How plastics are made

Plastic makes up multiple products that we use everyday. Plastics are used for bottles, computers, phones, bags, pens, etc. But where do they come from exactly? As in what is used to make plastic? Well there are multiple sources of plastic.

Plastics come from natural gasses, coal, minerals, and different kinds of plants. The rubber that comes from trees is actually made of plastic. However, most of today’s plastics come from the hydrocarbons found in oil or coal. Plastic is composed molecules of polymers that were all linked together.

If we know that oil is being used to make plastic, we could try to limit the use of oil used to make plastic. Oil itself is limited because it is a finite resource. If we run out of oil and other natural gasses, we won’t have anything to make plastic. So it might be easy to convince companies to use less oil for plastic as at one point it will all run out eventually.

Image result for oil to plastic

Source: https://www.plasticsmakeitpossible.com/about-plastics/types-of-plastics/what-are-plastics/

Image Link: http://www.technologystudent.com/designpro/plastic2.html

New Plastic Meme

This meme is meant to highlight how surprising it is to learn that the ocean has a lot of plastic in it. There are around 5.25 million metric tons of plastic in the oceans. That number would be incredibly high to many people. I was surprised myself when I learned how much plastic was in the ocean.

#pokemondon’tlikeplasticinourocean

#pikachuissurprised

Journey of a Plastic Bottle

We have created this video in order to inform people about plastic bottles and effect on the planet. We would appreciate if you would take the time to watch the video and learn about how plastic will continue to make an imprint on the earth.

I created this video because I wanted to share about the harm plastic can cause in our world. It is important to be aware of the amount of plastic used around the world as well as to know what plastic is made of. Many people do not know about how much plastic is produced and used, as well as how long the plastic takes to decompose. Plastic takes hundreds of years to breakdown and decompose into the ocean.

In the video I explained what plastic is made of, including the effects of the dangerous polymer PET. Although I explained PET and it’s harm in another video, I ill summarize it as a tough polymer which aggregates, or breaks down into smaller pieces instead of decomposing. along with PET, I also explained the vast amount of plastic which exists in the ocean as well as other waste in the rest of the world. Plastic amounts continue to double by the decade.

Plastic in the Ocean Youtube Video

A few days ago we made videos based on the topic we choose to make blog posts about. These videos were uploaded to Youtube.

We made these videos with visual guides so more people would pay attention to the issues we are talking about in our blog posts. people would also get a better idea of how much plastic is in the ocean and what effect it has on marine animals, such as Northern fur seals. My video was related to Matthew’s video. They both discussed plastic in the ocean. However, he discussed the dangers of PET, a chemical in plastics.

This video could raise more awareness to the issue of plastic in the ocean. The videos might get more viewers than the blogs so we could get more people following us.

This is a screen shot of the beginning slide of my video which was the title of the video.

Ways to Limit Plastic Pollution in Ocean

As discussed before, plastic can have devastating affects on ocean creatures. It has entangled and killed many innocent sea creatures that don’t deserve to be treated like this. These aren’t the only effects and problems caused by plastic. Plastic enters waters at an alarming rate in large quantities. There are things we can do about plastic pollution.

For starters, there are other people who are trying to help cleanup beaches form plastic pollution. Any plastic that ends up on the shore of a beach will get washed up and it will end up killing a sea animal. Helping to clean up is an effort we could all take to help out with this issue.

An obvious method would be to recycle any plastic products so less of it ends up in oceans. It is a good way of disposing unneeded plastic products. People treat plastic as an expendable material so some people are careless on where it goes. The plastic can be made into another product that we could use.

You can contribute by helping other people who are also trying to do something about plastic in the ocean. For starters, you could support bans on certain single use plastic items. Or you can help organizations trying to limit plastic in the ocean as well.

Image result for Plastic protests

(Information link)
https://www.oceanicsociety.org/blog/1720/7-ways-to-reduce-ocean-plastic-pollution-today 

(Image link)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/youth-movement-to-reduce_b_777388

Our response to plastic pollution

The city of Washington D.C has taken action against plastic pollution by putting fines onto plastic straws. Businesses started to used paper, metal, reusable straws, etc.

The city of Seattle also started a ban against plastic straws. People have many mixed opinions about this. Some say that this is a distraction from actual plastic pollution such as plastic bags or bottles. But others believe this to be a step in the right direction.

Around the world, 250 groups launch a global coalition to limit plastic waste and debris. The organization is called the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, it is composed of various companies such as H&M, Unilever, PepsiCo, L’Oreal, Nestle, and Coca-Cola. It is working with the United Nations. It is also working with 40 academic institutions. The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment Organization plans on having companies use single use plastic packaging that can be either recycled or reused.