Plastic Pollution: YOu can make a difference!

Around the world, people throw away about four million tons of trash every day—that's enough to fill 350,000 garbage trucks or 10 Empire State Buildings (see the pictures!). A lot of that waste is plastic, which causes big problems for wildlife: some animals mistake plastic for food, while others can get tangled in the trash. What is a FACT from the article so far? What can you do about this? Every week, you can try to throw out less and less trash. Some people have reduced their trash until they can fit a whole year’s worth of trash in one jar. Can you beat that? Do you think you could ever make so little trash, you'd be able to fit a whole year's worth in a jar? If your family is like many in the United States, every week you go to the store and bring a case or two of bottled water into your home. On your way to a soccer game or activity, it’s easy to grab a cold one right out of the fridge, right?But making all those plastic bottles uses a lot of fuel and pollutes the environment. In fact, Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world, adding 29 billion (that’s 29,000,000,000!) water bottles a year to the problem. In order to make all these bottles, manufacturers use 17 million (that’s 17,000,000) barrels of crude oil. That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months. Imagine a water bottle filled a quarter of the way up with oil. That’s about how much oil was needed to produce the plastic bottle. What is a fact you learned about water bottles? What is an OPINION you have about water bottles after reading the article so far? So why don’t more people drink water straight from the kitchen sink, or tap? Some people drink bottled water because they think it is better for them than water out of the tap, but that’s not always true. In most places in the United States, local governments make sure water from the tap is safe. It is also good to remember that plastic bottles themselves have chemicals that get into the water and are not good for us.People love how easy it is to use bottled water. But maybe if they knew the problems it causes, they would try drinking from a glass at home or carrying water in a refillable steel container instead of plastic. According to the article, what is a reason why people should drink water from the tap? Plastic bottle recycling can help—instead of going out with the trash, plastic bottles can be turned into things like carpets or cozy fleece clothing.Sadly, for every six water bottles we use, only one gets recycled. The rest are sent to landfills, or dumps. Even worse, they can end up as trash on the land and in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Plastic bottles take many hundreds of years to break down. When you litter with plastic, it is here to stay!Water is good for you, so keep drinking it. But think about how often you use plastic water bottles, and see if you can make a change. And yes, you may be a kid, but you can make a difference! Plastic bottle recycling can help—instead of going out with the trash, plastic bottles can be turned into things like carpets or cozy fleece clothing.Sadly, for every six water bottles we use, only one gets recycled. The rest are sent to landfills, or dumps. Even worse, they can end up as trash on the land and in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Plastic bottles take many hundreds of years to break down. When you litter with plastic, it is here to stay!Water is good for you, so keep drinking it. But think about how often you use plastic water bottles, and see if you can make a change. And yes, you may be a kid, but you can make a difference! What is something the author of the article is trying to persuade us to do or believe?