Before you know some of the paths plastic bottles take after being used, you have to first know how they are made. The plastic being used is formed by chemically bonding oil and gas molecules together to make monomers, which are then bonded into long polymer chains to make plastic in the form of millions of pellets. They are then made into whatever you want it to be, like a plastic bottle. We then throw them away so carelessly, without even thinking about what happens to the bottles afterwards.
Path number one a bottle can take is it ending up in a landfill, like many of the other trash in this world. These dumps of trash just keep on piling up, as there are no other things you can do with it, and begin to absorb rainwater when it begins to rain. This rainwater absorbs into the plastic bottle and becomes leachate, water that is combined with these plastic particles. They begin to poison ecosystems and harm wildlife for so long, as it can take one bottle 1000 years to decompose.
Path number two is easily as harmful to the environment as number one. It can float into a stream that then reaches all the way to the ocean into a massive vortex where trash accumulates. The ocean currents trap all the garbage around this area into this one spot. Here, animals begin to be harmed by this oceanic garbage dump, by either being entangled in the mess or by eating it as they might think that it’s their own food. Most of these plastics don’t break down completely and just end up becoming micro plastics, which can rotate around the ocean forever.
Bottle number three is what many people should hope their bottle ends up being. This bottle is picked up by a recycling truck, which will then lead it to the recycling center. Here, the plastic is shredded into tiny pieces, which are washed and melted, to become plastic once again. That right there is recycling. This bottle can now become something else that can help us out in the future.
Therefore, if you want to do something to help the environment without actually doing too much, then you should do something as easy as throwing your plastic bottles into the recycling bin so that it can be recycled into something new, and so it won’t kill the environment.
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Including some background information about how plastic bottles are made and also the process of what the life cycle of a plastic bottle is or goes through. It also includes an encouraging message to recycle your plastic bottles so that those bottles can be turned into something new.
ReplyDeleteThe way you depicted the bottles was interesting because it felt like they were people, or even toys from Toy Story(or at least that's how I saw it) but it is true that humans in the modern day have a very “out of sight, out of mind” mindset. So once it is out of our control we don't really think about what happens or what affects our actions have. I believe that if we begin to think beyond what's right in front of us we will be able to create a better world for all on this planet.
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