Cambridge 16 Test 1 Writing 2

Plastic bags, plastic bottles and plastic packaging are bad for the environment.

What damage does plastic do to the environment? What can be done by governments and individuals to solve this problem?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

In recent years a growing number of people is aware of conservation. Scientists pointed out that one source that greatly damages our surroundings is plastic packing. In this essay I will enumerate pollution plastics bring to our earth and suggest several ways Washington and individuals can do to mitigate the problem.

Plastic products corrupt Mother Nature in three aspects. In the first place, undecomposable plastic wastes take up our land spaces which can otherwise be useful. Burning plastics is not feasible; all the more so because it releases toxic gas. Consequently, we have to bury them in landfills. But its debit side is that this kind of macromolecular compounds take hundreds of years to dissolve, during which the spacious land cannot be used for farming or building. When one landfill can hold no more, the government need to find another free site, so the usable urban land is reduced. Secondly, plastic bags poison the food chain. Plastic litters that were not thrown into trash bins end up in oceans and are eaten by microorganism. Microorganism are affected less but the undecomposable plastic molecules stay in their bodies or cells. These molecules in time accumulate in high predators, including fish and sharks, who might die in consequence of the high concentration of plastic molecules in their food source like shrimps that eat the toxic microorganism. Last but not least, manufacturing plastic goods leads to problems of earth’s crust. The movement of the crust can be chalked up to the mining of oil, part of which is used to make plastic goods. Without the liquid supporting the space under the earth shell, the ground may collapse and the chance of earthquake increases. As a proof, Taiwan, Japan, and the Western United States saw more earthquakes in 2010s than in 1990s.

In order to abate the problem due to extensive use of plastics, governments must allocate funds for scientists to invent new materials. The new material should dissolve faster and be as light and strong as plastics. Second, individuals can reuse bags and bottles. In some countries it is a fashion for people to carry steel bottles for drinking, which was what the common herd did in 1980s, and it should be encouraged. If we get used to reusing bags, when we go shopping, we will unconsciously bring our own bags so retailers don’t have to give us new ones.

To sum up, plastic items are bad for animals, for the land, and eventually harm human beings. Authorities and citizens must take actions to protect motherland by reducing the consumption of plastics and find alternative materials.

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