I am a middle school student and a big believer in ending climate change. One piece of climate change that gets less attention, but I think is important for everyone to know about, is the danger of plastic waste.

Almost 18 billion tons of land-based plastic are dumped into our oceans each year – that’s five grocery bags of plastic entering the oceans along every foot of coastline in the world. By 2025, those five bags could become 10. When I read this in the National Geographic, I was dumbfounded.

Most people are unaware of how much plastic they litter – it’s just a habit to throw plastic carelessly around. The average American goes through 167 plastic water bottles per year but recycles only 23 percent of them.

We are the cause of climate change, and so we are the ones responsible for stopping it. Portland can become more ecofriendly, and we can start by recognizing the amount of plastic we use and produce and using reusable containers and bags. If we don’t, we will be forced to live a life of extreme temperatures and intense weather conditions. We need to act now.

Farris Peterson

Portland


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