Ocean pollution is increasing rapidly, and more animals are dying due to this contamination. Over the past year, 10 percent of plastic ended up in the ocean.

According to National Geographic, over 100 million marine animal species, such as dolphins, turtles, whales, and seal are dying due to ocean pollution. Many of these deaths are being caused by disposal of plastic in the ocean.

In the deepest place on earth, The Mariana Trench, there were many plastic bags, bottles, and disposable plastic silverware found.

According to Waste Management, only 1 percent of plastic bags are returned for recycling. That means that the average family only recycles 15 bags a year. Plastic bags take up to 25 years to dissolve.

Some animals are eating the bags or suffocating or getting this stuck around their necks and strangling them.

Many land animals also are dying because of this pollution such as seabirds. One million seabirds die each year from not being able to digest plastic.

Many animals think plastic bags are jellyfish. It definitely resembles a jellyfish while floating around these waters.

It’s not just plastic bags that are in the ocean; 260 million tons of plastic gets made each year and 10 percentr goes into the ocean. That is 26 tons of plastic in the ocean. Plastic bags may take 25 years to dissolve, but plastic bottles can take 400 years, and fishing line can take 600 years.

The city of Saco, which is located in Southern Maine, has an ordinance that states that any company or business is not allowed to use plastic bags. Some places are using reusable bags, other companies use paper or biodegradable bags.

Hannaford, a local supermarket, has decided to use paper, but many customers use their own reusable bags which you can buy at many stores, such as Hannaford or Shaws.

Mayor Marston Lovell was explaining how this ordinance came to be, and he said many people were noticing all the plastic on the streets and beaches. One thing that really bothered the mayor was people putting dog poop in plastic bags and throwing it on the ground.

“Why put the poop in a plastic bag that can do harm and takes 25 years to dissolve, then just leave the poop that will only take a few days to decompose?” Lovell says.

Mayor Lovell also talked about the ordinance. He said that it started with someone wanting to fix this problem, and so a vote was done in the city hall. If more then half voted for it to become an ordinance then it had to go to more votes and it finally became a law/ordinance that now all companies and businesses follow.

An ordinance does not prohibit individuals from having plastic bags, only businesses and companies. So you can own plastic bags, just certain places don’t use them.

“I don’t really like paper bags because they rip and there’s nowhere to hold them! Also we have cats so I can’t scoop their litter into these bags,” said Brian DePaul.

One solution to this is using reusable bags. You can buy 10 bags on Amazon for $17.99. Also you can get them in the grocery store. Biodegradable bags can be used for the cat litter.

Some people have had negative experiences with paper bags.  One woman says she had tons of groceries and all in paper bags. She was unloading her car, and she grabbed three bags and had her arms wrapped around each of them but one ripped and there went half her groceries. Now she refuses to use paper.

Eighth-grade students at Saco Middle School did a project in science class, to help improve our environment. One student decided to take charge and she took time every day during all lunches to stand by the trash cans and people would put all recyclables in the bucket she held.

It’s important to be brave and take charge especially when it can help improve our ecosystems and environment.   Not many people will work hard to help this cause even though plastic pollution could wipe out lots of our food resources.

According to Heather Leeman-Kenyon, a teacher at Saco Middle School, there are as many as 51 trillion microplastic particles, 500 times more than stars in our galaxy, which litter our seas, seriously threatening marine wildlife.

Many of the fish, lobsters or sea animals we eat have eaten microplastics from either eating an animal that already ate some microplastics or just eating it straight from the ocean. So that means you have consumed microplastics, which are not good for you.

Next time you want to throw those bags or plastics in the trash, take a second thought and recycle it. That will help your food and our ecosystems.

Peyton DePaul is an eighth-grade student and part of the Sebago Team at Saco Middle School. Read more Saco Middle School student articles about environmental issues at https://smssebago.weebly.com/8th-grade-humanities.html   

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