Letter to Our Prime Minister - Eleanor

Letter to our Prime Minister

Dear Jacinda Ardern,

Did you know that 60 million plastic bottles are getting thrown away every day? Also only a tiny 9% of all plastics in the world are recycled, the remaining 91% are not correctly disposed of. Our marine life are affected by plastic because sea turtles are caught up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, they end up with 74% of their diets made up of ocean plastic. Hi my name is Eleanor and I think plastic should be banned because our animals and sea creatures are getting hurt and sick because there is too much plastic in the sea.

Firstly, I think plastic should be banned because plastic cups can take up to 50 - 80 years to decompose. 13 billion plastic bottles are sold and thrown away to decompose each year. Although this is a fantastic resource, we are using too much plastic. More than we need. Also plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown away in the ocean and can kill as many as 1 million sea creatures every year. In my opinion, I think that it is disgusting that our beautiful sea creatures are dying just because lazy people can’t be bothered to reuse their bottles or put plastic in the recycling bin.

Secondly, I will be telling you about the difference between single-use plastic and environmentally friendly alternatives. When people use single use plastic straws, plastic cutlery and other plastic, those items get thrown away, most of which end up in the ocean and the plastic breaks down into little pieces. These small piece of plastic are called micro plastics. Biodegradable items are a lot better alternative because they do not harm our sea animals. Once you use a reusable straw it can be used over and over again. Biodegradable items also decompose easily in water and will not kill our sea creature.

Lastly, I will be talking about garbage patches. The garbage patches are big piles of rubbish placed on a piece of land these are also known as landfills. Landfills are very bad because native birds may come over and start eating the rubbish.

As you know all of these reason are hurting our wildlife and it is absolutely terrible! So I would like you to ban plastic because I think all over New Zealand it is very disgusting that our beautiful animals are dying because of us. Do you want New Zealand to keep its clean green reputation? Or do you want to be known as the Neglectful, dirty New Zealand? It is now up to you Jacinda.

From Eleanor.