Plastic Pollution

Have you ever seen a colorful kite stuck high in the branches of a tree, flapping its long tail in the wind? Or maybe you’ve noticed a shiny bottle cap peeking out of the sand at the beach, looking like a lost piece of treasure. Sometimes, you might see a crinkly wrapper tumbling down the street like a little tumbleweed. That’s me. I was made by clever people to be strong, bright, and very useful. My biggest strength, though, is also my biggest problem: I never, ever go away. I was created to last for a very, very long time, and now I'm like a guest who has overstayed my welcome. Can you guess who I am? You can call me Plastic Pollution.

My story starts with curious humans who loved to invent new things. One of my earliest ancestors was a material called Bakelite, invented by a chemist named Leo Baekeland way back in 1907. He created a strong, hard material that could be molded into almost any shape. But my family really started to grow after a big event called World War II. Around the 1950s, people figured out how to make all kinds of plastics very cheaply and easily. Suddenly, I was everywhere. I was in your toys, your family’s car, the furniture in your house, and especially in things people only used one time. Think about straws for your milkshake, bags from the grocery store, and wrappers for your snacks. This was the start of what some people call the 'throwaway' lifestyle, and it was also the beginning of me, Plastic Pollution, growing bigger and bigger every single day.

At first, as I began to spread, nobody really noticed me. I traveled silently on the wind and floated down busy rivers, eventually making my way into the vast, deep ocean. I was out of sight, and so I was out of mind. But by the 1960s, some scientists sailing on the seas started finding tiny bits of me floating on the water's surface. They wondered where I was coming from. The really big discovery happened on August 3rd, 1997. A sailor named Charles Moore was crossing the Pacific Ocean after a boat race. He sailed into a huge, swirling soup of plastic trash that was bigger than he could have ever imagined. We now call this area the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. People were shocked. They finally realized I wasn't just disappearing. I was hurting animals like beautiful sea turtles and soaring sea birds, who often mistook me for their food.

My story sounds sad, I know, but it’s not over yet. In fact, a hopeful new chapter is just beginning. The same clever people who created me are now finding amazing ways to clean me up and stop me from spreading even further. Scientists are inventing new materials that are strong when you need them to be, but can safely break down and disappear when you are done with them. All around the world, kids and grown-ups are working together to clean up beaches, parks, and rivers. You are part of my new story. Every time you reuse a water bottle, say no to a plastic straw, or help your family recycle, you are helping to write a happier ending for me and for our beautiful planet.