Plastic bags are terrible and we should ban them. I think that plastic bags are bad because they are  poisoning us and the wildlife. People should care about this issue because we are harming living things, even though they have done nothing to deserve it.

Ocean trash is a huge problem. Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it (Magaziner, Lauren). 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year, worldwide (Bye bye plastic bags). Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down, and it takes about 35 to 1,000 years to degrade (Bye Bye plastic bags). So why do we keep them? Yes they are convenient and they don’t take up as much space as paper bags. But paper bags take way less time to degrade. So later in life we will end up having more space and less dead animals. Also disturbing reports have been coming from areas near the Pacific Ocean for years now. A HUGE swarm of plastic bags are seen floating in the water of the Pacific. The largest of which is thought to be the size of Texas (EcoMerge). This problem will continue to grow bigger and bigger if we proceed to do nothing.

One thing that is most upsetting to me, when it comes to the use of plastic bags, is the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean and killing animals. 80% of pollution enters the ocean from the land (EcoMerge).  Ocean trash is a serious problem that affects the health of people, wildlife and local economies. For example, numerous fishermen have witnessed the washing up of  lots of fish, sharks, whales, turtles, in addition to many more sea animals, because of plastic bags. Also, your food could also have toxin from plastic bags in your food because it degrades into the ground where we grow food. Only 1% of plastic bags are recycled “Magaziner, Lauren”. So where do the rest end up? In the ocean, in the ground, in our food, and in the streets. But that is our fault. So I am trying to fix it with many others but that in not enough so you need you help.

But there are some cons about using paper bags. For example, when we start using paper bags it will cost more to produce them. But the pro on that is we will use recycled paper and instead of plastic bags killing animals it will only cost 10 cents more. Another con is 14 million trees are cut down yearly for the manufacturing of paper. But in my opinion we can plant trees. But we cannot get rid of the plastic toxins, and bring the animals back to life that died. California has just decided by July 2015 there will be only paper bags used in that whole state. The governor Jerry Brown said in the article bad bad plastic bags said “this bill is a step in the right direction” “Bye Bye, plastic bags”. In my opinion it definitely is. If we ever get rid of plastic bags you are saving an animal from suffering.
In my opinion we need to stop using plastic bags. They are doing way more harm than good as you can tell from just walking around the streets and on the beach. So you also should try to make a change and help this global problem.

Works Cited
Magaziner, Lauren ‘Plastic bags: convenient and cruel”. Scholastic scope 62.8 (2014): 20. masterFILE premier.web. 21. oct 2015.
“Bye Bye, plastic bags”. Scholastic news--Edition 477.10(2014): 2 primary search.web.21.oct.2015
Website Title: EcoMerge Article Title: Plastic Bags - Pros and Con Date Accessed: October 28, 2015