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By negligently discarding plastic items, especially plastic water bottles, fishing gear and plastic bags, people are unknowingly causing the deaths of millions of mammals, fish, birds and reptiles each and every year. We defile the face of the earth with plastic refuse creating waterway contamination.

Since the invention of plastic earlier this century, it has become a popular material used in a wide variety of unique and innovative applications. Plastic is used to make, or wrap around, many of the items we buy or use. The problem comes when we no longer want these items and how we dispose of them, particularly the throwaway plastic material used in wrapping or packaging. Plastic is accessible, lightweight and quickly discarded. Too quickly discarded.

Plastics are utilized because they are easy and inexpensive to manufacture, tough and long lasting. Unfortunately these same useful qualities make plastic a pollution problem. Inferior quality and low cost means plastic is readily discarded. Plastics take around 300 years to photo degrade. Its long life assures it survives in the environment for extended periods where it can do great harm. Because plastic does not easily decompose and requires high energy ultra-violet light to break down, the volume of plastic waste in the world's oceans is rapidly increasing. Plastic is now found in virtually all the oceans and rivers of the world, even the most remote and once pristine.

American oceanographer Charles Moore says the amount of plastic pollution in the world's oceans is so extensive it's beyond cleaning up. A floating toxic plastic refuse dump double the size of Texas swirls in the waters of the Pacific ocean between San Francisco and Hawaii. There his crew found that the water contained six parts of plastic for every part plankton, with a fivefold increase in the amount of plastic between 1997 and 2007.

Over 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide every year and the total is growing. That is an unconscionable amount of waste, so much that more than one million bags are used every minute and their impact on the planet is devastating. Plastic bags are only part of the crisis. America alone, yearly produces more than of 800,000 tons of plastic bottle pollution. Around the globe, our precious planet is defaced and poisoned with more than 100 million tons of plastic pollution annually.

The California Costal Commission reports that over 80 per cent of debris within waterways, most of it being plastic, originates on land rather than being generated by boats.

Deadly plastic pollution affects marine wildlife in various ways: entangling and trapping creatures and by being eaten. Turtles are particularly threatened by plastic pollution. Seven of the world's turtle species are already endangered or threatened for a host of reasons. Turtles become entangled in fishing nets, and many sea turtles have been found dead with plastic garbage bags in their stomachs. Studies indicate turtles mistake these floating semi-transparent bags for jellyfish and eat them. The turtles die an inhumane death from choking or from being unable to eat. A dead turtle found off the coast Hawaii was found to have more than 1000 pieces of plastic in its stomach including part of a comb, a toy truck wheel and lank of nylon rope.

There is great environmental concern about the effect of plastic trash on all marine mammals. These elegant creatures are already under threat for a variety of other reasons. Seal and whale populations have been decimated by unregulated hunting. A recent study concluded that in excess of 100,000 marine mammals expire needlessly each year from the lethal effects of plastic pollution alone.

World-wide over 100 bird species are known to consume plastic particles. This includes 35 or more species found in coastal South Africa. A recent study of blue petrel hatchlings at South Africa's remote Marion Island reported that 90% of the chicks examined had plastic in their digestive systems, apparently fed to them accidentally by their parents. South African seabirds are among the worst affected in the world. Plastics remain in the birds' stomachs, halting digestion and leading to starvation.

Scientific studies are not conclusive about how much plastic birds and fish are consuming, however scientists agree that plastic in seafood is likely to be unhealthy for people. Plastic is compared with toxic materials such as mercury. Plastic acts like a thirsty sponge when in contact with poisons such as PCBs, concentrating them at levels that are millions of time more than in seawater.

Ingredients in plastic have been linked to cancer and reproductive abnormalities. Bisphenol A, found in plastic water bottles, has been shown to cause cancer in lab rats, to disrupt hormone levels and is associated with obesity and diabetes.

Scientists also voice concerns that the massive swirls of floating plastic could contribute to global warming by creating a dense shade canopy that makes it difficult for plankton to grow.

Let's examine a few different ways where together we can make a change. The global crisis of plastic pollution demands urgent study and action. Business should be encouraged to reduce the amount of plastic used in packaging and to reuse and recycle. Plastic wrapping and plastic garbage bags should carry a warning label advising of the dangers of plastic pollution and shoppers should be encouraged to use earth-wise shopping bags of organic, natural materials or recycled plastic fibers. Please tell this to our law makers. The situation only continues to worsen. We must act now!

Support re-cycling programs and promote environmental awareness in your local community. Be pro-active in asking governments to make changes and consumers to re-think their attitudes. Purchase products requiring less plastic packaging and tell store management why we are doing so. United we can speak with a loud voice when we speak with our dollars.

Decide to drink tap or carbon filtered water from a glass-lined reusable container. If you do purchase plastic bottled, dispose of the container responsibily. Recycle.

With growing environmental awareness, it has become obvious that there is much more that we can do to create a sustainable planet for our children If only every one of us would take a few tiny steps, make a few different choices and consciously consider about our impact on the planet, there might be a way to restore the world to its original beauty and resources.