Plastic in the Sea

Take a walk on almost any beach in Taiwan, and you will see plastic: bottles, straws, bags, and old fishing nets. Plastic is cheap, light, and strong. These are good things in a store, but they are terrible things in the sea.

Plastic doesn't go away. A paper bag breaks down in a few weeks, but a plastic bottle can stay in the sea for hundreds of years. Waves and sunlight break it into smaller and smaller pieces. Some pieces are smaller than a grain of rice. Fish, birds, and tiny sea animals eat them.

Sea animals can't tell plastic from food. To a hungry sea turtle, a floating bag looks just like a jellyfish, its usual meal. Seabirds bring small pieces of plastic to their babies. Fish eat tiny pieces of plastic, and then people eat the fish. In the end, our plastic comes back to our own dinner tables.

What can we do? The answer starts with small steps. Bring your own bottle and shopping bag. Say no to straws. Use your own cup at drink shops. Join a beach clean-up day with your class. Most importantly, remember the three R's: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Reduce comes first, and it is the most important one.

The ocean is huge, but it is not a trash can. One less bottle in your bag means one less bottle in the sea. And a cleaner sea is better for the fish, the turtles, the birds, and for us too. Our planet needs this kind of effort from all of us.