LO4: Write and edit an article

Draft 1 

The world is drowning in plastic, marine life getting maimed and suffocated by the day, landfills overspilling into the ocean, plastic reaching 450 years before starting to decompose.

How many items of single use plastic are in your home? That is the question posed and measured on the ‘War against Plastic” a BBC documentary presented by Hugh Fernly- Whittingstall. By asking homeowners to remove all the single use plastic from their homes and lay it out to be counted - they estimated the amount of single use plastic to total 19.5 billion in UK homes currently.

So, what is single use plastic? Single use plastic is designed to only be used for one time before being disposed e.g food packaging, cotton buds, plastic straws.

After eye-opening studies and ground breaking documentaries such as Blue Planet and The War on Plastic the population of the UK are finally starting to wake up from the unrealistic dreams of single use products and realise the real-life nightmare of plastic pollution that has created long lasting impacts for hundreds of future generations to come. But what is actually happening to stop the masses of single use plastic that is accumulating at an unnerving rate?

Looking at Sheffield as an example of plastic reduction and the revolution of sustainable products and way of living, you can see change is coming.

Unwrapped is a zero-waste shop in Crookes that allows customers to buy produce without the unnecessary mass of single use plastic, shops like this demonstrate the inessential flurry of cellophane and vacuumed plastic that seems to cover food as if it wouldn’t survive human touch.

Unwrapped is just an example of a zero-waste shop in Sheffield in reality there is a huge growing market for zero waste shops and sustainable products.

Supermarket giants such as Sainsburys and the Co-op are the lowest ranking when looking at the reduction of plastic but the growing scrutiny from customers is building, from what’s been called ‘plastic attacks’ shoppers have been protesting outside supermarkets along with customers unwrapping items that are placed in unnecessary single use plastic this lighting the fire and increasing the pressure to change.

The UK however needs to change its ways and quickly, plastic waste is swamping UK rivers, it has been recently found that the river Mersey is more polluted than the Great Pacific garbage patch, with 875 pieces of plastic being found in the river in just 30 minutes.

more than this demonstrating that problems are closer to home than many think.

This should be seen as a government wake-up call as it’s not clear that any major political parties in power take the topic of global warming or the use of plastic seriously, recently school children have been striking and protesting against global warming and speaking up on their views on the subject, this demonstrating that the younger generations of the country understand the importance of the problem and understand the repercussions they will face.

One of the main environmental factors which is demonstrating the selfishness of our actions is the backlash on the marine life, currently we are not completely sure on the amount of plastic in the ocean however we do know that over 700 marine species are being impacted.

New research has been uncovered which highlights the most alarming repercussions for marine life being that microplastic is being found in the bloodstreams of the animals, this plastic being 5mm in size, this meaning that even plankton, the basis of the marine food chain can mistake this pollution for food, once the plastic is digested it starts to leak hazardous chemicals, this being devastating for long term impacts.

One of the biggest culprits for the major environmental crisis we are currently facing is the rapid consumption and disposable of single use plastic bottles, with 1 million bottles bought every minute world-wide this depicts the amount of plastic that is being consumed at an unimaginable rate.

So why can’t we shake the addiction to plastic? And what can we do to change and adapt to improve the current situation.

Changing the current problem can be helped by doing everyday tasks with plastic reduction in mind e.g bring your own bottled drinks and bringing your own shopping bag.

By showing support for companies that are making positive changes can really make a difference, when looking at the situation it is about making lifestyle changes to accommodate the problem and look at it from a sustainable perspective, this lifestyle can save you money and save tonnes of plastic being added to growing problem.

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Draft 2

Plastic isn't fantastic 

The world is drowning in plastic. Marine life are born maimed or being and suffocated by the day, landfills over spilling into the ocean, and even recycled plastics failing to decompose until reaching at least 450 years old.

Have you ever thought about how many items of single use plastics are in your home? That is the question posed and measured on the ‘War against Plastic” a BBC documentary presented by Hugh Fernly- Whittingstall. By asking homeowners to remove all the single use plastic from their homes and lay it out to be counted - they estimated the amount of single use plastic to total 19.5 billion in UK homes currently.

So, what is single use plastic? Single use plastic is designed to only be used for one time before being disposed e.g food packaging, cotton buds, plastic straws.

After eye-opening studies and ground breaking documentaries such as ‘Blue Planet’ and ‘The War on Plastic’ the population of the UK are finally starting to wake up from the unrealistic dreams of single use products and realise the real-life nightmare of plastic pollution that has created long lasting impacts for hundreds of future generations to come. But what is actually happening to stop the mass of single use plastic that is accumulating at an unnerving rate?

Looking at Sheffield as an example of plastic reduction and the revolution of sustainable products and way of living, you can see change is coming.

‘Unwrapped’ is a zero-waste shop in Crookes that allows customers to buy produce without the unnecessary mass of single use plastic, shops like this demonstrate the inessential flurry of cellophane and vacuumed plastic that seems to cover food as if it wouldn’t survive human touch.

‘Unwrapped’ is just an example of a zero-waste shop in Sheffield in reality there is a huge growing market for zero waste shops and sustainable products.

Supermarket giants such as Sainsbury’s and the Co-Op are the lowest ranking when looking at the reduction of plastic but the growing scrutiny from customers is building, from what’s been called ‘plastic attacks’ shoppers have been protesting outside supermarkets along with customers unwrapping items that are placed in unnecessary single use plastic this lighting the fire and increasing the pressure to change.

The UK however needs to change its ways and quickly, plastic waste is swamping UK rivers, and it has been found recently that the river Mersey is more polluted than the Great Pacific garbage patch, with 875 pieces of plastic being found in the river in just 30 minutes.

This should be seen as a government wake-up call as it’s not clear that any major political parties in power take the topic of global warming or the use of plastic seriously. Recently school children have been striking and protesting against global warming and speaking up on their views on the subject, this demonstrating that the younger generations of the country understand the importance of the problem and understand the repercussions they will face.

One of the main environmental factors which is demonstrating the selfishness of our actions is the backlash on the marine life, currently we are not completely sure on the amount of plastic in the ocean however we do know that over 700 marine species are being impacted.

New research has been uncovered which highlights the most alarming repercussions for marine life being that microplastic is being found in the bloodstreams of the animals, this plastic being 5mm in size, this meaning that even plankton, the basis of the marine food chain can mistake this pollution for food, once the plastic is digested it starts to leak hazardous chemicals, this being devastating for long term impacts.

One of the biggest culprits for the major environmental crisis we are currently facing is the rapid consumption and disposable of single use plastic bottles, with 1 million bottles bought every minute world-wide this depicts the amount of plastic that is being consumed at an unimaginable rate.

So why can’t we shake the addiction to plastic? And what can we do to change and adapt to improve the current situation.

Changing the current problem can be helped by doing everyday tasks with plastic reduction in mind e.g bring your own bottled drinks and bringing your own shopping bag.

By showing support for companies that are making positive changes can really make a difference, when looking at the situation it is about making lifestyle changes to accommodate the problem and look at it from a sustainable perspective, this lifestyle can save you money and save tonnes of plastic being added to growing problem.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed. ― Mahatma Gandhi