustbin is does not go away. Since the plastic age began hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic have been dumped into our oceans.
Plastic waste in the oceans is a danger to sea life and to birds because they become entangled in it, but it is not only animals that are in danger but also humans. Plastic particles in the oceans attract toxins. These enter the food chain; we are at the top of that food chain. Scientists have found that there is a lot of micro-plastic in the sea which is being ingested by zooplankton. This could pass through the food chain and end up in the human diet.
So what are we doing about it?
Well, some countries have started a programme in order to reduce the amount of plastic shopping bags that are in use. The payment of 5p for a plastic bag at supermarket has recently been introduced in England. In the rest of the UK shoppers have been paying for several years and some other countries around the world including Bangladesh, South Africa, China, and Italy have actually banned them altogether.
There is another way which we can combat plastic waste, which is using biodegradable bags. They put an additive that breaks down the plastic when it is exposed to sunlight, oxygen and heat etc. This process was discovered by a British scientist in the 1970s.Why then you might ask, is it not widely used?
Biodegradable raw material is at least three times more costly than conventional plastics and although they degrade they do so very slowly. Also biodegradable bags do not degrade under ocean marine conditions.
So our ocean continue to be in danger
JULIA RUIZ JIMENEZ 4ºB
Plastic isn't a burden it's became our lifestyle nowadays. The amount of plastic that ends up in the oceans, is between 4.8 and 12.7 million tons each year, it could increase tenfold in the future not to improve the management of waste. It affects both animals, people, in the environment.. in the world. Pollution in the oceans makes that many fish die.
ResponderEliminarThe people don't think about the future of the planet and do things that are not well.In my opinion the people should teach to her children and anyone people.
MARGARITA LLANES VENEGAS 4ºA
Littering the sea is very bad because animals swallow the trash and die. when ships put their nets into the sea to fish , take fish and also take a lot of trash as plastic botelllas , bursal , and many things that do not disappear nature hundreds of years. But although many people take the dead sea animals such as fish or turtles with plastic objects in your body, all still using the sea as a veretedero . we must learn to respect nature and recycle
ResponderEliminarAntonio Peregrina Martinez 2º A
Plastic is a material consisting of any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organics that are malleable and can be melded into solid objects of diverse shapes. It is made of petrol. Nowadays, we are surrounded by plastic; everything is made of it, plastic bags, plastic bottles… So it is very dangerous for two reasons, because it can’t be destroyed and it contaminates a lot.
ResponderEliminarIf the plastic is destroyed or burned, it contaminates such an amount of CO2. It also contributes to the climate change. There are many types of plastic and many forms to destroy them, so in every bottle there is sign with a number, which means how can we use this plastic or how much time can we use them.
Nowadays, governments use instead of plastic bags, cotton bags. Scientists are also researching for a plastic which can be destroy on its own.
By: William : )))
The plastic can be a big problem at level of the sea and health. So we have to be careful with the things we throw away but we do not worry about this world as healthy if we so can cause future problems and are already taking several cases of fish in the sea in those plastics. We think it isn't our problem because don't pay to us for respect nature but if we continue like this we will eat our own garbage. We must also consider the oil industry, which is also contaminated by accidental release.
ResponderEliminarWe are in a world where we are surrounded by plastic. Many people do not recycle and therefore in the seas and rivers many animals turtles who think the bags are jellyfish, to eat them you will drown die, for example.
ResponderEliminarThe plastic is not toxic or bad for health but because we must get used to recycle these so saving a handful of lives of animals and can be used again.
Most people do not recycle, if we recycle at home. I think they had to talk about the importance of reuse for those people who do not do it because we care so our own planet for us if we have the country full of plastic and do nothing for future generations to find other with a problem
The plastic is dangerous, because it takes hundreds of years in decomposing in the environment, there are plastics that can take 1000 years in decomposing. The plastic in the environment can produce catastrophic consequences. The plastic can also kill the animals which eat it, the plastic is very toxic.
ResponderEliminarI'm very surprised, because I have read an article that said the 100% of the beach sand in the world contains pollution by microplastic and even in the Antartic.
I think that plastic is one of the big problems of the pollution, because the people don't want to recycle. In my opinion people don't recycle for comfort, they think is easier to throw all in the same rubbish skip. For me, we should recycle the plastic to prevent this problem.
The plastic is very dangerus for the enviroment. It can kill animals and animals can eat it and then our eat these animals, and the plastic is toxic for us. The plastic takes hundred of years in descomposing this is a lot!
ResponderEliminarI saw a documental and tv that says there are islands of plastic in Pacific ocean. People throw the rubbish and the oceans and seas, it is very bad!
Plastic is a very big problem! People must recycle all they can! We can save the environment!
Today, plastic is the material most used in the world. Especially for the manufacture of toys, cars, televisions, computers, etc ..... This can become a big problem because millions of tons of plastic are thrown into the sea every year and this is a big problem for many aquatic animals because they often confuse the plastic with food and many of them die. Plastic isn't polluting in their manufacture, it is cheap to make and very useful, but when we throw it, in its breaking down and in its accumulation, it pollutes so much.
ResponderEliminarHowever, I think that if everyone recycles a bit, the planet would be better than it is now. In fact, the plastic has more disadvantages than advantages because it pollutes so much. There are many ways to contribute to help the environment, such as:
- Reuse the bag bought in the shop during a long time.
- Recycle all plastic in yellow containers.
- Try to buy things that aren't from plastic.
All in all, the plastic is a very polluting material. For me, the government should ban the use of plastic, oil companies would have to stop producing plastics. We can save our planet!!!!
Joaquín Alejandro España Sánchez 4ESO.B
Nowadays most pf the things we buy are made of plastic, like bottles, bags, toothbrushes or even some of pur clothes! Not everyone recycles and unfortunately a big part of the plasgic we use finishes in the sea.
ResponderEliminarWhen a piece of plastic arrives to the sea, it breaks and becomes smaller and smaller. The smallest pieces of plasgi are called microplastics, which can not be seen by the human eye. Microplastics are carries by the sea and form garbage patchs. Garbage patch are zones where garbage and microplastics are carried by the sea. Garbage paths are really big. Some of them look like islands and can be even bigger than cities like Texas!
Garbage paths are very dangerous for animals. Fishes can eat microplastics. We can eat these fishes so we would we eating microplastics which are bad for our health. Other animals, like turtles can die because they get stuck in the plastic that comes with soft drinks.
In my opinion we should recycle plastic although it's a difficult proccess. The only solution can probably be giving up using plastic because plastic takes many years to dissappear completely.