Plastic bags, text

Plastic bags

Every year, around 500 billion plastic bags are used all over the world. That's a lot of bags. So many that over one million bags are used every minute and they damage our environment.

Plastic bags are difficult and expensive to recycle and most of them end up on the ground where it takes them around 300 years to dissolve. They break down into small toxic particles that contaminate the soil and water and enter the food chain when animals eat them by mistake.

Our planet is contaminated by our unnecessary use of plastic bags. Just look around you. Plastic bags are hanging on the branches of trees, flying in the air on windy days, hanging amongst bushes and floating on rivers.

Animals are hurt and killed every day by plastic bags - a dead turtle with a plastic bag hanging from its mouth isn't a pleasant sight but very often animals eat plastic bags by mistake.

As it takes hundreds of years for plastic bags to recycle, every year our Earth becomes 'home' to more and more bags. Every bag that's washed down during rainfall ends up in the sea or on the ground - every bag that is washed out, ends up in the sea or on the ground - every bag that's blown into a river will end up in the sea or on the ground. And there is no end to this process.

Find out whether the following statements are true or false:

1. People don’t use plastic bags much.

2. Plastic bags damage environment.

3. It doesn’t take much time for plastic bags to dissolve.

4. Animals very often eat plastic bags by mistake.

Questions:

1. Do you consider the problem of plastic bags actual?

2. What damage do plastic bags cause?

3. How can the problem of plastic bags be solved?