Why we should Ban Plastic bags!

Over the last term we have been writing speeches in room 1. Last week I shared my speech with  my class. Although I didn't get into the finals with my speech I am really proud of it. Here's my speech, hope you enjoy.  :)

                    Why We Should Ban PLastic Bags!

Did you know that you can never actually ‘throw away’ a plastic bag? They just sit around in our environment for 500 to 1000 years slowly breaking down and killing our animals. Hi I’m Hazel and I’m here to tell you what plastic bags are doing to our environment and what we can use instead of them.

Did you know that one trillion to five trillion plastic bags are used each year, that's about 160,000 a second! If you throw your plastic bags into a landfill they can mix with other materials when it rains. That then creates a toxic sludge called leachate. Leachate then leaks into the ground. Then it mixes with our groundwater, rivers and streams polluting them and killing the creatures living in them. Did you know that only 2.5 percent of water on earth is drinkable. If this keeps happening then what will we drink?

So who invented plastic bags? Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented plastic in 1907. Over 8 million tonnes of plastic is dumped into our oceans each year. Over 10,000 marine creatures are killed each year by plastic. By 2050 there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish. Most plastic bags are waterproof and photodegradable this means that they slowly break down into smaller pieces with the help of sunlight. Fish then eat the smaller pieces of plastic, we then catch the fish and eat them. ‘GREAT’ so that means that were eating plastic to.

Why use plastic bags when there are plenty more eco friendly options? You could always use tote bags/cloth bags, boxes, eco friendly bags, paper bags, kete you could even bring a bucket or wheel barrow to the supermarket or just say no to bags altogether. Shops are making plastic bags cost 10 to 15 cents the use of plastic bags has dropped and is still slowly dropping. Do you or anyone you  know ever make unexpected purchases and you bye so much that you just have to take a plastic bag? Well there's an easy solution to that too. The solution is to keep a stash of tote bags or reusable bags hidden away in your car or truck, just incase. By 2020 New Zealand IS going to be  single use plastic bag free, Don't you think that's awesome?! Countdown is already on their way to becoming plastic bag free hopefully paknsave will soon follow them to becoming plastic bag free.

So,what do you think about plastic bags now, would you like to use them? It's not plastics fault it's ours. Bye Im Hazel and I strongly believe that we should ban plastic bags, what do you think?